Bush becomes nation's third
Methodist to serve as president
___By Kevin Eckstrom
___Religion News Service
___WASHINGTON (RNS)--George W. Bush is now the nation's first Methodist president in 100 years and only the third in history.
___He succeeded Bill Clinton, a Southern Baptist who attended Foundry United Methodist Church while president.
___Bush has not said where he will attend church while at the White House, but Foundry's pastor, Philip Wogaman, has extended the Bushes an invitation. United Methodist Bishop Felton May of the Washington-Baltimore area has also urged Bush to attend a Methodist church.
___"The United Methodist Church includes wide political and theological diversity," May said in a statement. "There is room for all who seek to follow Jesus Christ. I am confident the president will be able to find a church that nurtures his faith and supports his family's spiritual life."
___Bush was raised as an Episcopalian but joined the United Methodist Church when he married his wife, Laura, a lifelong Methodist. They are members of Highland Park United Methodist Church in Dallas and attended Tarrytown United Methodist Church in Austin.
___Bush shares an almost eerie similarity with the two other Methodist presidents, Rutherford B. Hayes and William McKinley. Like Bush, Hayes won the White House in a hotly contested election in which he won the Electoral College vote but failed to win the popular vote.
___McKinley first won in 1896 but was assassinated just a year into his second term, in 1901. An evangelical prayer group is praying that Bush, unlike McKinley, does not succumb to the fabled "zero year curse" that has killed seven presidents--each elected in a year ending in 0--before their terms ended.
___The United Methodist Church is the nation's second-largest Protestant body, with 8.4 million members in the United States and about 10 million around the world.
___These are good days for Methodists in Washington, with a number of high-profile members. Vice President Dick Cheney is a Methodist, as well as Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., who used a Bible given to her by the church's General Board of Church and Society when she was sworn into office.
___As with any church member, it is unclear whether Bush's denominational affiliation will influence his policy making. Clinton was more often at odds with his own denomination than he agreed with them. And like most Americans, Bush operates in an age where personal piety often matters more than denominational dogma.
___Indeed, Bush is at odds with official Methodist policy on a number of issues, from abortion--the church calls it a "regrettable option"--to affirmative action to an expanded missile defense system and gays in the military.
___Evangelicals within the United Methodist Church say they are encouraged by having an ally in the White, particularly with Bush's opposition to abortion.
___
The Baptist Standard
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