For 20 years he has regularly attended United Methodist Churches in Midland, Dallas, and Austin. The pastor of United Methodism's largest congregation, the Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell of Houston's 13,000-member Windsor Park Church, gave the benediction at Bush's inaugural. The pastors of Bush's churches in Dallas and Austin also participated in the inaugural and are likewise described as spiritual counselors.
A Methodist Moment
The first church in Washington that Bush attended as president, after his inaugural weekend, was Lincoln Park United Methodist on Capitol Hill. The choice made news because the congregation is almost entirely black. But the choice also made sense, since most of Washington's white Methodist churches are theologically and politically liberal. The lively two-hour service included two standing ovations for the president, who was accompanied by his wife and parents, and prayers for his presidency. The pianist played “Hail to the Chief.”
Lincoln Park's pastor, Harold Lewis, who is black, is an outspoken, pro-life evangelical from Mississippi. He is quite different from J. Philip Wogaman, the white, ardently liberal pastor of Foundry United Methodist Church, which Hillary Clinton attends, her Baptist husband usually in tow.
The new senator from New York, who also takes her Methodism seriously, albeit a very different brand than Bush's, is one of numerous United Methodist members of Congress. There are now 65 members of Congress who are United Methodist, an increase of six over the last Congress. They include Republicans like Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana and Sam Brownback of Kansas, and Democrats like Robert Torricelli of New Jersey and Zell Miller of Georgia. Democrat United Methodists outnumber Republicans in the Senate 10 to 6. In the House of Representatives, Republican United Methodists outnumber Democrats 33 to 16.
So perhaps Washington is experiencing a Methodist moment. After decades of dominance by refined Episcopalians, rambunctious Baptists, politically active Evangelicals, and socially ascendant Roman Catholics, the nation's capital is now in the hands of United Methodists. And that means what, exactly? How can the same church produce both George W. Bush and Hillary Clinton?
To compound the confusion, the United Methodist Church's Board of Church and Society, prominently perched in the Methodist Building on Capitol Hill, is the largest church lobby in Washington. It is also among the most liberal, pushing for gun control and socialized medicine, fighting U.S.-military programs and defending abortion rights.
Meanwhile, United Methodists as a whole vote mostly Republican. White mainline Protestants, of which Methodists are the largest component, voted for Bush by even larger margins than did self-described evangelicals. In short, the Church's leadership broadly reflects the beliefs of America's cultural elite. But the Church's membership reflects the ethos of the suburbs and small towns of the South and Midwest, where United Methodism is strongest.
Compassionate Conservatism
Like the Church's leadership, Sen. Clinton was shaped by the 1960s, when Methodist activists eagerly joined the civil-rights and anti-war movements. She, like they, equated the Church with social action. Thirty-five years later, she still credits her Methodist youth group for transforming her from a Goldwater supporter to a liberal activist. Her political life has closely paralleled the official policy positions of her denomination, if not of most Church members.
In contrast, Bush came to Methodism later in life. He married his wife, Laura, a lifelong Methodist. (His brother Jeb, Governor of Florida, married a Catholic and converted to Catholicism) But George W. recalls he only became a committed believer after counseling from Billy Graham, a Baptist, and a non-denominational Bible study that also involved long-time friend Don Evans. Bush now says Jesus Christ has “changed his heart.” This kind of talk discomfits some Methodist intellectual elites. But it fits easily with historical Methodism, which was founded after 17th-century English evangelist John Wesley also felt his “heart strangely warmed.”
Much of 20th-century Methodism was dominated by theological liberalism, which de-emphasized personal salvation, belief in the Bible as reliable history, and personal holiness. Its brand of social gospel captured seminaries and Church agencies but never fully captured the local church. The late 20th century saw a reemergence of evangelical beliefs within Methodism, fueled in part by a wider evangelical awakening as reflected in parachurch groups such as the Promise Keepers.
Thirty years of debate over homosexuality have also compelled evangelicals to organize politically within the 8.4-million member Church. They have defeated numerous efforts to change the Church's official disapproval of homosexual practice and same-sex unions by 2 to 1 margins at the Church's governing conventions. But the clashes over sexuality have divided United Methodism along regional lines. The more conservative South, with its more robust membership numbers, is now seen as ascendant over the declining and more liberal Northeast and West.
And yet, despite the political and theological divide within the Church, there are some common characteristics shared by most United Methodists. Unlike Catholics, Baptists, Presbyterians, and nearly every other Christian denomination, Methodists have little experience of religious wars or official persecution. Hence, Methodists are uncomfortable with open fights or combative language. And so, look for George Bush to govern through charm offensives, not frontal attacks.
Methodists are not ideological. The Church has always been stronger on works than on theology. Helping the poor, reforming the prisons, opposing slavery, and advocating temperance have been traditional Methodist themes. Hence Bush's non-ideological compassionate conservatism, with its focus on inner-city renewal and faith-based programs, is natural Methodist fare.
Methodists are orderly and punctual. President Bush appears to live up to this reputation. Methodists are formal but not highfalutin. So it is perfectly Methodist that Bush required that suits, and not blue jeans, be worn in the Oval Office, or that his inaugural festivities were understated affairs.
Baptists Who Can Read
Methodists love committees, although they deny it. And Methodists love racial diversity, which they loudly advertise. It is understandable that Bush's appointments have been the most racially diverse of any administration to date. And expect him to be more congenial to meetings than any president in modern history.
Methodists like to get up early, especially for pancake breakfasts at Church. Bush is a morning person. Methodists used to oppose dancing and still cannot dance when they try. Neither can Bush, which he acknowledges. Methodists are typically educated but not intellectual. Bush's reputation fits that of the stereotype, fostered by Presbyterians, that Methodists are simply Baptists who can read.
Methodists are more humorous than Presbyterians, but not as witty as Catholics or Episcopalians. Bush is funny in a Methodist, low-key fashion. Methodists, unlike Baptists, do not like to elaborate on the sins of their former life. Do not expect a lot of self-revelations from Bush, in contrast to his predecessor, whose sins were never really “former.”
Methodists abhor debt. It is fitting that Bush may be almost the first president since Andrew Jackson to pay off the national debt. Methodists like to make money but are reluctant to spend it. Despite his wealth, Bush lives modestly. Do not expect to see steer horns mounted on white Cadillacs at the Bush ranch.
Bush likely will share characteristics with the other Methodist or Methodist-influenced presidents such as James Polk, Ulysses Grant, Rutherford Hayes, and William McKinley, all of whom were stolid, free of personal scandal, non-flamboyant, affable, quietly plain spoken but not especially great orators; they mostly were popular despite their shortcomings, and were uniformly underestimated, and surprisingly bold when necessary.
There are other similarities. Like Grant, Bush overcame a weakness for strong drink. Like Hayes, Bush won a bitterly contested election that centered on the electoral votes of Florida. And maybe, as McKinley supposedly did, Bush could sum up his political philosophy with the words: I am simply a Methodist.
(This article can also be found on National Review Online.)
