Petition counters opposition to Bush library at SMU
by Jim Brown and Jody Brown
February 14, 2007
(OneNewsNow.com) - - Efforts to prevent Southern Methodist University from housing President Bush's library are being met with stiff resistance from mainstream United Methodists. Conservative activist Mark Tooley with the Institute on Religion and Democracy admits he finds it ironic that some bishops within the United Methodist Church are opposed to SMU hosting the library. After all, he points out, another UMC-affiliated university already hosts a liberal think tank named for a former U.S. president. A group of liberal Methodist bishops and ministers recently launched a campaign against Southern Methodist University's (SMU's) decision to host the George W. Bush Presidential Library. The clergy members say they have 10,000 signatures on their anti-library petition, which says linking the Bush presidency with a university bearing the Methodist name is "utterly inappropriate." According to United Methodist News Service, much of the opposition centers on the president's foreign policy, "mainly the war in Iraq." Other reports cite differing philosophies on global warming and same-sex "marriage" as well.
In response, the Washington, DC-based Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD) has organized a petition supporting SMU's decision, saying it is in the best interest of the school to host the library. IRD encourages individuals to sign that petition if they feel SMU should be free to choose to host the library, free of "outside coercion from church officials."
Regarding the petition being circulated by liberal Methodist clergy, IRD's Mark Tooley says the implication that the Bush administration's policies are at odds with the beliefs of the United Methodist Church (UMC) is grossly exaggerated.
"It also falsely creates the impression that the church has very dogmatic views on politics, but in contrast with that has almost no established doctrine on theology," says IRD's UMAction director. "Of course, we would assert the opposite, that the church should be emphatic about its core Christian beliefs but should have wide parameters in terms of what church members believe politically."
In fact, says Tooley, his organization believes the diversity of political opinions within the UMC is something that should be embraced. He finds it ironic, for example, that not one liberal bishop or minister has questioned the fact that United Methodist-affiliated Emory University in Atlanta is home to the human-rights advocacy think tank of controversial former President Jimmy Carter, who attends a Baptist church in Georgia.
If Emory University can host The Carter Center, "surely a Methodist university can host the presidential library of a member of its own denomination," says Tooley. President Bush is a member of Highland Park United Methodist Church, located adjacent to the SMU campus in Dallas.
Adding to the irony, notes Tooley, is the fact that both First Lady Laura Bush -- a graduate of SMU -- and Highland Park pastor W. Mark Craig sit on the SMU Board of Trustees. UMNS notes that Mrs. Bush has not been a part of the board's library discussions.
Acceptable 'heresy' at UMC schools?
In Tooley's eyes, opponents of the library fail to realize the Methodist Church "is built on the Christian faith, not a political ideology." In a press statement released last month about the controversy, the IRD spokesman questions why UMC bishops would choose to publicly criticize the prospect of the Bush Presidential Library at SMU when they generally refuse to publicly question what Tooley describes as the "growing secularization and radicalization" of UMC-affiliated schools.
Tooley offers two examples, one involving a United Methodist seminary professor who published a book claiming that the Bush administration was responsible for the destruction of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. "No bishops have publicly criticized this professor or his school," says Tooley.
He also claims that educators at United Methodist schools have publicly rejected historic Christian teachings about God and morality. "Typically, bishops have defended 'academic freedom' on school campuses," the IRD official comments. "But academic freedom, at least for these petition-signing bishops, apparently does not include SMU's desire to host a Bush Presidential Library."
In that light, Tooley wonders if affiliation with the Bush administration is the only "heresy" at a church-related school that is unacceptable to liberal United Methodist bishops and clerics.
