Methodist bishops chide Bush on his ‘wickedness’
By Mark Tooley, Institute on Religion and Democracy, April 24, 2003
Several United Methodist Church bishops and the head of the United Methodist Church’s Washington lobby office have fiercely denounced fellow United Methodist George W. Bush for contributing to “spiritual forces of wickedness.”
Bush became a Methodist a little over two decades ago after he married his Methodist wife, Laura. He has spoken of having been shaped spiritually by the Methodist churches he has attended since then in Midland, Dallas and Austin. Since coming to Washington, D.C. he has mostly attended St. John’s Episcopal Church, which is across the street from the White House, or the chapel at Camp David, which until recently had a Methodist naval chaplain.
The President’s evangelical faith and emphasis on changed hearts accord well with traditional Methodism, which was founded by 18th century English evangelist John Wesley. But Bush’s politics have never been in sync with the reigning ideology of current United Methodist elites, many of whom still adhere to a leftish Social Gospel that is fixated on 1960’s era protest activism.
Senior United Methodist officials signed a full-page ad in the April 5 edition of Christian Century magazine. Titled “A Prophetic Epistle from United Methodists Calling Our Brother George W. Bush to Repent,” the ad calls for Bush to “repent from domestic and foreign policies that are incompatible with the teaching and example of Christ.” John Buchanan, co-founder of the Covenant Network of Presbyterians, is senior editor of Christian Century.
The Methodist officials accused Bush of “threatening[ing] the very earth and all its inhabitants with open discussion of the use of nuclear weapons.” It also accused him of promoting “redemptive violence” in his policy towards the “sovereign nation of Iraq.” Additionally it claimed that Bush’s domestic policy is “incongruent with Jesus’ teaching” and falls short of the compassion of which Jesus spoke, despite Bush’s claim to be a “compassionate conservative.”
The officials asked Bush to meet with bishops of the United Methodist Church, whom Bush has declined to see as a group. (United Methodist Bishop Joe Pennel of Virginia, more moderate than many of his colleagues, did join other religious leaders in meeting with Bush after September 11, 2001.) “May our call to repentance speak to your conscience,” the ad concluded, on a rather sanctimonious note.
With little apparent modesty, the ad alleges that Bush is a bad Christian and a bad Methodist because, like most Methodists, he does not agree with these church officials in their equation of compassion with a large federal welfare state and in their opposition to a strong military defense for the United States.
The ad’s signers equate their brand of politics with Christianity, and assume that political disagreement is a sign of spiritual apostasy. For them, as with many hardline social gospel proponents and liberation theology advocates, the church’s mission is not about eternal salvation or personal holiness. It is instead about social justice and political liberation, both of which are to be enacted through a large, centralized state and guided by strict egalitarianism.
The ecclesiastical signers of this ad are hardly symbols of strong, mainstream United Methodist beliefs and are to the left of even most United Methodist Church elites. For example, Bishop Joe Sprague of Chicago denies that Jesus Christ is eternally divine, Bishop Melvin Talbert, who is ecumenical officer for the church’s Council of Bishops, has endorsed same-sex “marriage,” and Board of Church and Society (the church’s lobby office) General Secretary Jim Winkler is a strict pacifist. The United Methodist Church affirms Christ’s full deity, opposes same-sex unions, and is not pacifist. Yet these church officials claim it is President Bush who is violating his own church’s teachings.
Although Bush has not written any theological treatises, his beliefs about Christ and the Scriptures appear to be more orthodox than those of the senior ecclesiastics who signed this ad. Arguably, the way Bush applies his Methodist faith is more in keeping with the traditions of his church as well.
The signers of this ad routinely adopt detailed stances on dozens of political issues. Bishop Sprague and lobbyist Jim Winkler were arrested for performing civil disobedience at an anti-war rally outside the White House in early April, along with Catholic Bishop Thomas Gumbleton.
But Methodism’s founder John Wesley did not lobby the British parliament, write newspaper broadsides or get arrested. He saw political action as an important vocation for the laity, such as his friend the abolitionist statesman William Wilberforce. Wesley understood his role as an ordained clergyman as a calling towards preaching the Gospel, administering the sacraments, and organizing the religious societies that would foster revival throughout Britain and America.
The memory of Methodist revivalism, which includes both personal repentance and personal salvation, has largely been lost to many of today’s United Methodist leaders. For them, divine judgment (if there is such a thing), will be based on ones level of support for socialized medicine, gun control, abortion-on-demand and “gay” rights.
By that contorted standard of judgment, Bush falls short. And so too do most members of his denomination, who remain more faithful to traditional Christian beliefs than do many of their church’s governing elites.