Methodist Board of Temperance, Prohibition, and Public Morals
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The Methodist Episcopal Church, South Board of Temperance, Prohibition, and Public Morals was a major organization in the American temperance movement which led to the introduction of prohibition in 1920. The board's influence waned in the late 1920s after a series of scandals involving Bishop James Cannon, Jr.
This board held no power over the mainline Methodist Episcopal Church or any other Methodist factions.
The Board constructed the Methodist Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC in 1925 in order to further increase its influence and lobbying power in public policy matters regarding alcoholic beverages.
After ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution established Prohibition, the Methodist Board promoted its aggressive enforcement. It also attempted to eliminate any criticism or opposition to what many called the Noble Experiment. In 1925, it charged that vaudeville acts and comic strips were being used to dispense wet (anti-prohibition) propaganda in New York City, which it called “a foreign city, run by foreigners for foreigners according to foreign ideas.”
The Methodist Board was dissolved after a merger of Methodist denominations in the 1960s and the united church created the General Board of Church and Society (GBCS). The 1965 trust contract requires all principal and income from the trust’s assets to be used exclusively for “work in the areas of temperance and alcohol problems.”
Some temperance activists are currently attempting to have the trust’s assets of over $20 million transferred from the GBCS to a new corporation dedicated exclusively to fighting the consumption of alcohol. They allege that the GBCS corporation is funding programs on antiwar, environmental, technological, and dozens of other activities unrelated to reducing the consumption of alcohol. GBCS officials respond that they interpret the trust’s language to include to include a variety of social causes.
In a separate legal action, Judge Ron Enns of Texas is petitioning not to have the assets transferred to another corporate entity but to enforce the language in the existing trust contract.
It appears that the issues will be settled in court.
[edit] See also
- Bishop James Cannon, Jr.
- History of Anti-Alcohol Movements in the United States
- National Prohibition of Alcohol in the U.S.
[edit] Sources
- Kyvig, David. Repealing National Prohibition. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1979.
- Sali, Sean. Methodist building transfer delayed. Washington Times, May 6, 2004.
- Sann, Paul. Lawless Decade. NY: Bonanza, 1957.
