wfn.org | Some presidents became Methodists as end approached

[NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG]

Jan. 16, 2001  News media contact: Joretta Purdue ·(202) 546-8722·Washington
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NOTE: For related coverage, see UMNS stories #570 and #010.

By United Methodist News Service

When George W. Bush becomes president of the United States on Jan. 20, he
will be only the third president officially recognized by the Encyclopedia
of World Methodism as a Methodist when he took the oath of office, but
others later joined the church.

Methodists who have served previously were William McKinley (1897-1901) and
Rutherford B. Hayes (1877-1881). Their church affiliations do not seem to be
in dispute.

Two others, President Ulysses S. Grant, who immediately preceded Hayes in
office, and James Knox Polk (1845-1849), are both reported to have been
baptized by Methodist bishops during illnesses at the end of their lives.

The Rev. William K. Quick, an executive of the World Methodist Council,
believes that Polk became a Methodist following a camp meeting in 1833,
where he was moved by the preaching of the Rev. John McFerrin. Polk and his
wife, Sarah, attended Methodist services and followed the church's practices
at the time of shunning dancing and card playing, and they did not serve
alcohol, said Quick, who has an abiding interest in Methodist history. In
1849, then-Bishop McFerrin baptized Polk a few days before the president
died.

Likewise, Grant (1869-1877) was baptized by Methodist Bishop John Phillip
Newman, while suffering from cancer just months before he died in 1885.
Newman subsequently entered Grant's name on the rolls of the Metropolitan
Memorial Church in Washington and was present when Grant died. Grant became
a churchgoer after marrying Julia Boggs Dent, who was a lifelong Methodist.

Andrew Johnson (1865-1869) often attended Methodist services with his wife,
the former Eliza McCardle, and occasionally attended Catholic mass,
according to Quick. Johnson never formally joined a church.
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United Methodist News Service
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