Book Review
Wesley's Partisans
Methodism and Politics in the Twentieth Century
by Mark Tooley
Bristol House, 2012
(406 pages, $27.95, hardcover)
reviewed by Robert Benne
Anyone who has ever wondered why Methodists at the elite level—agencies, boards, bishops—seem to have addressed every political question under the sun will benefit from reading this book. In it, Mark Tooley, president of the Institute for Religion and Democracy and a prolific journalist, tells the story of the social witness in the twentieth century of what was once called "America's church." According to Tooley, Methodism's "history of political involvement over the last century forms an essential and largely overlooked part of American history. Understanding America may be impossible without understanding the central role of Methodism in shaping culture and politics" (xii).
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Tooley notes that, apart from his anti-slavery and anti-revolutionary sentiments, John Wesley himself was studiously nonpolitical. So how did the American branch of the church he founded become so active in political life? Part of answer can be traced back to the first part of the nineteenth century, when the Second Great Awakening occurred. In that great movement, Evangelicals set their sights on "Christianizing" an America that was undergoing chaotic growth and expansion. Almost all the Protestant churches in the country at the time tended to tone down their distinguishing marks and join the powerful Evangelical bandwagon. Methodists formed a key segment of the movement, and their numbers grew greatly—from about 65,000 in 1800 to some six million by 1900 (7). Methodists were the spearhead of the Evangelical movement in America.
This movement used two great instruments in the task of Christianizing the new republic: revivals and voluntary societies. The latter were of an astounding number and variety; they included societies devoted to temperance, anti-gambling activities, abolitionism, education, Sabbath observance, Sunday schools, home and foreign missions, the Bible, and the production and distribution of tracts. Newly awakened Christians were directed to the voluntary societies as an outlet for their discipleship.
The Growth of Political Activism
This historical background sets the stage for the story Tooley tells. Interestingly, Methodists in the South largely remained committed to the two traditional instruments, revivalism and voluntary societies, while those in the north expanded their movement to embrace political life. As the twentieth century approached, many of them harbored great hopes that the first Methodist President, Ohioan William McKinley (first elected in 1896), would press forward in political life with the agenda they had adopted in their voluntary societies—especially in the areas of temperance and labor reform. They also found great consonance with the muscular Christianity of McKinley's successor, Teddy Roosevelt, and his Progressive Party. Roosevelt repaid the compliment by asserting that nowhere else had the Methodist Church "played so great and peculiar a part as here in the United States" (vii).
From there Tooley traces Methodist involvement in political life down through the century, all the way to the Persian Gulf War, the Clintons, and 9/11. There are chapters devoted to the church's political witness with regard to both World Wars, lynchings, women's suffrage, Prohibition, the New Deal, pacifism, communism, civil rights, Vietnam, and the Cold War. Tooley argues that the height of Methodist influence came with the enactment of Prohibition and that Prohibition's eventual failure "left the church confused and, for much of the following 80 years, divided over its proper political role" (5).
Confusion, however, did not seem to dent the church's penchant for political activism. Much of its witness was reinforced by the presence of many devout Methodists in public life. But while there were many noble causes pressed forward by the Methodists, there were also great disagreements among them on many issues, which Tooley documents copiously and fairly.
During the latter part of the century, Methodist elite opinion began increasingly to side with left-leaning secular progressivism, while grassroots Methodists retained more conservative tendencies. This split trajectory corresponds with that of many other mainline denominations, including Presbyterian, Lutheran, Episcopal, and United Church of Christ. The "chiefs" in the elite circles of these churches garner fewer and fewer followers as they move leftward, but the gap between them and ordinary churchgoers does not seem to dampen their enthusiasm for a strongly liberal political witness, at least not in the case of the Methodists. In fact, weakening support from the grassroots seems to strengthen the elites' conviction that they are being "prophetic." Hence, the Methodist Church's 2000 General Conference "condemned the U.S. Navy presence in Puerto Rico, demanded an end to U.S. trade sanctions against Iraq and Cuba, called for a 'Jubilee' global debt cancellation, opposed antimissile defense for the U.S. and urged more gun control" (297).
A Call for Reflection
Tooley suggests that such relentless partisan politicizing of the church's public witness should lead to some soul-searching among the leaders of the Methodist and other mainline churches. He concludes his book by stating that the Methodists' story "should be instructive for all churches that strive to witness politically" (301).
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