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Say the name Mark Tooleyin United Methodist circles around the country and you’ll either get a broad smile (from conservative members) or a look of consternation (from liberal bishops). Tooley has been one of the leaders among the United Methodist laity for several years now, trying to bring this mainline denomination back to the roots established by John Wesley: scriptural holiness, orthodox Christian doctrine, and a social outreach informed by these spiritual truths.
Despite the liberal drift of the United Methodist hierarchy for some time now, the local churches have oftentimes not bought into it, creating sparks at the denomination’s General Conferences, on hot-button topics like abortion and homosexuality. Yet while other mainline Protestant denominations have either given in almost entirely to secular trends or have split, the more conservative United Methodist laity have hung in there, hoping for a better day when orthodoxy and a biblical worldview are accepted more again.
Tooley, who now serves as president of the Institute for Religion and Democracy in Washington, D.C., has helped to foster this desire for a return to Methodist tradition through his direct mail campaign to Methodist laity, laying out what he sees as the abuses of an out-of-touch, liberal Methodist hierarchy through his “UM Action Briefings.” These newsletters reach hundreds of thousands of Methodists each year.
Interestingly, after several years in this struggle, Tooley says that the tide is finally about to turn—all thanks to brothers and sisters in the faith from far away. The United Methodist Church has a strong African contingent, making it a truly international denomination. Because the African Methodists are strongly biblical in their worldview and fidelity to church tradition, they can vote together with the more conservative American Methodists to reform the unorthodox tendencies of the more liberal bishops and church leaders.
As you’ll see in this edition of “Discourse,” we’ll discuss the parallels between this situation with the Methodists and what has already happened with the divide in America’s Episcopal church and the role played by their Anglican counterparts in Africa. Tooley believes the next General Conference in 2012 will start to show that the days of the liberal hierarchy in the United Methodist Church are coming to a close.
Learn more about Tooley’s book, Taking Back the Methodist Church,and the rest of the work he and his colleagues do at the Institute for Religion and Democracy. You’ll be learning more about the man who has persuaded many United Methodists to pull their church back to John Wesley again, perhaps making this church a beacon to other mainline Protestant denominations again!
“Discourse,” an occasional podcast on BreakPoint, applies a Christian worldview lens to a broad range of issues related to contemporary culture. Stephen Reed, a Centurion in the class of 2008, is a former talk radio host and serves as Web content editor for the Colson Center. If you see any cultural issues out there you would like to see us address in a future podcast, e-mail Stephen at: stephen_reed@pfm.org.
Articles on the BreakPoint website are the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Chuck Colson or Prison Fellowship. Outside links are for informational purposes and do not necessarily imply endorsement of their content.
IRD president Mark Tooley shares how he has brought his Christian worldview to his denomination and to the public in significant ways.
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