The President, the Congress, the general assemblies, the governors, and the councils of state, as the delegates of the people,
are the rulers of the United States of America, according to the division of
power made to them by the Constitution of the
United States and by
the constitutions of
their respective states. And the said states
are a sovereign and independent nation, and ought not to be subject to any
foreign jurisdiction.
For weeks, I searched the scriptures
for an explanation of this Article. I
read scholarly and semi-scholarly interpretations of Jesus’ views on
government. I examined the theology
of the founding fathers. I started and
restarted this blog article at least 10 times.
But the Holy Spirit wouldn’t green-light any of it. I couldn’t get peace over the Biblical
justification for this doctrinal pronouncement.
Then I realized: there isn’t one.
Article 23 has nothing to do with the Bible. This one is all about political correctness.
John Wesley (1703-1791) was the founder
of Methodism and an ordained priest in the Anglican Church. Legally, the Anglican Church, also known as
the Church of England, was an extension
of the government of Great Britain. During
the early days of Methodism in the American colonies, Wesley didn’t ordain any colonial
preacher, so the sacraments were
administered by British clergy who sailed over from England. That worked well enough until the American
colonies rebelled against Great Britain.
When the American Revolution ended in
1783, the British government, and therefore the Church of England, no longer had any
jurisdiction in the newly formed United States of America. America needed a Methodist Church with
its own ordained pastors. So, despite the
concerns of other British Methodists, including his own brother, Charles, John
Wesley ordained Thomas Coke as superintendent to the United States, and sent him
across the Atlantic with instructions to serve in America and to ordain Frances
Asbury as co-superintendent. (The title superintendent
was later changed to bishop.) With Coke, Wesley also sent a Methodist
hymnal and a revised version of the Anglican Articles of Religion. Wesley had trimmed the 39 Articles of the
Church of England down to a Methodist-friendly 24.
On December 24, 1784, the Christmas Conference in Baltimore
formally created the Methodist Episcopal Church in America. This conference, the first Methodist General
Conference, established the tradition of electing superintendents (bishops). It
also adopted Wesley’s 24 articles of religion as the foundational doctrine of
the Methodist Church in America.
Now, Baltimore one year after the
American Revolution wasn’t exactly the ideal setting to launch a church whose
clerical authority derived from a Englishman who held office in an extension of
British government. The delegates of the
first General Conference knew that they had to do something to reassure the
ultra-patriotic culture that Methodists hated the evil British Empire just as
much as anybody else.
So, the first General Conference in
America added an additional item to the articles of religion. The additional item was inserted as Article XXIII.
Article 23 is true but it really
shouldn’t be a doctrine. It isn’t anti-Biblical. It’s just non-Biblical. It’s not about freedom from Catholicism. It’s not about a separation between church
and state. It’ not about anything
spiritual or ecclesiastical.
Article 23 is an acquiescence to
socio-political pressure. The words are
the sound of the 18th century church pleading, “Hey, America,
please like us. We’re just like you.”
Article 23 is the sound of the
Methodist church being politically correct.
I really wish we were over that, but we’re
not.
America ca. 2015 is as politically
volatile as America 1784. If the CME
Church removed Article 23 we’d be accused of everything from hating America to collaborating
with foreign states. So, #23, the least
Biblical of the 25 Articles needs to stay---- for the same non-Biblical reasons
it was written in the first place.
But knowing now what it looks like to
our descendants when we manifest political correctness as non-Biblical
statements of doctrine, perhaps future General Conference will find the courage
to say NO to proclamations that please the present culture but ignore the Bible.
Perhaps.
---Anderson T. Graves II is a writer, community
organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership
development.
Rev. Anderson T. Graves II
is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield,
Alabama; executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking
Organization (SAYNO); and director of
rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).
Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
#Awordtothewise
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