WHAT do Nelson Mandela, Margaret Thatcher and Hillary Clinton have in common? Answer: in all three cases, their early views of the world were shaped (along with other influences, of course) by the Methodist church.
Lady Thatcher, as a child growing up in the Midlands town in Grantham, was steeped in the low-church Christianity of her family. Every Sunday she attended several sessions of Methodist worship and instruction. Later in life, she joined the Church of England, and her ties with Methodism were strained by the coal strike of the mid-1980s, which she as prime minister defeated. In her home region, many Methodist communities supported the miners. But she ascribed her belief in self-discipline, self-improvement and thrift to her Methodist origins.
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