(The following is extracted from remarks at the Wesleyan Theological Society on March 7, 2020 at Nazarene Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Missouri.)
John Wesley served as one of the foremost public intellectuals of the eighteenth century. He was exceptionally well-informed and one of the most widely-followed public figures in England regarding not only spiritual and religious issues, but political, economic, legal, cultural, and social issues as well.
Most preachers do not address such things as prison reform, poverty, international affairs, education, or healthcare, in their pulpits and certainly not in the public arena. But Wesley’s burden for spreading holiness spurred him to address cultural and social issues both in his preaching and his writing in his role as a public intellectual. He regularly addressed what many people would consider to be “secular” topics. This breadth of topics demonstrates the scope and comprehensiveness of his worldview. His preaching doesn’t just address “spiritual issues” like so many evangelical leaders today. Wesley frequently affirms Christ as the Lord of all things and then addresses the “all things.”
For Wesley there was no sacred/secular dichotomy, no separation of the world between sacred and secular, no subject that he could not address from a biblical perspective. His sermons and articles included references to a wide range of subjects, including grammar, logic, botany, zoology, politics, social issues, government, economics, law, commerce, fashion and style, entertainment, and other issues. Here are some examples of the breadth of topics he addressed.
Politics and Economics
- Politics. In his 1768 article “Free Thoughts on the Present State of Public Affairs,” he discusses with great ease a long list of complaints that were being made against the king and several government ministers and judges. In this long letter (19 pages) he displays extensive familiarity with the details of each case and quotes frequently from the proceedings of the parliament. Clearly, keeping up with current events was a priority for him. And not only did he keep current, but he took time out of his busy schedule to address these ongoing political issues in an impressive manner.
- Liberty. Wesley preached and wrote about “civil liberty” which includes “a liberty of enjoying all our legal property” and “religious liberty, a liberty of worshipping God according to the dictates of our own conscience.”
- Patriotism. Wesley wrote a lengthy three-part article, “A Farther Appeal to Men of Reason and Religion”) in which he deals with a wide range of political issues. Since these articles were written for a broader audience—for the whole reading public, they give us insight into his work as a public intellectual. But he begins by assuming patriotism—a love of country.
- Private property. Wesley was clear that civil liberty included the right to private property, “A liberty to enjoy our lives and fortunes in our own way; to use our property, whatever is legally our own, according to our own choice.”
- Rationality, liberty, and freedom. He wrote a whole article on “Thoughts upon Liberty.” He begins by declaring, “All men in the world desire liberty; whoever breathes, breathes after this, and that by a kind of natural instinct antecedent to art or education. Yet at the same time all men of understanding acknowledge it as a rational instinct. For we feel this desire, not in opposition to, but in consequence of, our reason…..The love of liberty is then the glory of rational beings; and it is the glory of Britons in particular….Liberty! Liberty! sounds through every county, every city, every town, and every hamlet!”
- Democracy and power. In his “Thoughts Concerning the Origin of Power,” he discusses with ease the nuances of democracy and power, showing he had given it considerable thought. He argued that the people who had the power to vote in eighteenth century England was a very restricted group—restricted to men only, and only men who are 21 or older, and men who own a certain amount of property. He presses his case. “By what right do you exclude a man from being one of the people [who can vote] because he has not forty shillings a year; yea, or not a groat? Is he not a man, whether he be rich or poor? Has he not a soul and a body? Has he not the nature of a man; consequently, all the rights of a man,…” So as it turns out, in spite of the bold claims of the power belonging to the people, Wesley charges that only about ten percent of the people are able to participate in the governing process.
- Elections, voter fraud, and bribery. He deals extensively with election fraud. He says that there were many voters who vote twice or take bribes to vote a certain way: “those godless and shameless wretches who frequently vote twice at one election, how few are there who can take this oath with a conscience void of offence! who have not received, directly or indirectly, any gift, or promise of any!” He insisted that voter integrity demanded that Christians should not accept even a meal or a drink at the expense of someone running for office. In his Journal on October 6, 1774, he wrote that he urged the Methodists “To vote, without fee or reward, for the person they judged most worthy. He offered advice on how to vote.
- Voting rights for women and the poor. Wesley brings up the subject of women’s rights other times as well. He challenges the normal restrictions of that time on women’s suffrage. He asks, “By what argument do you prove that women are not naturally as free as men? And, if they are, why have they not as good a right as we have to choose their own Governors?” In an article on the American Revolution, he shows that the percentage of people actually participating in a democracy is fairly limited. “Are not women free agents?” he asks, as he pointed out that poor people and women are excluded from the governing process.
- American revolution. He wrote extensively against the American Revolution. In his article, “Some Observations on Liberty,” he closed a long article arguing for civil liberty and against the American Revolution by presenting a poem on the sovereignty of God. What a reminder of the breadth of Wesley’s Reformational worldview that he seamlessly moves from a detailed discussion of the political situation in the American colonies to a hymn of worship of the Lord of the universe.
- Prison reform. He spent a great deal of time in prison ministry and advocated for prison reform.
- Taxes. Wesley condemned any avoidance of paying taxes. “It is, at least, as sinful to defraud the king of his right, as to rob our fellow-subjects: And the king has full as much right to his customs as we have to our houses and apparel.”
- High food prices. He often discussed economic issues, such as the way abuse of commodities increased poverty (which we will discuss later).
- Slavery. At a time when few other Christian leaders were denouncing slavery, Wesley described it as “that execrable sum of all villainies.” In a letter on, he writes, “Whatever assistance I can give those generous men who join to oppose that execrable trade, I certainly shall give. I have printed a large edition of the “Thoughts on Slavery,” and dispersed them to every part of England. But there will be vehement opposition made, both by slave-merchants and slave-holders; and they are mighty men: But our comfort is, He that dwelleth on high is mightier.”[17] He influenced a number of the leading opponents of slavery, such as William Wilberforce, Richard Watson, and Jacob Bunting. His Methodist colleagues Thomas Coke, Thomas Rankin, Jacob Gruber (“the first person arrested in America for speaking against slavery”) and Francis Asbury led the battle against slavery in America. In his “Thoughts Upon Slavery” he responds to people who object that slavery is legal, Wesley retorts, “But can law, human law, change the nature of things? Can it turn darkness into light, or evil into good? By no means. Notwithstanding ten thousand laws, right is right, and wrong is wrong still. There must still remain an essential difference between justice and injustice, cruelty and mercy. So that I still ask, Who can reconcile this treatment of the Negroes, first and last, with either mercy or justice?….I absolutely deny all slave-holding to be consistent with any degree of natural justice.” He repeatedly declares that slavery is a “violation of justice, mercy, and truth.”
- Corruption. In his article “A Farther Appeal to Men of Reason and Religion,” he condemns swearing, perjury, law enforcement officials who do not enforce the law, ships’ captains who lie about their cargo, customs officials who take bribes, and members of parliament who take bribes.
- Preventing a revolution. Wesley abhorred riots and revolution. He recognized the danger of revolution and he deliberately and repeatedly worked to push these impulses back. He wrote, “Loyalty is with me an essential branch of religion.” Wesley had a deep and abiding respect for lawful authority, for the rule of law, and for government. He states clearly, “We do nothing in defiance of government: We reverence Magistrates, as the Ministers of God.” Bernard Semmel asserts that, “The Arminian insistence on personal responsibility, on free will and good works” provided “the kind of conduct which ‘modern’ political and economic life would find essential,….”
Today there is an urgent need for evangelicals to address public issues from a Christian perspective, like Wesley. We need articulate voices of reason in the public marketplace of ideas which are not lacking in passion, emotion, and the power of logic, but devoid of hysteria and mindless reactionism—a clear and consistent Christian worldview which recognizes Christ as the Lord of all facets of life, and not merely of our “hearts” and spiritual activities.
(Dr. Daryl McCarthy serves as Vice President of Academic Programs and Strategy with the Forum of Christian Leaders.)
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