The ultimate showdown nobody was waiting for! Key figures of Methodism, George Whitefield versus Francis Asbury!

Whitefield was the cross-eyed guy in the Holy Club with John & Charles Wesley who seemed to have no confidence.  He always deferred to the Wesley Bros.  He was a bartender to work his way through Oxford, though thought he was poor at his trade.  He had a ridiculous accent.  And then he took over while Wesley was in Georgia and drew in incredible crowds…with people lining up to get Whitefield’s autograph.  He sparked the Great Awakening across the continents (with the help of John Edwards), and was dubbed “America’s First Celebrity.” My favorite feature of Mr. Whitefield was his notable accent, pronouncing Jesus Christ as Jesus “Chroist.”

Asbury came later, beginning his ministry in America as a young man towards the end of the Wesley Bros’ lives. Unlike Whitefield, Asbury had little charisma and was considered a fairly bad preacher. But his commitment to spread the gospel to every nook and cranny of America made him more recognizable face-to-face that George Washington or Thomas Jefferson. Under his leadership, American Methodism grew to be the most prominent Christian denomination in America at the time, shaped to reflect the democratic ideals of the post-revolutionary nation.  Asbury remained a staunch abolitionist and worked to empower black Christians towards their own independence.  Apparently he once even passed through my no-name little town of Cartersville, VA and referred to it as “Satansville.”  Sick burn, Francis.

Whitefield began his ministry opposing slavery, but as he gained the attention and conversion of wealthy slave-owners, Whitefield became the recipient of a plantation and enslaved Africans. In his later years, Whitefield defended and upheld slavery as it allowed him to fund the orphanage he had begun in America.  So for the purposes of our little Protestant Pokemon battle today, we’ll say Asbury is the winner.

I love these thoughtful words on Whitefield’s legacy from Baylor professor Thomas Kidd:

“I do admire Whitefield because of his passionate commitment to the gospel, but his relationship to slavery represents the greatest ethical problem in his career. It represents an enduring story of many Christians’ devotion to God but frequent inability (or unwillingness) to perceive and act against social injustice. Instead of condemning Whitefield as irredeemable, I would suggest that we let his faults—which we can see more clearly with 300 years of hindsight—caution us instead. Even the most sincere Christians risk being shaped more by fallen society than by the gospel.”

I wonder where my own blind spots are in regards to fallen society? I wonder what it means to be moved and changed by the gospel, and yet remain blind to the big injustices of our times?