In terms of Methodism’s public witness over the last century, there have been frequent shameful episodes.  Some in authority within the church defended racial segregation, while others made anti-Semitic statements.  From the very start of Bolshevism, there were always some Methodist officials who defended Soviet Communism even as it murdered millions. In the 1930s, some Methodist elites minimized the evil of Nazism. In more recent decades, church agencies and officials have touted the sexual revolution, despite its assault upon Christian teaching, morals, family, and the well-being of children. And the official church silence over the global persecution of Christians, even during the last century, when more Christians were martyred than during the previous 19 centuries...