This month is the 100th anniversary of the Methodist Building on Capitol Hill, the stately edifice sitting across from the U.S. Capitol and Supreme Court. Built to house Methodism’s advocacy for Prohibition, the “Methodist Vatican” was derided by Clarence Darrow as the “most brutal, bigoted, ignorant bunch since the Spanish Inquisition.” Its locale, he said, allowed Methodist busybodies to “smell Congressmen’s breath on the way to the Capitol.”
Since 1924, Methodism has suffered a long downward spiral from its peaks of American influence. For most of the 20th century, it was America’s largest Protestant institution. Last year, it suffered a schism over sexuality, resulting in more than 7,660 mostly traditional congregations quitting the denomination. This exodus, perhaps the largest church schism in America since the Civil War, represents 25 percent of United Methodism’s once 30,000 U.S. churches.
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Comment by Gary Bebop on January 29, 2024 at 12:46 pm
The “Now what?” question rises tall in Mark Tooley’s writeup. Methodism has given birth to yet another iteration. This one has sufficient mass to allow for speculation on the future of global Methodism. But the narrative begs for leaders, not just explainers. At the moment we have a cadre of aging institutional guerillas trying to facilitate (organize and manage) a mess of dynamic change. They earned their rewards, so to speak, but a new kind of authority must be revealed now, one who has spiritual headship stature.
Comment by Curtis Nester on January 30, 2024 at 9:46 am
Congressmen should be required to take a Breathalyzer test on their way to the Capitol.