Francis Asbury was tasked with carrying out John Wesley’s vision of Methodism in the colonies and the United States. Part of this vision included a strong stance against the institution of slavery. How did Asbury respond to and embody this stance in a society that was increasingly racist and white supermacist?

GUESTS:

Dr. Gordon Melton is the Distinguished Professor of American religious History at Baylor University, Waco, Texas. He is the author of A Will to Choose: The origins of African American Methodist (2007)

Rev. Dr. Mark Tyler is the 52nd pastor of Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia and is a native of Oakland, California. He’s also a documentary filmmaker, radio host, motorcyclist, an adjunct faculty member at Payne Theological Seminary and an affiliated faculty member of Methodist Theological Seminary.

HOST:

Dr. Ashley Boggan Dreff, General Secretary of the General Commission on Archives and History of The United Methodist Church. Dreff earned her PhD from Drew Theological School’s Graduate Division of Religion, specializing in both Methodist/Wesleyan Studies and Women’s/Gender Studies. She is the author of Nevertheless: American Methodists and Women’s Rights (2020) and Entangled: A History of American Methodism, Politics, and Sexuality (2018).