What is it about?
The United Methodist Church acknowledged “racism as sin” for the first time in the 1988 Book of Discipline, a concession coming after two centuries riddled by sin and schisms and twenty years after the posthumous dissolution of the Central Jurisdiction. The Methodist Church constitutionally ratified a legally, race-based Jurisdictional Conference as a compromise to the 1939 Plan of Union. Though it has been well-documented in the annals of Methodist history, this article claims that the Central Jurisdiction’s creation is Methodism’s original and central sin whose residual effects are still visible in today’s Central Conferences.
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Why is it important?
Racism is pervasive throughout the United States, and religious institutions, particularly Christian ones, are not exempt. Christianity has been one of the biggest perpetrators of racism. This study examines Methodism's role in this crucial narrative.
Perspectives
In November 2020, a consortium of Black preachers and scholars released the book, I'm Black. I'm Christian. I'm Methodist. They chronicle the personal and systemic trials and tribulations of navigating the United Methodist Church as Blacks and Christians. This article adds another historical dimension to that narrative of the denominations gloomy past related to race and racism.
Mark C. Grafenreed
Southern Methodist University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The Central Jurisdiction: Methodism’s Original and Central Sin, Methodist History, October 2022, The Pennsylvania State University Press,
DOI: 10.5325/methodisthist.60.2.0272.
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