tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4615496199721498323.post3059123338458787633..comments2024-03-22T08:29:51.173-05:00Comments on UM & Global: The United Methodist Church and Declining DemocracyDavid W. Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17024204453848260271noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4615496199721498323.post-50196536425753795362021-12-02T19:40:16.263-06:002021-12-02T19:40:16.263-06:00Sad to agree with Dr. Hunt's assumption that c...Sad to agree with Dr. Hunt's assumption that church leaders today are probably fine with trends toward authoritarian governments as long as they continue to benefit or refrain from much interference with religious practices or services. There were however moments in United Methodist Church history when the opposite was true. <br /><br />Liberation movements in the late colonial period were supported and even led by church leaders in their struggle to define and realize self determining rule as their post colonial reality. There was not great confidence in democracy becoming the antidote to colonialism given the history of collaboration between democracies and colonial authorities. So independence movements looked to indigenous sources for inspired leaders and found some in mission established churches like the UMC with successful educational programs to produce them. <br /><br />In Mozambique, UM educated Eduardo Chivambo Mondlane became the first of his generation to enroll at the University of Lisbon where he collaborated with other African students involved in the formation of national liberation movements. He was the founder and first president of the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique FRELIMO, the political and military movement that was eventually successful in deposing the Portuguese dictator Salazar and establishing the first post colonial government. The UMC experienced new opportunities for cooperation with the new government benefiting their educational and social outreach programs. The indebtedness to the Methodist Mondlane who fell to an assassin, has often been recognized on ceremonial occasions when country UM leaders and government officials have shared the same public platforms. <br /><br />In Angola, Dr. Agoutino Neto, medical doctor and son of a UM pastor and a former Crusade Scholar like Mondlane, became head of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola. He had a profound vision for a self determining alternative to Portuguese control and worked to implant it village by village in which countless UMs gave leadership resulting in deaths and imprisonment. Along with Neto's imprisonment was that of the Reverend Emilio de Carvalho the first indigenous bishop of the UMC in Angola. MPLA became and remains the ruling party today in spite of protracted civil and insurgent challenges reflecting Cold War political interests in the region.<br /><br />The governments of neither country today ranks high on the scale of democratic influence, but are trending in that direction with each passing decade. But it is their movement away from the controlling colonial authority to which leadership arose from the ranks of church leaders and members who sacrificed their lives for a new and hopeful futures for their people that is worthy of remembrance as we look at current trends in patterns of governance that may seem discouraging. <br /><br />Will this history find recurrence in critical contexts where UMC is engaged? One would hope that the activity within the denomination's base in the US would provide some signs of awakening to the drift into nationalism. If the charism of a church leader is required, we should be praying for return of the likes of Bishop G. Bromley Oxnam who was a militant against political repression in the Red Scare period of the late 40's and 50's. <br /><br />But the current trend toward authoritarianism is embraced and successfully led by Evangelical groups that harbor no shame in endorsing self benefitting political strategies rather than advocating / protecting the goodwill of all the governed. They have yet to be challenged by mainstream churches that bear the Oxnam legacy but choose silence. Robert Harmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14846547721123021765noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4615496199721498323.post-42885332555171473802021-12-01T10:37:59.040-06:002021-12-01T10:37:59.040-06:00The question of how authoritarianism will impact M...The question of how authoritarianism will impact Methodism is a good one. We've already seen such regimes begin to restrict freedom of religion, notably today in the banning of Jehovah's Witnesses in Kazakstan. But an equally good question is whether Methodists make any impact in opposing authoritarian regimes and promoting democracy. Without engaging in a country by country survey I suspect that most Methodist leaders and their followers are either disengaged from politics or are actually comfortable with authoritarian leaders - so long as they don't directly impact Methodist life. Robert Hunthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12733025264316575349noreply@blogger.com