2015 UM History Series #11: Methodism, Slavery, and the Civil War

Thomas Jefferson once said that slavery was like “holding a wolf by the ear.  We can neither hold him nor safely let him go.”  Slavery and the conflicts and issues surrounding it have been the darkest part of the American story, and these issues and conflicts have included American Methodism.

Methodism from its very beginning in England was anti-slavery.  In a letter of encouragement to the famous English abolitionist William Wilberforce John Wesley wrote, “Go on, in the name of God and in the power of his might, till even American slavery (the vilest that ever saw the sun) shall vanish away before it.”

Early American Methodism had a mixed history with race and slavery.  From the very beginning members of the Methodist Episcopal Church were forbidden to own slaves.  However, this rule was largely ignored in the south where many members and clergy were slave owners.

Meanwhile, particularly in the north, there were black Methodist preachers, including Harry Hosier and Richard Allen.  However, they were not treated as equals.  This led Allen to form the Africa Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church which became independent of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1816.  Another black Methodist denomination, the African Methodist Episcopal Church Zion, was formed in 1821. Blacks who remained in the Methodist Episcopal Church, north and south, often worshiped in segregated churches and were not treated as equals.

The issue of slavery caused a great deal of tension for the church.  Northerners continued to tolerate slaveholding southerners’ violation of church law for the sake of keeping the church together.  Some anti-slavery Methodists, including those who went on to form the Wesleyan Church, left the church due to the church’s unwillingness to take a principled stand.

Both sides were convinced they were right and both sides attempted to tolerate each other for the sake of an uneasy unity.  This is very similar to our current situation with regard to human sexuality and many feel that we are heading for a church split over this issue.  As we will see tolerance over what both sides believe to be a core moral issue cannot last long. 

All of this came to a head in 1844 when a southern bishop named James O. Andrew acquired slaves through marriage.  Northerners would not tolerate a slave owning bishop and refused to acknowledge Bishop Andrew as long as he continued to hold slaves.  Bishop Andrew and the southern delegates walked out of General Conference and began the process of separating from the church.  A Plan of Separation was approved by both northern and southern delegates and the church separated into the Methodist Episcopal Church and the Methodist Episcopal Church South.

This north-south spilt in the church continued throughout and well beyond the Civil War.  During the war southern slaves worshiped in segregated churches of the MECS.  After the war the MECS formed its segregated church into a new denomination called the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church (CME) now call the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church.
            In 1939 the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Methodist Episcopal Church South and the Methodist Protestant Church (a small group that broke off in 1828 over the authority of bishops) united to form the Methodist Church.  However, one of the compromises that were made between the north and the south was the segregation of black churches and annual conferences into a separate structure known as the Central Conference. (Not to be confused with the current practice of calling regions outside of the United States Central Conferences.)  This practice of official segregation continued until 1968 when the Methodist Church united with the Evangelical United Brethren Church to form the United Methodist Church.  In fact, Iowa had one of the first African American bishops to serve a predominantly white annual conference in Bishop Thomas.

As you can see Methodists have been part of the unfortunate history of America.  We have come a long way and have a long way yet to go to be the people God calls us to be.

2015 UM History Series #10: History of the Evangelical United Brethren Church

            In 1752 a German Reformed pastor named Phillip William Otterbein came to America and served German-speaking German Reformed churches along the Pennsylvania- Maryland border.  In 1774 Otterbein settled in a church in Baltimore where he would remain pastor until his death in 1813.

            Upon arriving in Baltimore Otterbein met and befriended Frances Asbury and the two would remain life-long friends.  Otterbein assisted in Asbury’s consecration as a Methodist bishop as a guest at the Christmas Conference in 1784 and Asbury preached a memorial service for Otterbein.  Otterbein began to organize his church using the Wesleyan small group model which he learned from Asbury.

            In 1767 Otterbein attended a meeting at a barn near Lancaster, Pennsylvania where he heard a Mennonite preacher named Martin Boehm share his testimony of conversion.  When Boehm finished Otterbein rose from his seat and embraced him and said, “Wir Sen Brüder” (We are brethren.)  Boehm would later be expelled from the Mennonite church for his preaching of conversion and association with non-Mennonites.

            Otterbein and Boehm would begin working together to form and oversee a loosely organized evangelical movement, not unlike the Methodist movement, among German-speaking churches in the area.

            In 1798 Otterbein called together a conference of the preachers of the movement and began the process of organizing a new church.  In 1800 the next conference officially organized the Church of the United Brethren in Christ which would later be renamed the United Brethren Church.

            In our own community the former Iowa Juvenile Home was originally Leander-Clark College, a United Brethren College and the recently sold Education Center of Christ UMC was originally Otterbein United Brethren Church.

            Around the same time that Otterbein and Boehm were doing their work, a German-Lutheran pastor, Jacob Albright, had begun another Methodist-like movement among German speakers in Pennsylvania.  This movement would become known as the Evangelical Association and later the Evangelical Church.

            Brethrens, Evangelicals, and Methodists would continue to grow separately, have their own internal struggles and separations, and each become great churches throughout the 19^th century. 

In 1946 the United Brethren Church and the Evangelical Church merged to form the Evangelical United Brethren Church.  And, in 1968 the Evangelical United Brethren Church merged with the Methodist Church to form the United Methodist Church.  That is why it is very important to remember to say “United” when we say Methodist, because it reminds us of a very important part of our history.

Next time we will pick back up with the history of the Methodist Episcopal Church up to and after the Civil War.