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Only God's solutions are as big as the problems. Only God's answers are as big as the questions. Dr. Leonard I. Sweet
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The 10 genetic gateways of the Wesleyan tradition may be more important for Century XXI than for Centuries XVIII, XVIX, and XX. Or to put it another way, God may have raised up the Wesleyan movement more for the postmodern era than for the modern world. But it will all come to naught without the #1 gene: Prayer. But don't believe me.
Listen to some others in one of the most extraordinary exchanges about the Wesleyan movement to take place in the last century. Roger Starr is Jewish liberal Democrat (this is important to the story) who writes widely on issues of housing and the urban crisis for the New York Times. He is associated with the New School for Social Research, and teaches at City College of the City University of New York. He also sits on the board of the journal The Public Interest, which published a series of articles, one by the executive editor Joel Schwartz, based on some of his arguments that 20th century New York City and 18th century London were very similar. Both were beset by immense problems of drugs (crack today, gin back then, as captured by Hogarth's Gin Lane), family disintegration, social disorder, violence. In the England of Wesley's day thousands were left to fend for themselves in harrowing conditions, creating a dependent, self-destructive "underclass." "The streets were dark with something more than night" perfectly catches the feel of 18th century London as well as 20th Century New York. The streets of London were blanketed with fear and stalked by "footpads" and "highwaymen" (today we call them "carjackers" and "criminals").
Yet what saved London was a social leader named John Wesley, who addressed the "demoralization" of his day with a "demoralization" message that empowered the poor to lead their own crusade in fighting social injustice, economic exploitation and spiritual impoverishment. George Will is a serious-minded, bow-tied Roman Catholic conservative Republican (this is important to the story) who writes political commentary for Newsweek and the Washington Post. After studying the suggestion from Starr and others, he wrote a syndicated column agreeing with the thesis of the importance of this social movement known as "The Wesleyan Awakening." He confessed that it was hard to swallow agreement with such liberal types as Starr, but admitted that not everything liberals say is wrong. In his own research, Will discovered that the England of Wesley's day, then the most powerful nation on the face of the earth, suffered many similar problems as USAmerica does today. Drug additions were rife--most notoriously gin-makers and gin-heads then, crack-houses and crack-heads today. Youth gangs were terrorizing the cities. Much of England's population languished in squalor and worked in dehumanizing smokestack factories.
The church and its clergy had forgotten the poor and the working classes, and had opted for an establishment respectability. Wesley changed all this. His societies became distribution centers for food, clothing, money and medicine for the poor. They also became lending banks, housing finders, job training centers and legal aid and advice drop-ins. Wesley started history's first people's medical clinic, and he led the social struggles of his day for prison reform and abolition of slavery. Wesley put it like this: "The Gospel of Christ knows of no religion but social; no holiness, but social holiness...This commandment have we from CHRIST, that he who loves God loves his brother also." Amazingly, Will ended his column with these words: "New York, like many other cities, needs a man on horseback,....It needs John Wesley." The only thing that will save our cities, Will writes, is a "cohort of contemporary Wesleys." And he ends his article with: "Does anyone have a better idea?" This amazing exchange caught the eye of Fred Barnes, the editor of The New Republic and an evangelical Episcopalian moderate (this is important to the story). In a "Washington Diary" column, Barnes deemed Will and Starr strange bedfellows but worthy borders. Barnes registered both agreement and disagreement with both of them. Barnes agreed that the world today needs another Wesley, but found Will's and Starr's analysis coming up short. Both of them forgot one thing: "the source of Wesley's power was religious faith, and religion of a peculiarly social kind. Wesley's evangelism was inseparable for his social activism."
People today are not just hungry for the things of the world, but for the things of the spirit. "A secular Wesley with tips on how to shake poverty won't grip the underclass. A religious Wesley, a new Martin Luther King, Jr., might. I understand why Will didn't play up Wesley's religious appeal. Some people insist that religion not only can't solve social problems, it shouldn't even enter the national debate on them at all. I disagree on both counts." Only God's solutions are as big as the problems. Only God's answers are as big as the questions. My very favorite Wesley story takes place over a century after Wesley dies. An elderly African gentleman visited King's Road Chapel, where Wesley is buried and asked the minister-in-charge if he might visit Wesley's grave. The priest accompanied the man to the grave where the man stood in silence for a moment. He then asked "Might a body pray here?" The minister replied "Feel free." The man knelt and with one hand on Wesley's grave and other uplifted to the heavens, he prayed: "Lord...Do it again! Lord....Do it again." Lord,...Do it again!
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