Richard Allen and Patterns of Methodist Dysfunction

In Kevin Watson’s “Doctrine, Spirit & Discipline: A History of the Wesleyan Tradition in the United States,” I finally read the story of Richard Allen and the events leading up to his creating of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. I couldn’t help but notice some similarities in the dysfunction he encountered and the more contemporary developments of The United Methodist Church. In this segment, I read from Watson’s work, attempt very poorly to retell some segments of Allen’s story, and tie it into an exhortation to modern Methodists not to repeat the dysfunction of the past and present.
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Thanks!

[@joer5627]

I just received my copy of Watson’s book.
You are correct about Bishop Allen. The stories told in a book about him I read was tough emotionally. He along with his congregation was treated so poorly.

[@shanefrederick7731]

That book was soooo detailed and it was good too.

[@pravoslavn]

Keep up the good work of exposing the heresy and duplicity of the national organization !

[@kerrybowers865]

When listening to this podcast, I was drawn back to Fredrick Douglas' book, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas, and in which (particularly chapters 9, 10 and the appendix), he recalled the brutality of those Southern whites drawn to religion and, specifically, members and clergy of the 'Reformed' Methodist Church to which he had the most first-hand knowledge. This paragraph from chapter 10 especially touched me ... "I should regard being the slave of a religious master the greatest calamity that could befall me. For all of the slaveholders with whom I have ever met, religious slaveholders are the worst. I have ever found them the meanest and basest, the most cruel and cowardly, of all others." In consequence to what occurred for the African delegates and those not invited to Charlotte, and what is occurring now in Africa, I think racism is still very much alive in the UMC and under the 'new management,' I am not anticipating any significant changes.

[@brucevaughn2886]

Let the Conservatives in the UMC do exactly the same thing. Let the UMC try to make the best of it in the court of public opinion.

[@Steven-et9hs]

I joined a local church called a Bible church because all the Methodist churches in my part of Mich stayed UMC. This church is part of a group called the IFCA International. Churches in this group are in a group that has shared missionary focus, this group has several seminaries where it's pastors are trained, this group has a shared agreed to theological standard, yet churches in this group are local controlled, no trust clause. The IFCA International does not think of its self as a denomination, but as local independent churches working together with a common theology and a common purpose. After seeing the abuse of power in the UMC, this seems to be the way to go.

[@grumpy1020x]

But, don't you believe in the trust clause?

[@plainspokenpod]

No. I don't think the church should use worldly coercive power to compel unwilling behavior.

[@grumpy1020x]

​@@plainspokenpodmy mistake, apologies.