Bethany Bombers (WELS terminology)

Norman Teigen has left a new comment on your post "SP Mark Schroeder - Success Perspective":

I did not know that WELS had a low regard for the Bethany program pastors. That is news to me. Can you provide any more information on this subject? Why, for example, was there such a program in the first place? I think that there might be some interesting history behind your comment.

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GJ - The WELS pastors will say to an ELS pastor, "We cherish our fellowship with the ELS," but they won't drive a few miles for an ELS installation service. I was the only WELS pastor at one ELS installation. The congregation had a dozen WELS clergy within a short drive, but not one came. We drove up from Columbus.

The WELS pastors call their fellow pastors "Bethany Bombers" if they went through the Bethany program, which was once an alternate way to be prepared for attending The Sausage Factory. The guys who went through the official WELS system never let the Bethany program guys forget that they were third-rate (if that). I found the Bethany guys were far more Lutheran and far less brain-washed than the born-in-a-WELS-parochial-school guys.

WELS ended the Bethany program some years ago.