In that era, what was viewed to be low church -- and especially in terms of sacramental ministry -- would be very high church today, and that even in many Catholic Churches. One Catholic Contemporary service I attended a few years back, led by a Franciscan priest, had a barely high church eucharist. And certainly, when doing joint services with priests during my Army years, they cut so many corners when we were in "field/deployed" conditions, that their service was barely distinguishable from a protestant field service. Methodism...ending slavery in the British Empire
I have no doubt that John Wesley, who was a friend of MP and British abolitionist William Wilburforce, was the major voice that turned Wilberforce against slavery. Wesley taught that liberty was God and a matter of natural law.
Wesley OFTEN spoke out that Methodism should not be separate from Anglicanism. The nature of travel and communication in the 18th century, however, made the Methodist movement evolve independent of the Anglican Church from Revolutionary War times until well past the war of 1812.
The very nature of what was happening in America -- with the westward expansion, the establishment of small settlement churches, their pastors being traveling, itinerant preachers -- all of that was a NECESSARY element to the expansion of Christianity westward in an American frontier culture. High Church Anglicanism simply would have been insufficient to the task. (For example see "The History of Methodism in Kentucky" by W.E. Arnold, Herald Presss, 1935.) The early years were simply harrowing for those itinerant Methodist preachers, and taking up that calling was too often a death sentence for them brought on by illness, accident, or native attack.
Theological liberalism won over mainstream seminaries early in the 20th century with their biblical criticism, search for a historical Jesus, and their moderate approach to "life lessons" gained from scripture. It was poisoned fruit with many seminarians thinking they were choosing "open-mindedness". They weren't. The real choice was between divinely inspired scripture and human reason. By choosing human reason, they subscribed to a fallen, flawed, inherent depravity that would gradually take them all the way to today...a rejection of scripture, God, and sound Christian doctrine.
The people learned too late what was transpiring with their "leaders". By then these had infested their hierarchies, and their only recourse was to fight or leave. The infestation was so bad in many denominations that we've lived to see the result, and we've lived to see the believers in those denomination depart them.
Methodism still struggles on, and we have our victories. The infestation in our slow-moving governmental structure is nearly impossible to dislodge. We have held the line until this era against homosexuality and have gradually moved toward a more acceptable position on life.
This culture, though, is so thoroughly indoctrinated on homosexuality that I fear that battle is going to be lost in our denomination, and I fear for every other denomination, even those with independent, local governance.
I share your fear that many denominations are going to lose the fight against the pseudosex, pseudomarriage agenda.
Initially, I'd hesitate to suggest that you go slumming, but let me say: armor yourself with protection via the Holy Spirit, and then check out the following slum: Gay Christian websites (Link).
Any of them will give you the same theme: the re-intepretation of Scripture (via "improved," "new," "expert" "translations" and "scholarship,") which all arrive at the same conclusions: that the O.T. and N.T. admonitions which have always been interpreted as very broad, exceptionless norms against gay sex, are to be seen as narrow, technical condemnations specifically of pagan temple prostitution and (possible) servile pederasty ONLY, but not against ALL male-male and female-female sex relations.
It all hinges on a tendentious translation of malakoi and arsenokoitai to mean, not all same-sex relations, but only to those particular cultural forms which were prevalent amongst the Canaanites (OT) and the pagan Greeks (NT). In other words, it can't apply to nice, normal, Christian gay couples who are married or want to be married, because this was a form of behavior unknown and unaddressed in Biblical times.
It's a clever argument, and it's not definitively refutable outside of Natural Law and the doctrines of historic Christianity. It will carry the day in any seminary, and in any congregation, that goes with what is plausible and nice and supported by attractve churchy people. They'll do gay marriages, toting big Bibles, and scattering rose petals under Paul-quoting banners that say "Marriage is honorable for all, and the bed undefiled," and "He who loves his neighbor, has fulfilled the whole Law."
Do you believe that this started in the 60s?
And your post tells me I need to learn more about the differences between High and Low Church
God bless them both. Methodists of old had a proud history to be grateful for.
In more contemporary times, the charity GoodWill Industries was founded out of a Methodist church and was enthusiastically supported by Methodist volunteers and donors throughout the last century. Although it also has moved out of the Methodist umbrella, it has remained a highly-rated charity.
the Methodist movement evolve[d] independent of the Anglican Church from Revolutionary War times until well past the war of 1812.... [W]ith the westward expansion, the establishment of small settlement churches [with] traveling, itinerant preachers -- all of that was a NECESSARY element to the expansion of Christianity westward in an American frontier culture. High Church Anglicanism simply would have been insufficient... The early years were simply harrowing for those itinerant Methodist preachers... too often a death sentence... brought on by illness, accident, or native attack.
We learned about those "circuit riders" in Sunday School, as well as of our first American bishop, Francis Asbury, who instituted the circuit-riding form of pastoring in America, and for whom many Methodist buildings and institutions were named.
Excerpted from Wikipedia:
Francis Asbury (1745 – 1816) was one of the first two bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church, now The United Methodist Church in the United States. As a young man in October 1771, English-born Francis Asbury traveled to America and, during his 45-year ministry in America, he devoted his life to ministry, traveling on horseback or by carriage thousands of miles to faithfully deliver sermons to those living on the frontier. Bishop Asbury's tireless leadership helped spread Methodism in America. He also launched several schools during his lifetime, although his own formal education was limited. His journal left a lasting legacy and is valuable to scholars for its account of frontier society, as well as giving insights into his life and ministry...
From Encyclopedia Brittanica online:
Asbury crossed the Alleghenies 60 times and traveled an average of 5,000 miles a year on horseback. The early growth of the church was largely the result of his strenuous efforts; when he arrived in America there were only three Methodist meetinghouses and about 300 communicants. By the time of his death there were 412 Methodist societies with a membership of 214,235.
Theological liberalism won over mainstream seminaries early in the 20th century...The people learned too late what was transpiring with their "leaders". By then these had infested their hierarchies, and their only recourse was to fight or leave....Methodism still struggles on, and we have our victories. The infestation in our slow-moving [church governing body]...is nearly impossible to dislodge. We have held the line until this era against homosexuality and have gradually moved toward a more acceptable position on life...[but] I fear that [the] battle [to affirm homosexual behaviors] is going to be lost in our denomination, and... every other denomination, even those with independent, local governance.
It wasn't just liberal theology behind the disintegration of scriptural theology. From the fascination by influential individuals within Methodism with the emerging doctrine of Communism in the beginning of the last century to the outright planned infiltration of mainstream churches by the Communist Party USA, Satan has been very busy.
It's a lot of reading; but for those who have the time or interest to bookmark these articles, they tell of the seduction or deliberate infiltration of Methodism and Catholicism by communist operatives:
Excerpts from The Congressional Record on Investigation of Communist Activities
Hearing Before The Committee on Un-American Activities
House of Representatives, 83rd Congress, July 7 and 8, and July 13 and 14, 1953
The Methodist Federation for Social Action, originally called the Methodist Federation for Social Service, was first organized by a group of Socialist, Marxist clergymen of the Methodist church headed by Dr. Harry F. Ward. Dr. Ward was the organizer, for almost a lifetime its secretary and actual leader. He at all times set its ideological and political pattern. Its objective was to transform the Methodist Church and Christianity into an instrument for the achievement of socialism. It was established in 1907, 12 years before the organization of the Communist Party in the United States in 1919.The outbreak of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in November 1917 had a tremendous effect upon the Socialist ministers of this organization and especially upon Dr. Ward. When the Communist Party was organized in 1919, Dr. Ward was already a convinced Communist with a few insignificant minor reservations. By 1920 he was already, though not yet a member of the Communist Party, cooperating and collaborating with the Communist Party.
This collaboration of Dr. Ward with the Communist Party was reflected in the expressions and activities of the Methodist Federation for Social Action. The inner hard core of the Methodist Federation consisted, up to the time Jack R. McMichael, a member and leader of the Young Communist League, was elected its executive secretary, after Dr. Ward had relinquished his post, of a Communist cell headed by Ward, which functioned under the direction of the Communist Party.
Source: Collectivism in churches, Chapter 2: "COLLABORATORS WITH COMMUNISM" by Edgar C. Bundy
Bella Dodd -- From Communist to Catholic
How was it that a little Catholic girl -- born in Italy-- became one of the most powerful figures of the American Communist Party at the height of its power during the late 1930's and 1940's? The story of Maria Assunta Isabella Visono's journey from a poor southern Italian village to the intrigues of Soviet Communist penetration of America is fascinating and frightening. It should be better known than it is....
Because her organizational ability was so astute, Bella was put in charge of sending groups of young Communists into minority neighborhoods in New York -- Black, Puerto Rican, poor Irish, poor Jews and other recent immigrants -- to rev up the discontent of the disaffected and to enlist their support for Communist and left-wing candidates for local, state and national elections. The extent of Communist influenceat the local level in the city was astounding, with many elective posts filled by Marxists or their sympathizers. Even at the state level, Communists had great influence, Bella included, because of her work with the teachers unions. At the national level, they canvassed neighborhoods to get out the vote for FDR.
How Support for Abortion Became Kennedy Dogma
Even Ted Kennedy, who gets a 100% pro-choice rating from the abortion-rights group Naral, was at one time prolife. In fact, in 1971, a full year after New York had legalized abortion, the Massachusetts senator was still championing the rights of the unborn. In...1971, he wrote: "When history looks back to this era it should recognize this generation as one which...[would] fulfill its responsibility to its children from the very moment of conception." But that all changed in the early '70s, when Democratic politicians first figured out that the powerful abortion lobby could fill their campaign coffers (and attract new liberal voters)....
At a meeting at the Kennedy compound in Hyannisport, Mass., ... in 1964, the Kennedy family and its advisers.... were coached by leading theologians and Catholic college professors on how to accept and promote abortion with a "clear conscience." [F]ormer Jesuit priest Albert Jonsen, emeritus professor of ethics at the University of Washington, recalls the meeting in his book The Birth of Bioethics...he joined with the Rev. Joseph Fuchs, a Catholic moral theologian; the Rev. Robert Drinan, then dean of Boston College Law School; and three academic theologians, the Revs. Giles Milhaven, Richard McCormick and Charles Curran, to enable the Kennedy family to redefine support for abortion...
During the 1980’s, United Methodist Church missionaries toiled in Nicaragua, not planting churches or winning souls, but flaking for the Sandinista experiment with Central American Marxism. Today, some of those missionaries have reemerged to agitate for Honduras’ ousted leftist President Manuel Zelaya... The Methodist missionaries in Nicaragua during the 1980’s worked for a pro-Sandinista relief group, CEPAD, which was also funded by the United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries. Said one CEPAD official in 1984: “We not only support the Sandinista government, but we are immersed in the revolution.”