{"id":24781,"date":"2017-07-05T00:01:48","date_gmt":"2017-07-05T04:01:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/?p=24781"},"modified":"2017-07-10T10:31:53","modified_gmt":"2017-07-10T14:31:53","slug":"four-reasons-john-wesley-opposed-american-revolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/2017\/07\/four-reasons-john-wesley-opposed-american-revolution\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Reasons Why John Wesley Opposed the American Revolution"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

American Christians invoke John Wesley on all manner of subjects including sanctification, the sacraments, and social holiness. On this most sacred of American holidays, let us consider Wesley\u2019s views on the American Revolution.<\/p>\n

\"Appletons'_Wesley_John\"<\/a>
John Wesley \u2014 courtesy of Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Wesley, initially ambivalent about American independence, landed in favor of loyalist political arguments. He pointed out that the colonists held the same liberties as other constituent parts of the British empire. Why did these colonists refuse to pay their taxes and insist on destroying \u201cship-loads of tea\u201d when settlers of all other far-off British territories did not exercise the right of representation in Parliament? In his 1775 \u201cA Calm Address to Our American Colonies,\u201d published three months after fighting at Lexington and Concord, Wesley rebuked the American claim that taxation was tyranny, and he pointed to the many liberties the colonists enjoyed under British rule.<\/p>\n

Second, Wesley opposed the partisan fervor of the American patriots. As ministers preached sermons that stoked the fires of war, Wesley cautioned about the consequences of out-of-control protests. He was not impressed by mobs who were \u201cscreaming out for liberty.\u201d Too many patriots were \u201cfoaming with rage against their quiet neighbours, ready to tear out one another\u2019s throats, and to plunge their swords into each other\u2019s bowels.\u201d In his 1775 sermon \u201cNational Sins and Miseries,\u201d Wesley worried that \u201creason is lost in rage; its small still voice drowned by popular clamour.\u201d<\/p>\n

Third, Wesley judged that the Revolution allowed \u201cno liberty of conscience.\u201d Not only were American patriots \u201cmad with party-zeal\u201d against King George, they also fomented against neighbors who disagreed. \u201cNone dare print a page, or a line, unless it be exactly conformable to the sentiments of our lords, the people.\u201d What were the allowable sentiments? \u201cNone must dare to utter one word, either in favour of King George, or in disfavor of the idol they have set up\u2014the new, illegal, unconstitutional government, utterly unknown to us and to our forefathers.\u201d Public sentiment, he worried, did not allow freedom of speech or conscience on matters of the Revolution.<\/p>\n

Fourth, Wesley suggested the irony of proclaiming American freedom as Americans themselves perpetrated slavery. In 1774, as political rhetoric for liberty accelerated in the colonies, he sought to appropriate the same logic on behalf of African slaves. \u201cAre they men as well as we,\u201d Wesley wrote, \u201cand have they not the same sensibility?\u201d The tyrannies of colonist slaveholders were significantly more inhumane than English authority. As historian Mark Noll would later observe, perhaps the only Americans who could legitimately \u201cjustify taking up arms to defend themselves\u201d were enslaved African Americans, not their owners George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison.<\/p>\n

In short, Wesley dumped on the patriotic parade. He and many other Methodist preachers paid a high price for their dissent. Calling for Americans to be \u201cpeaceable\u201d and \u201cfull of mercy and good fruits,\u201d Wesley was denounced as \u201ca wolf in sheep\u2019s clothing, a madman, a chaplain in ordinary to the furies, a cunning fox, a Jesuit in disguise, and a Jacobite traitor.\u201d One minister wrote, \u201cIf a person was disposed to persecute a Methodist preacher it was only necessary to call him a Tory and then they might treat him as cruelly as they pleased.\u201d Perversely, Wesley was a pronounced a traitor for being loyal.<\/p>\n

Wesley\u2019s descendants in this country have eagerly partaken of American patriotism. American flags frame the fronts of Methodist church sanctuaries, and a nationalistic jingoism<\/a> pervades many evangelical churches across the country. Perhaps remembering Wesley\u2019s clear-eyed admonitions about violence and rebellion\u2014and Christian perfection and love of enemy\u2014can help modern Methodists become more circumspect about their nation\u2019s myth of origin.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

American Christians invoke John Wesley on all manner of subjects including sanctification, the sacraments, and social holiness. On this most sacred of American holidays, let us consider Wesley\u2019s views on the American Revolution. Wesley, initially ambivalent about American independence, landed in favor of loyalist political arguments. He pointed out that the colonists held the same […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1483,"featured_media":24782,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[500,833,43,20],"tags":[1014,1166],"class_list":["post-24781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-american-religious-history","category-david-swartz","category-evangelicalism","category-methodism","tag-american-revolution","tag-john-wesley"],"yoast_head":"\n4 Reasons Why John Wesley Opposed the American Revolution<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"American Christians invoke John Wesley on all manner of subjects including sanctification, the sacraments, and social holiness. 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