Chapter 4 hit me in a way little other media has, I am not immune to Christian imagery it seems
(Based on John Wesley Methodist Preacher by Peter Jackson)
Roman Catholics and Orthodox have got to knock it off with "Protestants have brutalist corporate churches". A particular modern strain of Protestantism has hideous modern churches. It's a depressingly common strain, and arguably the dominant one in America, but it's either ignorant or dishonest to pretend as though all Protestants have ugly churches.
Behold:
Clockwise from top left:
St. Peter's Church, Geneva, canton of Geneva, Switzerland (Swiss Reformed)
Barnes Methodist Church, London, England, UK (Methodist)
Dutch Reformed Church, Newbury, New York state, USA (Dutch Reformed)
St. Jude's Church, Glasgow, Scotland, UK (Presbyterian)
I do think a distinguishing between 18th (and early 19th in the US) century evangelicalism and 20th century evangelicalism is important. 18th century evangelicalism is Methodism which was marked by an intersectional view of holiness and evangelism where preaching and protest, holiness and justice, went hand in hand: abolishing the slave trade, reforming prisons and asylums, temperance (this was a feminist movement alongside being a moral concern), school reforms, women’s suffrage, “hospitals for homeless women” (that is, prostitutes trying to escape) — many of these “social justice warriors” as they would be called today were evangelicals. And all that meant was “low church denominations that appealed to lower classes, stressed personal and social holiness, emphasized the equality of all humankind, and pursued social transformation”.
It is not a coincidence that this period in the US is the first time we see as mass conversion of black people, who understood this gospel message better then the white men who preached it to them (“you don’t know the gospel until you hear the poor preach it to you”).
is it going to be a source of profound pain for the rest of my life that ""real"" cult survivors continually reach for the church that broke me as an example of milquetoast mainstream liberal-centrist harmlessness?
what no one seems to grasp, what took me years upon years of scrabbling for any scholarship i could get my hands on to understand: the power & danger of (white) methodism is precisely in its cultural hegemony, its setting the standards of normalcy & middle-class decency, its obscured political network.
i'm not saying george w. bush & hillary clinton & dick cheney had the same relationship to their denomination as, say, mitt romney who had to swear blood oaths to do whatever the lds church wanted — but methodism is usamerican culture & politics, which is what makes it so difficult (especially for centrist creators & scholars) to identify the culted & culting aspects of it.
As my name might suggest, I am a Methodist. I was born Methodist, baptized Methodist, confirmed Methodist, and attend Methodist services.
As I have aged, I’ve developed a healthy respect for not only other Christian denominations, but also other religious traditions. I credit my ability to see the beauty of other faiths to my security in my own beliefs.
The reason I remain a proud Methodist is my fundamental belief in the Wesleyan conception of sin and Christian perfection.
I love the teaching of sin as a narrow offense, limited to willful transgressions against God (and as an extension, humanity) vs. the “infirmities” which cause us to do harm unintentionally. Not only does it teach us to recognize that people can do harm without wishing to, but also that sin includes things that we might not expect, and that things can be socially acceptable or legal yet remain sinful.
So many of the great sins of this era (bigotry, exploitation, and the accumulation of wealth are among the greatest) can be justified by its perpetrators using various smokescreens, appeals to legality, or a sense of “might makes right.” A Wesleyan framework provides moral clarity that cuts through the bullshit: no Wesleyan justification is possible for the existence of billionaires, transphobia, the death penalty, or mass deportations, because such acts can only be done in knowing opposition to God’s will.
The other great thing about this definition is it allows for Christian perfection, or a life free of sin. When sin is defined as the intentional violation of God’s law, it suggests that we can work towards perfection in this life, rather than waiting for the resurrection.
Christian perfection does not mean that Christians are capable of never doing harm, or that they can achieve perfect wisdom to act like Jesus would in all things. But it does suggest that we can live in a world where people no longer intentionally do harm to each other and intentionally seek to do good. In the same way a healthy fruit tree will inevitably bear good fruit, a Christian moving towards perfection will feel compelled to correct injustice and render aid.
