Voting Station

John Wesley

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Religious Figure

The Resume

    (June 28, 1703-March 2, 1791)
    Born in Epworth, England, United Kingdom
    Founder of the Methodist Church

Why he might be annoying:

    Despite founding a breakaway church, he considered himself a loyal Anglican until his death.
    An early mission to Georgia ended disastrously when he was accused of disgracing a married woman's honor.
    William Hogarth attacked Wesley and the Methodists as full of 'credulity, superstition and fanatacism.'
    He called the clergy 'the pests of the Christian world, the grand nuisance of mankind, a stink in the nostrils of God.'
    At 63, he wrote to his brother, 'I never believed, in the Christian sense of the world. Therefore I am only a honest heathen.'

Why he might not be annoying:

    Over 50 years, he traveled 250,000 miles on foot and horseback, and delivered some 50,000 sermons.
    He continued preaching despite being pelted with stink bombs and rocks.
    He advocated abolition of slavery and reforms in education, prisons and working conditions.
    Woodrow Wilson wrote, 'The Church was dead and Wesley awakened it. The Gospel was shrunken into formulas and Wesley flung it fresh upon the air in the speech of common men.'

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 6 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 8 Votes: 62.50% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 15 Votes: 53.33% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 7 Votes: 42.86% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 19 Votes: 26.32% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 9 Votes: 55.56% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 7 Votes: 28.57% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 13 Votes: 38.46% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 18 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 27 Votes: 62.96% Annoying
    In 2009, Out of 49 Votes: 48.98% Annoying
    In 2008, Out of 42 Votes: 40.48% Annoying