Methodists against Martial Law: Filipino Chicagoans and the Church’s Role in a Global Crusade
Abstract
During the 1970s and 1980s, the United Methodist Church in the Midwest prioritized recruiting people of color. This included Filipino immigrants whose population continued to grow across greater Chicago. Amid these recruitment efforts, Methodists took firm stances on matters related to social justice and international affairs using religious doctrine or reasoning to justify political mobilization. Filipino Methodists formed critical alliances with non-Filipino Methodists, other Christians, and leftist organizations to raise awareness about Ferdinand Marcos’s dictatorship and martial law order in the Philippines. Their grassroots activism helped sustain and bolster the efficacy of anti-Marcos and anti-martial law movements occurring worldwide.