Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-03-17
A CHURCH TROUBLE.
Ecclesiastical Politics Is Sapping
the Methodist Society,
SO SOME OF HER MINISTER'S SAY.
Views of Representatives From ALI Sections
of the Country.
A NUMBER OF REMEDIES ARE PROPOSED

Office seeking, wire pulling and log
rolling in the Methodist Church aie the
subjects of little volume published ir
Chicago, a collection. of the opinions and
experiences of representative Methodist
ministers of the Pacific slope, Western,
Middle, Southern, New York and New
England districts of the Church, as to the
prevalence and corrupting influences of the
methods of practical politics in the Church's
ecclesiastical meetings. Ecclesiastical
Politics in the Methodist Episcopal Church" "
is the title, says the New York Sun, which
adds that the unanimous opinion of the
contributors is that Methodist ministers
have fallen into the practice of unscrup-
ulous scheming for advancement to high
places in the Church.
Methodist conferences, the six representa-
tive ministers agree, have become the scenes
of the mos: open and shameless selfshness
and political Vaccinations. In short,
preachers OF gospel that teaches them the
"preferring one another in honor" are de-
scribed as plotting with all the energy and
cunning of "profane musicians" to secure
ecclesiastical prelerment ior themselves at
the expense of others. All the statements
in the book are made in such boldly vigor-
Gus language as abounds in the partisan
literature OF political campaign. The
reverend Contributors call every spade q
spade, and the pages are thickly sprinkled
with such phrases as: ARTS too low for
Christians" bought, sold, swapped off,
L.. ssTa iosfi
cal politicians, I" ministerial wire-pullers,"
'heeler and clacquer of the general Confer
ence," and even Tissue ballots.
Trustworthiness of the Volume.
The trustworthiness of the book is vouched
for by DR.. Charles Parkhurst who col
lected the articles in it originally for the
ZioR'sss Herald. OF Boston. and givestthe as
surance that the writers 'are the elect SER
wants of the Church, and are prompted only
by the desire to lnaugurate a reform in
this matter" Their names are withheld,
merely that the attention of the Methodist
Church may be concentrated upon the con-
dition revealed rather than upon the per-
sons who expose the situation"
The articles of the six representative
ministers are supposed to be answers to
these questions addressed to them by DR..
Parkhurst:
SIS there good reason for the application
of the phrase ecclesiastical politics to our
denomination? How is it manifested? How
may the tendency be overcome?
The representative from the Pacific slope
opens his paper with definition OF ecclsias-
tical politics. "W hat are we to understand"
he asks, ''by ecclesiastical politics but
schemes, fnesse, combinations, bargains, in
the interests OF men or parties? To give to
the term its genealogical. undegenerate
sense, were to command instant approval
and remove the question from, the domain of
debate. If you please, then, we will under
stand by the phrase electioneering, biased
and scrupulously truthful representations of
men and measures, eX parte statements, in
keen watching for opportunities
which may be adroitly used to the advan-
tage Of the other party, and, in a word, all
such sinister usages as consult factional
triumph more than fraternal justice, the eye
of God. and the day OF Judgment.
Appeals to Cupidity and Vanity.
"Within the gift of the General Con-
ference are many honorable and responsible
Offices. This fact appeals to the eupdity of
some and the vanity of others. To those who
will stoop to such arts here is room for In
trigue and political chicanerv. If all who
aspire to them were tit for these high Offices
their names might be shaken in bag and
drawn out at venture. But II, as in
Origen's time, those are to be held as least
worthy who are most aspiring, the plots and
sinister combinations of the few greatly COM
plicate and embarrass the functions of
honorable representation, and should be met
with whitening rebuke"
To remedy the evils which he has de-
scribed. the minister from the Pacific slope
suggests that every minister shall cast off
the "itch of office seeking" enter no cliques
or coteries refuse to vote or candidates who
push themselves, and suffer no lay commit
tee to represent charge at Conference unless
its members habituallv attend prayer and
class meetings and are spiritually minded.
Finally he adds: "Let every delegate be too
much a man TO be carried in any mans
pocket, bought, sold, swapped off. herded, or
halter-led by any man or for any man"
The report on ecclesiastical politics in the
Western district is couched in still palmer
language. The representative comes down
hard upon the Annual Conference, which
precedes the General Conference. Preachers
college Presidents and professors, religious
editors and their secretaries mingle in the
wild scramble tor ecclesiastical spoils. SIT
has been known to take Conference four
wears to recover from this Generalization
caused by the envYings and strife of ambi-
tious ecclesiastical politicians. Even the
presiding elder gets his place through
pulls" The Western minister then makes
this assertion:
Presiding Elders and Politics.
sTo be out-and-out, who doubts that the
large proportion of presiding elders in the
General Conference is due to politics.
Who doubts that, as a rule, the presiding
elder is elected delegate through the power
of his position rather than through the |
power of his personality? 1t Is most notice
able that when the presiding elders step |!
back into the ranks of the pastorate they /
are seldom thought of as the most intellect |
ually and spiritually representative men of |
the Conference. Complaints are heard |
against the favoritism of certain presiding |
elders who appoint their men and man their |
appointments with an eye to the reciprocity |
feature of ecclesiastical politics. 1t is said |
tn at presiding elders have been known to |
remember their political friends and to |
pay back their political opponents. |
Whether justly or not, hints have been ex- |
pressed that two presiding elders have, on |
occasion, found it profitable to pool their |
issues and Tor each to deliver his district |
to the other, and for both thereby to enjoy |
he honors of election"
The peripatetic, perennial candidate for |
Office is a nuisance, a 'bore,"
/ "windbag," but he is innocence and |
purity, the writer thinks, compared to the |
Conference boss" He is the man who |
plits the conference into discordant log |
,oIling factions, SO that the newly arrived |
member must become Smith man, or |
Jones" man, or "Brown" man the moment |
le enters the door, and the Bishop, to keep |
peace, must give out the oifieial plums in |
.qual portions to Smith and Smiths men, |
Brown and Browns men, Jones and Jones's |
men.