“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.” —Philippians 2:3-5

Richard Allen Founds First African Methodist Episcopal Church, July 29, 1794

ne of the side effects of the Protestant Reformation of the 16th Century has been the proliferation of denominational churches, many of whom hold a central core of doctrines in common, particularly about the person and work of Jesus Christ, but differ on the interpretation of Scripture regarding a few or many other particular beliefs. Some Christians view these differences as the great strength of Protestantism, others see them as evidence of abandoning the idea of the oneness of the Church and a sinful refusal to reconcile idiosyncrasies. For Richard Allen, worshipping God free of racial animus brought about the creation of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME).

The Right Reverend Richard Allen (1760-1831)

In 18th Century America, slavery existed in all thirteen British colonies. With the winning of independence from England, some of the New England states abolished “the peculiar institution,” beginning with Massachusetts in 1783. Slavery remained legal in Delaware until the 13th Amendment to the Constitution in 1865, not officially confirming their compliance until 1901. Richard and his family, parents and siblings, were owned by one Stokely Sturgis on his Delaware plantation. Richard’s mother and two of his siblings were sold off, but Richard remained in bondage to the same family. He and an older brother and sister were permitted to attend the local Methodist Society meetings where, Richard later recorded, “I was brought to see myself poor wretched and undone. Shortly after, I obtained mercy through the blood of Christ.” After joining the Society at the age of 17, Richard learned to read and write and, recognizing a gift for preaching, began to evangelize all who would listen.

Richard’s earthly master, not a professing Christian, was convinced by the Rev. Freeborn Garrettson—a minister who had freed his own slaves—to at least give opportunity for his laborers to purchase their freedom. Through the kind providence of God, Richard saved enough to purchase his own freedom from bondage, and added the surname of Allen. In 1786, the founding church of Methodism in the United States—St. George’s Methodist Church in Philadelphia—allowed George to join the staff and conduct 5:00am Sunday morning services. As might be expected, the people of the free black community of the city came to hear the powerful preaching of the former slave.

Rev. Freeborn Garrettson (1752-1827)

Exterior of St. George’s United Methodist Church in Philadelphia

Rev. Allen usually preached on the commons, and the fifty or so congregants joined him for worship inside the church building later on the Sabbath, where they were segregated in the balcony or made to stand. In protest to being segregated for prayer and preaching, in 1787, Rev. Allen and fellow African-American preacher Absalom Jones formed the Free African Society as a non-denominational voluntary association that provided a place for runaway slaves and freemen to worship together and for “mutual aid.” Active in the small but burgeoning abolitionist cadre in Philadelphia, the FAS continued growing in number and effectiveness into the 19th Century. Many of the congregants followed Jones into the Episcopal Church, where he eventually became the first black Episcopal priest in the United States.

Rev. Absalom Jones (1746-1818)

Interior of St. George’s United Methodist Church in Philadelphia

The remainder of the FAS members joined Allen as he remained convinced of the Methodist communion and organized Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church on July 29, 1794, under the initial oversight of Bishop Francis Asbury, who ordained Allen in 1799, making him the first “officially ordained” African-American Methodist pastor in the U.S. Within ten years, membership had climbed to more than four hundred fifty and by 1813, over twelve hundred. In 1816, Richard Allen combined a number of other black congregations in Pennsylvania and Delaware and formally separated into the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the first independent black denomination in the United States, with the Rev. Allen as the first bishop.

Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia

The preaching of Richard Allen, almost exclusively “evangelistic” in the beginning, was “never expository,” always extempore, and full of calls to action. The major themes of his preaching became abolition, education, temperance and colonization. His church became a stop on the “underground railroad” that ran through Philadelphia. Bishop Allen died in 1831, looking back to a time when there had been little or no hope of ever rising above being a field hand on a Delaware plantation. But God had plans otherwise and a calling that reached thousands of people in his own time.

During the Civil War, AME pastors travelled south with the Union armies and established congregations of Freedmen across the South. By 1880, there were more than 400,000 members and missionaries in at least two African nations. Today, the African Methodist Episcopal Church has members in thirty-nine countries and five continents with twenty-one bishops, whose theologians have led the churches to preach against “oppression, racism, sexism, and economic disadvantage.” Rhetoric and rage only stoke the fire of division, but if the AME, and all churches, would preach the whole counsel of God—an unfettered and unapologetic Gospel—they would find it is “the power unto salvation” to all.

The tomb of Rev. Richard Allen in the lower level of his church, Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia

Image Credits: 1 Rev. Richard Allen (Wikipedia.org) 2 Rev. Freeborn Garrettson (Wikipedia.org) 3 St. George’s Church (Wikipedia.org) 4 Rev. Absalom Jones (Wikipedia.org) 5 St. George’s Church Interior (Wikipedia.org) 6 Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church (Wikipedia.org) 7 Tomb of Rev. Allen (Wikipedia.org)

“Put them in fear, O Lord; Let the nations know that they are but men.” —Psalm 9:20

Franco-Prussian War Declared, July 19, 1870

he legacy of Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) comes readily to mind regarding military innovations and the redrawing of the boundaries of Europe in the 19th Century. Add to those residual effects, the natural French sense of superiority and touchy reaction to international insult, and the volatile combination of international political DNA came to its natural fruition in the leadership of the arrogant and spirited personality of Napoleon’s nephew. Charles-Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, President of France, 1848-52, and “Emperor of the French” from 1852 to 1870 was the last monarch to rule over France, and was founder of “The Second Empire.” He presided over the utter defeat of his beloved country on the field of battle, by the Germans.

Charles Louis Napol´on Bonaparte (1808-1873), President of France from 1848-1852, Emperor of France from 1852-1870

Prior to the conclusion of a war with Napoleon in 1803, there were more than three hundred political jurisdictions among the German states—more than a thousand if all the duchies and smaller entities of the former Holy Roman Empire are counted. The largest were the kingdoms of Prussia and Bavaria, but there were also the multitude of smaller states, independent free cities, family estates, and ecclesiastical territories. After Napoleon’s defeat of the Second Coalition in 1802, the French dictator reduced the number of “the Germanies,” and after the defeat of Prussia in 1806, and the subsequent dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, he consolidated the princely German kingdoms even more. Their armies were folded into Napoleon’s forces, with 125,000 Germans joining in the invasion of Russia in 1812. Napoleon’s “Continental System” severely damaged the economies of central Europe and spurred the German people to again join together against the French dictator in 1813. In the Battle of Nations, more than half a million men engaged in the largest land battle in Europe in the 19th Century. Austria, Prussia, Sweden, Russia and Saxony finally defeated Napoleon. After his first exile and last grasp for power and the return of Gloire at the Battle of Waterloo against England and Prussia (costing another 72,000 casualties), the French emperor was forced to end his and the French Empire’s attempt to rule all of Europe.

Wilhelm Friedrich Ludwig (1797-1888), King of Prussia and Emperor of Germany

Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck-Schönhausen (1815-1898), Minister President of Prussia and Chancellor of the German Empire

The Congress of Vienna enlarged Prussian boundaries and consolidated thirty-eight other German states under the political authority of Austria. The idea of both a linguistic and geographic German unity percolated through the German-speaking states over the following fifty years. A growing unification movement complete with nationalistic songs, stories, and historical pride combined with an expansionist and increasingly militaristic leadership of Otto von Bismarck. Prussia defeated Denmark in a small war in 1864, and crushed Austria two years later, consolidating several smaller German states under a north German Confederation of Prussian rule. Most of the German states, by 1870, had turned to King Wilhelm of Prussia and to Chancellor von Bismarck for leadership and protection. One French wit claimed that the German nation was hatched from a cannon ball.

Castle Arenenberg in Switzerland, where Louis Napoleon spent much of his youth and exile

The man who became Napoleon III was born Charles-Louis, to Napoleon Bonaparte’s brother, Louis, in 1808. Sent into exile after Waterloo, with the rest of the Bonapartes, young Charles-Louis was raised primarily in Switzerland and Germany, although his tutor was a former French Revolutionary Radical and friend of Robespierre. Bonaparte was arrested several times trying to reinsert the Napoleonic family into French politics.

Louis Napoléon Bonaparte (1778-1846), King of Holland, brother of Napoleon I and father of Napoleon III

Hortense Eugénie Cécile Bonaparte, née de Beauharnais (1783-1837), Queen of Holland, step-daughter of Napoleon I and mother of Napoleon III

Following the Revolution of 1848 in Paris, Louis Napoleon, after living in England, the United States, and Switzerland, joined the growing list of men interested in following the abdicated King Louis Phillipe into power. Elected President in 1848, the romantic nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte promised universal male suffrage, and proclaimed his support for “religion, family, property, and peace.” He decided after his three-year term in office, the people would support a suspension of the constitution in order to keep him in power. He overthrew himself, then ordered a plebiscite so the people could confirm his actions. He settled scores with old enemies and declared the Second French Empire.

The official declaration of the Second Empire, at the Hôtel de ville, on December 2, 1852

As Emperor Napoleon III, he participated in several small wars prior to 1870, not seeking to regain the militant grandeur of his uncle, but definitely committed to defending French honor and restoring the elan of French arms. As had happened in the 18th Century, a succession crisis in Spain became the occasion for conflict between France and the burgeoning German nation whose leader promised the world that only a policy of blood and iron would bring success and respect. Von Bismarck learned the deft political strategy of manipulating his opponents into declaring war on Prussia, and a weak and sickly Napoleon III obliged him the occasion on July 19, 1870 when the French Parliament declared war. In the course of the six months of war, France mobilized more than two million men, and Prussia more than one and a half million. The Prussians maneuvered the French armies into strategic traps and their superior weaponry produced overwhelming casualties. Prussia suffered about 145,000 casualties and the French more than a million in the course of the war, including the capture of Louis Napoleon.

Surrender of Napoleon III to Otto von Bismarck after the Battle of Sedan, September 1, 1870

The French nation was stunned by the swiftness and the severity of the defeat and a desire for retribution passed on through the next several generations. Within just a few years, fear and distrust of opposing alliances, a continuing arms race, and old nationalist memories, established the international political environment that would erupt into the First World War in 1914. Many dots connect from the French Revolutionary years of Napoleon Bonaparte to the 20th Century.

The proclamation of Prussian King Wilhelm I as German Emperor at Versailles, January 18, 1871

Image Credits: 1 Napoleon III (Wikipedia.org) 2 Wilhelm I (Wikipedia.org) 3 Otto von Bismarck (Wikipedia.org) 4 Castle Arenenberg (Wikipedia.org) 5 Louis Bonaparte (Wikipedia.org) 6 Hortense Bonaparte (Wikipedia.org) 7 Second Empire (Wikipedia.org) 8 Surrender (Wikipedia.org) 9 German Empire (Wikipedia.org)

“And the base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are.” —1 Corinthians 1:28

Birth of John Everett Clough, July 16, 1836

ohn Clough was born in southwestern New York, not far from Lake Chautauqua. His family joined in the general migration westward, settling in Iowa Territory prior to the Civil War. John attended college in the 1850s in Iowa and while there sensed the call of God to Gospel ministry. Following graduation, John Clough received further theological training, and in 1864 sought and was granted ordination as a Baptist minister. His wife Harriet happily joined in his call to preach on the mission field. He appealed to the American Baptist Missionary Union and was sent to southern India to preach the Gospel to the Hindu Tulgu people. His unusual approach to evangelism presaged a sea-change in mission strategy, but resulted in a bountiful harvest of souls during his more than forty years among the same communities in India.

John Everett Clough (1836-1910)

Map of India showing the location of the city of Ongole, circa 1848

Eleven years earlier, in 1854, “in a predawn prayer meeting on a hill overlooking the city of Ongole, two missionaries and three Telugu Christian women had asked God to send a missionary to that city.”* The Cloughs’ arrival signaled the positive answer to that prayer, in God’s timing. When John Clough arrived, most or all of the few Christians in Ongole belonged to the Brahmin class, the wealthy and privileged caste of India. Most of the early converts from John’s preaching came from the lowest level of society—the Madigas of the Andrha Pradesh region of India where they served. In Indian culture, Brahmins were not permitted to associate with the low castes under any circumstances, and the church was no exception.

A Telugu couple, date unknown

A Brahmin family of Bombay, India, circa 1880

However, the Cloughs believed strongly that 1 Corinthians taught that God calls the poor and lowly of this world (vs. 26-30) and not many noble. Unlike previous missionaries, they chose to continue preaching primarily to the lowest castes of India in their areas around the city of Ongole. Their congregations thus became made up of farmers and tanners, humble but devout people who came to love Christ and serve in the church. For ten years, the Cloughs planted churches, built schools and trained preachers and evangelists. Several thousand were converted.

A group of Telugu Christian converts and missionaries, circa 1880

Another difference in Clough’s approach—also controversial then but not as much today—related to Indian culture itself. He taught the Telugu converts to live by a few basic Christian ethical principles, but was cautious not to impose a Western cultural system. He trained local men to preach and teach and encouraged the people to attach themselves to them, as they had traditionally done with their Hindu gurus. He believed that the Gospel would have greater success coming from indigenous preachers. Rather than separate believers in their own ghettos, he encouraged converts to remain in their own pagan social structures and witness to those well known to them and living side by side. He stressed their union in the Kingdom through worshipping together in the church on the Sabbath. He targeted the village elders to serve as deacons.

During the Famine of 1876-79, it is estimated between 5.6 million and 9.6 million human fatalities occurred

During the famine of 1876-1879, with millions of people starving, the British government of India extended the Buckingham Canal by five miles, to aid in getting food to south India. A huge workforce was needed, and wages were paid in food. Instead of returning to America, Clough negotiated a contract with the government and recruited thousands of starving Madigas to build three miles of the canal. He organized them into working companies and channeled food to them in exchange for the labor. The missionary also enlisted his preachers to spread the Gospel as they worked on the canal. More than 9,000 men were converted during the famine years. He refused to baptize the new professors of Christ, because he did not want them joining the Church for the wrong reason. He waited to see if the conversions were true, after the famine. When it all ended and life returned to normal, more than 9,500 Madigas presented themselves for baptism. The “Madiga community was turned upside down. They abandoned their old gods . . . and Clough’s churches had 21,000 members.”

The Buckingham Canal near Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, India, 3 miles of which were built by locals organized by John Clough

John’s wife died in 1893, he remarried, and remained on the field until just before his death in 1910. When the missionary died, an estimated 60,000 Indians of the Ongole region belonged to Baptist Churches planted by John Clough. In 1936, the report of the Telegu Mission counted three hundred fifty Baptist Churches and a Baptist community of more than 300,000, the bulk of them from outcast groups.

• *The One Year Christian History, by E. Michael and Sharon Ruskin

Image Credits: 1 John Clough (American Baptist Historical Society) 2 1848 Map (Wikipedia.org) 3 Telugu Couple (Wikipedia.org) 4 Brahmin Family (Wikipedia.org) 5 Telugu Converts (Wikipedia.org) 6 Famine Victims (Wikipedia.org) 7 Buckingham Canal (Wikipedia.org)

“Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow . . .which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war?” —Job 38:22a, 23

Douglas MacArthur Takes Command in Korea,
July 8, 1950

is mother’s four brothers served in the Confederate Army in Virginia regiments and his wife’s grandfather rose to captain in a Confederate Tennessee Regiment. His father was awarded the Medal of Honor fighting for the Union in a Wisconsin Regiment in the Civil War, and rose to the second highest rank in the United States Army. Douglas MacArthur himself could look back on the most spectacular career of any American soldier ever born: he fought in three major wars, was recommended for the Medal of Honor three times, awarded it once, received seven silver stars and two Distinguished Service Medals, eventually becoming one of only five men in American history to rank as a “full general.” He became the Field Marshall of the Army of the Philippines. After leading the United States to victory in the Pacific Theatre of the Second World War, MacArthur ruled Japan as the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers. In June of 1950, China-supported Communist North Korea invaded South Korea, creating a military disaster of unprecedented proportions; in less than two weeks, the United States chose Douglas MacArthur to lead the United Nations’ and South Korean Armies against the victorious North Koreans in 1950.

Douglas MacArthur, (1880-1964) as a student at West Texas Military Academy in the 1890s

General MacArthur as Commander in Chief of the Far East, circa 1945

General MacArthur faced tremendous handicaps in confronting the Communist invading forces that eventually reached almost three million men. The United States had sent home most of its forces in the Pacific region in the years following the Second World War, and the soldiers that were kept in useful reach for MacArthur were mostly green troops, unprepared for combat. The General himself was approaching his 70th year, had a poor relationship with President Truman, and possessed a personality not always conducive with getting along with subordinates or superiors (not that he thought there were any superiors). William Manchester, brilliant historian of the Second World War said of MacArthur:

“He was a great thundering paradox of a man, noble and ignoble, inspiring and outrageous, arrogant and shy, the best of men and the worst of men, the most protean, the most ridiculous, and the most sublime. No more baffling, exasperating, soldier ever wore a uniform. Flamboyant, imperious, and apocalyptic, he carried the plumage of a flamingo, could not acknowledge errors, and tried to cover up his mistakes with sly, childish tricks. Yet he was also endowed with great personal charm, a will of iron, and a soaring intellect.”

Brigadier General MacArthur, St. Benoit Chateau, France, 1918

General MacArthur wades ashore in the Philippine Islands, 1940

Hundreds of thousands of Korean civilians fled south as the enemy army overwhelmed the Republic of Korea forces, some of whom went over to the enemy and joined in the assault; intellectuals and civil servants were massacred by communist cadres. The battered ROK soldiers and a few American units finally put a stop to the overwhelming surprise attack and held up the communist forces along the one hundred forty mile “Pusan perimeter,” providing a relatively safe haven covering about 10% of Korea. President Truman decided that a stabilized Korea was necessary to the peace of Japan, and found out that the Soviet Union would not retaliate if U.S. troops got involved on a large scale. By the end of August, 1950, General MacArthur had about 180,000 in the line facing about 90,000 Reds.

U.S. troops await North Korean attacks across the Nakdong River from positions on the Pusan Perimeter, September 4, 1950

General MacArthur devised one of the most daring strategic surprise attacks in American military history. Several of MacArthur’s top military advisors said it could not be done and should not be attempted. Nonetheless, in a brilliant combined operation, 40,000 American Infantry and Marines landed by sea at Incheon in September, and proceeded to cross Korea, cutting off supplies to communist forces in the south, and driving the invaders into the north, capturing 135,000 KPA soldiers and killing or wounding another 200,000. Simultaneously, ROK and U.N. forces broke out of the Perimeter in the South, driving the enemy into the trap. By October, the South Korean government had been restored to power in Seoul and the 38th Parallel had been established as the northern border.

General MacArthur and several officers observe the shelling of Incheon from the USS Mount McKinley, September 15, 1950

Multiple thousands of “Chinese volunteers” swarmed across the border in October of 1950, killing thousands of American and ROK Marines and Infantry at the Chosin Reservoir, and dozens of hilltops and valleys of the rugged North Korean terrain. President Truman fired General MacArthur for disobeying orders, and risking an all-out war with Communist China, when the General ordered bombing of the supply lines and travel routes of the Chinese soldiers flooding into Korea to kill Americans. General MacArthur’s arrogance and lack of political savvy proved too much for the Joint Chiefs and the President to endure any longer. By the end of the War in Korea, more than three million were dead, including more than two million civilians. About 37,000 American soldiers died and more than 100,000 were wounded.

President Truman and General MacArthur at the Wake Island Conference, seven months before Truman would relieve MacArthur of his command

Douglas MacArthur returned to the United States: for some, the greatest war hero ever, for others, a man with too many personal flaws and not enough political clout to take on a President just as stubborn, but in full political power.

General MacArthur is greeted by a grateful public in this joyful ticker tape parade, Chicago, IL, 1951 (MacArthur is in the second car)

• The Forgotten War: America in Korea 1950-1953 by Clay Blair (1987)

Image Credits: 1 Cadet MacArthur (Wikipedia.org) 2 General MacArthur (Wikipedia.org) 3 MacArthur in France (Wikipedia.org) 4 Philippine Landing (Wikipedia.org) 5 Pusan Perimeter (Wikipedia.org) 6 Observing Incheon (Wikipedia.org) 7 Truman and MacArthur (Wikipedia.org) 8 Parade (Wikipedia.org)