A young Reuben Webster Millsaps considers going to college. He is a good student who knows the value of hard work, both in the schoolhouse and out, benefiting from the direction of a father who is a teacher and farmer in rural south Mississippi. Methodists have a fairly strong presence in Pleas- ant Valley (their church being one of the only buildings in town), and he hears good things about a college in Greencastle, Indiana, founded barely 20 years before by Francis Asbury, the first American bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church. After loading his wagon with the few belongings worthy of such a long trip, the determined young man points his horses north and proclaims, perhaps with at least a little spite, “If God prospers me, I will make it possible for every young man desiring a Christian education to get it within the borders our state.”

Awaiting him is Indiana Asbury University (now DePauw University), which holds as part of its mission “forever to be conducted on the most liberal principles, accessible to all religious denominations, and designed for the benefit of our citizens in general.”

Important words, these. For not too many years later, ideals not unlike Asbury’s were manifested when Major Millsaps returned from service in the Civil War, and with the Mississippi Methodist Conference, helped found the school that bears his name. And so the College’s course was set, imbued with this man’s spirit, a spirit turned to the surface with the plowed land, committed to memory with the studied lessons, and blessed with the offered prayers.

Founded by Major Millsaps and the Methodist Church, Millsaps College has been linked to religion since its genesis. The character of this relationship is best defined in a 1985 report, “Church-Campus Relations: Millsaps College and the United Methodist Church,” which states, “The college’s purpose and mission does not include teaching doctrine or demanding conformity, but rather operates from a core of truth. . . . The open and pluralistic theological stance of the Church is an essential element of Millsaps’ teaching mission.”

This church-college connection has been tested repeatedly over the years, but the College has always positioned itself conscientiously and with integrity. One of the earliest tests came in the 1920s, when the evolution controversy brought into question the notion of true academic freedom. Public colleges and universities in Mississippi were losing their accreditation because of political interference – state officials were demanding that the schools not contradict accepted religious doctrine. Millsaps stood above the fray, and as a result, maintained its accredited status. Not long after that, Millsaps students and faculty were vocal in their support of a bill outlawing lynching, but despite the controversy this caused, the College once again held firm. J. T. Calhoun, then president of the Millsaps Board of Trustees, elucidated Millsaps’ stance at the 1928 dedication of Sullivan-Harrell Hall: “Man’s conception of the truth changes, but the truth does not change. . . . We do not fear the truth.”

In spite of Millsaps’ growing “liberal” reputation, most young Mississippians who planned to practice Methodist ministry came to the College because of the pre-Seminary track. And over the years, Millsaps has developed a national reputation within the United Methodist Church as a college that produces some of the denomination’s finest and most well-educated ministers. In fact, no other college or university has produced as many United Methodist Bishops as Millsaps has: Nolan B. Harmon (elected Bishop in 1956); Millsaps President Homer Ellis Finger, Jr. (1964); Joel D. McDavid (1972); Roy C. Clark (1980); Clay F. Lee, Jr. (1988); Mary Ann McDonald Swenson (1992); Larry M. Goodpaster (2000); and Timothy Whitaker (2001).

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Millsaps Magazine  |  Millsaps | Last Edited April 23, 2001