Bush to Become Nation's Third Methodist President

WASHINGTON, Jan. 16 (RNS) -- When George W. Bush becomes the 43rd president on Saturday, he will become the first Methodist president in 100 years and only the third in history.

He will replace Bill Clinton, a Southern Baptist, who attended a Methodist church while president and delivered the sermon Sunday at Foundry United Methodist Church, his last there as president.

Bush has not said where he will attend church while at the White House, but Foundry's pastor, the Rev. Philip Wogaman, has extended the Bushes an invitation. United Methodist Bishop Felton E. May of the Washington-Baltimore area has also urged Bush to attend a methodist church.

``The United Methodist Church includes wide political and theological diversity,'' May said in a statement. ``There is room for all who seek to follow Jesus Christ. I am confident the president will be able to find a church that nurtures his faith and supports his family's spiritual life.''

Bush was raised as an Episcopalian but joined the United Methodist Church when he married his wife, Laura, a lifelong Methodist. They are members of Highland Park United Methodist Church near Dallas and attended Tarrytown United Methodist Church in Austin, Texas.

Bush shares an almost eerie similarity with the two other Methodist presidents, Rutherford B. Hayes and William McKinley. Like Bush, Hayes won the White House in a hotly contested election in which he won the Electoral College vote but failed to win the popular vote.

McKinley first won in 1896 but was assassinated just a year into his second term, in 1901. An evangelical prayer group is praying that Bush, unlike McKinley, does not succumb to the fabled ``zero year curse'' that has killed seven presidents -- each elected in a year ending in 0 -- before their terms ended.

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