Duke University Chapel is one of the great places in U.S. campus
religious life. It is more cathedral than chapel, its gothic spires
soaring high into the clear North Carolina air. Look closely, and
you’ll notice that the carvings outside the cathedral doors are not
medieval saints but Robert E. Lee, Thomas Jefferson, and Southern
poet Sidney Lanier. John Wesley, with early Methodist Bishops
Francis Asbury and Thomas Coke, also appears in the stone, as does
18th century revivalist George Whitfield, along with such heroes to
Protestants as Martin Luther, John Wycliffe, and Girolamo
Savonarola. On the lawn is a statue to Duke University’s founding
philanthropist, tobacco mogul James Buchanan Duke, unsurprisingly
clasping a cigar.
Architecturally the chapel is simultaneously a Christian
church, shrine to southern culture, celebration of America, ode to
Methodism, and champion of Protestantism. Former First
Things editor Jody Bottum, a Catholic, once commented that
Duke’s campus was maybe one of the last locales where the old
Mainline Protestant ascendancy can still be felt.
Duke University is officially still owned by the United
Methodism Church’s Southeast Jurisdiction, though it effectively
operates without deep regard for the denomination, like most
Mainline Protestant founded schools. The affiliation with the
church was further stressed in 2000 when the school’s president
insisted Duke Chapel host same-sex unions, which the denomination
prohibits. Then Duke Chapel Dean Will Willimon, though not
personally supportive, acquiesced. Duke’s Divinity School, which
still graduates many Methodist clergy and is arguably the most
orthodox of the church’s official seminaries, created its own
separate chapel that would operate under church
rules.
Willimon’s successor as chapel dean chaplain is Sam Wells,
an erudite, liberal-leaning Church of England priest who espouses a
“generous orthodoxy.” North Carolina’s legislature recently
approved a proposed state constitutional amendment defining
marriage as man and woman, which Wells thought less than generous.
He responded with his own curt denunciation of the legislature at a
pro-same sex marriage rally on the chapel steps, with the carved
Lee, Jefferson, and Wesley statues stoically looking on.
Citing Jefferson’s affirmation of the “pursuit of
happiness,” Wells, while incorrectly ascribing it to the
Constitution rather than the Declaration of Independence, declared:
“It is impossible to understand why you, legislators of the state
of North Carolina, are considering singling out one population, a
population that makes such a rich and profound and wide-ranging
contribution to the wellbeing and culture of our state, to be
denied the pursuit of happiness in the form of a publicly
recognized union of two persons only asking to be allowed to share
a life together.”
Wells complained that same-sex couples can’t fully pursue
“happiness” while ostensibly denied rights to hospital visits, tax
credits, pension benefits and other marital accoutrements. He
sarcastically further implored: “Is this what gives you pride and
joy in your work, to know that you have selected a misunderstood
minority of our population and succeeded in systematically denying
them the pursuit of happiness? Is this what brings you satisfaction
and makes you truly happy? Really?” And he urgently concluded:
“Now’s the time to show the people of this state what this state is
really made of. Now’s the time to pull together and address the
real issues of our day. Now’s the time to say to every single
person in your community, ‘We need you. We need you, your
creativity, your energy, your loyalty, your courage — we need you
if we’re going to face these challenges together. And we appreciate
you, for your individuality, what you bring that no one else can
bring, what you are that no one else is. We need you, because only
with you, can we all be truly happy.’”
Redefining marriage as an essential human right rooted in
the Declaration of Independence neatly summarizes Mainline
Protestantism’s accommodation of America’s liberal secular culture,
with its prioritization of rights and atomized individualism. Even
Jefferson (an Episcopalian who inclined towards Unitarianism) would
probably wince. And surely General Lee would, while there’s no
doubt about Wesley, Asbury, or Luther. More mindful of transcendent
truths, North Carolina voters almost certainly will ratify the
traditional definition of marriage in May of next year. And the
United Methodist Church, at its governing General Conference next
year, almost certainly will reaffirm traditional marriage, thanks
mostly to growing numbers of African delegates, who will soon
surpass members of declining U.S. churches.
In fairness, political correctness does not completely
rule over Duke Chapel. A service in August featured Jason Byassee,
a prominent Duke alumnus and now North Carolina Methodist pastor
who previously was an editor at Christian Century. That
Chicago-based magazine was once the flagship of dominant liberal
Protestantism and followed those churches leftward and downward in
influence in recent decades. With help from Byassee, in recent
years, the magazine became more centrist and inclusive of orthodox
voices. His August sermon at Duke was an orthodox recollection of
God’s providential calling of the ancient Hebrews and how
Christians, by faith, become “honorary Jews.” The music, liturgy,
and processional were majestic, fitting for the splendid gothic
stage, as sunlight streamed through gorgeous stained glass. The
engraved visages of John Wesley and Martin Luther outside the doors
still had some cause to nod in approval. The embers of Mainline
Protestantism still endure, even if diminished from former
glory.
