A CONVERSATION WITH MY GRANDMOTHER
OF 100 YEARS AGO (PART I)
By Dr. Riley B. Case
A cover of Time in December called 2020 the “Worst Year.” That got me thinking: are we in the worst of times, or the best of times? Supposing I had a chance to talk with my grandmother of 100 years ago. She was a farmer’s wife. The Evangelical Church she attended was started by her great-grandfather in rural Indiana. For the purposes of this story I will assume she was knowledgeable not just about the world but about the church scene of 100 years ago, particularly the church scene of groups in the Methodist orbit. Our conversation would start, I am sure, with my relating all of the wonderful inventions and scientific developments of the last one hundred years. We invented, I would tell her, jet airplanes and microwave ovens and television and ballpoint pens and robots and electric razors and drones and self-driving cars. Our average corn yield is not 40 bushels to the acre but 180 bushels to the acre (that might impress her more than anything). I could tell her that people will be rich in 2021. Ordinary Americans will have two cars in the family and will live in houses worth $200,000 expectancy will increase from 56 years to 80 years. Of course, I would be curious about her world. I would ask her about the great World War and about the flu epidemic and about her dreams for herself and her great-great-grandchildren and for the church and for America.
I would think that in 1921 she would be hopeful for the future. The world war was over. That war had been supported by church leaders because it would save the world for democracy. The coming League of Nations would be based on cooperation and would outlaw war. Prohibition, thanks to the influence of groups like the Methodists, was the law of the land. As a result, crime was down. Divorces were down. Families were stable. I might ask her what the church was teaching in those days. Perhaps she would mention “modernism,” the exciting theology of the times, at least among the educated church leaders. The church with progressive thought was looking beyond “fundamentalism” and “literalism” and "revivalism." Reason was replacing emotionalism. In the process, old-time doctrines such as Original Sin and the Atonement were being deemphasized. The Church was optimistic about the coming Kingdom of God which would feature the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man. Education was the key to bringing about this kingdom. Rising interest in socialism and even the Soviet experiment of Communism could address the world’s problem of income and class inequality. Science working with sociology was developing programs such as eugenics, in which weaker and less desirable races and groups of people were being encouraged not to have children and would even be sterilized so that future generations would be more intelligent and stronger, and more capable.
Then she might question me about the church in 100 years, like in 2021. How is it going with world peace, and with her Evangelical denomination and with the Federal Council of Churches? She might mention that The Federal Council, the organization that brought together all of the churches in the land (at least the important ones) was urging denominational cooperation with a goal of establishing a Christianized culture (part of the Kingdom emphasis).
I would tell her that her Evangelical Church in the little town of Woodruff, would in a hundred years be a United Methodist Church. “How in the world?” she might ask. Well, the Evangelicals merged with the Evangelical Association which merged with the United Brethren, and then in 1968 merged with the Methodists which were themselves the merger of three groups. If you added all of those groups together in 1921 the membership totaled 6,665,133 (Federal Council numbers). That merged church in 1968 would number nearly 11 million American members which would support 13 seminaries, several hundred colleges, cathedral-type brick churches numbering in the thousands, and boards and agencies with assets in the millions. And in that church, her not-yet-born grandson (me) was a minister.
I might imagine her reaction: “Wow, this is fantastic! How close in your time are we then to the Kingdom of God on earth and the reign of peace and democracy which we work so hard for?”
I would have to hang my head. “Unfortunately, in many regards, things aren’t going so well." The church back in 1921 should have taken more seriously the doctrine of Original Sin. The Soviet experiment to bring about a classless society failed and, in the process, cost 25 million lives. Germany, one of the most highly educated and sophisticated countries in the world, fell under the influence of fascism. Nazism adopted the science of eugenics in order to develop a super race and in the process killed 6 million Jews. We fought another world war that killed several times more than your war. Now, even in America, we aren’t getting along. In 2020 we saw riots and violence, including an attack by our own citizens on our capital in Washington.
“But the church. What about the Church? How fares the Gospel? What about that United Methodist Church you spoke of, with all its seminaries and colleges and brick churches and assets”?
I would have to hang my head again. We have problems in 2021. In many ways our country is facing trials. In 2021 we are dealing with “COVID-19,” a pandemic which is very much like the flu epidemic of 1918. Many churches are not meeting face to face. We don’t know what will happen when churches can function normally. But even before that our country has been facing religious disintegration. According to a research company known as Barna, in 2000 45% of Americans were considered practicing Christians; by 2020 the number had decreased to 25%. During that same time, the number of persons who indicate they are atheist or agnostic or have no religion has increased from 11% to 21%.
I would continue; there is presently a serious moral decline in American society and culture and that decline must be, at least in part, because of the diminishing influence of the churches. Our beloved United Methodist Church in America has declined to something like 6,500,000 members and is sinking fast. That is actually fewer than the 6,665,133 counted in your time, in 1921. But to make it worse, the population of the United States in 1921 was 100 million; in 2020 it is 330,000 million. In other words, the market share of United Methodism is less than a third of what it was 100 years ago. In 1921 the Methodist adult members made up 6.4% of the total US population. In 1960, before the merger, it was still 5.9%. Then it crashed even more. By 1980 it was 4.2%; by 2000 it was 3%; in 2021 it is below 2% (see This is Our Story, GCFA, Office of Analysis and Research, 2008).
“What happened”? I would continue; a number of things. At the moment we are divided by, of all things, teachings about the family and about chastity and about faithfulness. “I’m not understanding what you are talking about?” she would say, “what do you mean divided because of the family and because of chastity and because of faithfulness?”
I would respond; “Our era in 2021 is a time of freedom. Many people find Bible teaching and Christian teaching repressive, like the teaching of “celibacy in singleness and faithfulness in marriage.” That seems to preclude homosexual relationships and bisexual relationships. People who desire sex with both men and women believe it is restrictive if they are somehow judged for doing so. Furthermore, some men think they would be happier as women, and some women think they would be happier as men. That is called transgenderism. This, of course, plays havoc with the family. People don’t like the idea of family as father and mother and children. That restricts persons to having to live with others they may not get along with. Better family is defined as any group of people who want to live together.
“What is the result of all of this?” she would ask. I respond; unfortunately, broken homes, broken marriages, out-of-wedlock births, sexual addictions, sexually transmitted diseases, sex trafficking, poverty, cohabitation outside of marriage, higher incidents of sexual predators, sexual confusions, poverty, and suicide.
“But that surely is not our United Methodist Church is it?” My answer; not with the great majority but with some in the seminaries and among the bishops and in some of our boards and agencies. One board, whose purpose is to promote racial equality and harmony, recently posted on its webpage (don’t worry about “webpages,” I will explain that to you later); the church should consider the impact of intersectionality “which is….a paradigm that addresses the multiple dimensions of identity and social systems as they intersect with one another and related to inequality (such as racism, genderism, heterosexism, ageism, and classism).”
“I have no idea what you are talking about?” I seek to explain; it boils down to an accusation that if you hold to Bible standards in such things as family and human sexuality you are prejudiced and are not encouraging the new progressive vision of a just and inclusive society. Some feel so strongly about it they are breaking from United Methodism and forming a new group called the Liberation Methodist Connexion, or LMX. As they explain their concern is not for right doctrine but for “correct actions and correct praxis where God sustains us during the unanswerable questions.” This means “reparations, caring for the earth, and freeing Methodist tradition of colonialism, White supremacy, economic injustice, sexism, ableism, ageism, and heteronormativity.”
“I thought I would be hopeful about the future but this sounds discouraging. Is this why your magazine said 2020 was the worst year?”
Grandma, the magazine was speaking of other problems. It does not care that much about United Methodism or Christianity. Things may seem to be bad the way I explained them. But I told you only a small part of the story. I will be back later and tell you the good stuff. God is still on the throne.
(To be continued)
