[Dialogue] Fwd: UPDATE FOR SMU PETITION SIGNERS JUNE 27, 2008

[George Holcombe]

I thought you'd want to know the latest from Andrew on the SMU Bush  
Library deal, and hope many of you will sign the petition.  The SC  
Jurisdiction meets in July, so we haven't much time left.  There's an  
excellent piece here, an interview with our old friend, William K.  
McElvaney, who was a student of Joe's long years ago.

George Holcombe
14900 Yellowleaf Tr.
Austin, TX 78728
Home: 512/252-2756
Mobile 512/294-5952
geowanda at earthlink.net


Begin forwarded message:

> From: "Andrew Weaver" <aJWEAVER711 at AOL.COM>
> Date: June 26, 2008 4:55:28 AM CDT
> To: "George Holcombe" <geowanda at earthlink.net>
> Subject: UPDATE FOR SMU PETITION SIGNERS JUNE 27, 2008
> Reply-To: listmanager at vitalvisuals.com
>
> I am Andrew J. Weaver, organizer of the petition at  
> www.protectSMU.org and an ordained United Methodist clergyman and  
> research psychologist. I am a graduate of Southern Methodist  
> University (SMU) and live in New York City. There are over 12,000  
> petition signers including hundreds of SMU alum who are deeply  
> concerned about the future of the university.
> An Intensive Public Relations Effort Begins
> This week an intensive public relations effort begins incorporating  
> print, internet, radio, TV and advertising. It will include  
> designing and uploading a high-quality website and interactive  
> capability. It will also involve creating and circulating a media  
> kit for print and broadcast distribution as well as a quality  
> delegate information kit.
>
> The campaign is being designed and implemented by P&S Associates of  
> Maine LLC (PSA), publication and communications specialists whose  
> CEO is Stephen Swecker. Mr. Swecker is a United Methodist clergyman  
> and award-winning religious journalist and editor. PSA provides  
> publication services for The Progressive Christian (recently named  
> North America's best general interest religious magazine by the  
> Associated Church Press) and United Methodist NeXus, an online  
> newsletter and recipient of ACP's Award of Merit.
>
> Our goal is to persuade South Central Jurisdiction delegates to  
> reject the SMU/Bush foundation lease proposal when they meet in  
> Dallas at the Hilton Anatole Hotel, July 15-19. We will also seek to  
> convince the “court of public opinion” through the media that the  
> SMU-Bush linkage is injurious to both SMU and the United Methodist  
> Church (UMC) that owns the university.
>
> Growing the Petition
> Finally, please continue to encourage your friends and colleagues to  
> sign the petition. Each name is important. We need to tell officials  
> of the UMC at every level that we find that a partisan institute  
> honoring George W. Bush at SMU to be “utterly unacceptable.”
>
> With best regards,
>
> Rev. Andrew J. Weaver, Ph.D.
>
> P.S. Links to articles recently published on the SMU Bush Project:
>
> Andrew J. Weaver, et. al.
> June 19, 2008
>
> Karl Rove's Trojan Horse among the SMU Mustangs
>
> Summary
> To obtain the George W. Bush presidential library, Southern  
> Methodist University has been required to accept an autonomous  
> partisan institute on campus. Karl Rove is in the middle of the  
> planning of and fund-raising for this Trojan horse project. The  
> institute will give Rove the resources he needs to try to re-write  
> the narrative of the Bush presidency, as well promoting his larger  
> vision -- the domination of the right-wing of the Republican Party  
> in American politics. In July the United Methodist Church, which  
> owns SMU "lock stock and barrel," has one last chance to stop Rove.
>
> Opposition Spokesman Outlines Issues
> Posted on Jun 25 2008
> Interview with William K. McElvaney
>
> During its July 15-19 meeting in Dallas, TX, The South Central  
> Jurisdiction of The United Methodist Church is expected to consider  
> a petition referred by the 2008 General Conference. The petition,  
> from United Methodist laywoman Diane Smock of Greenville, SC, (see  
> UM NeXus Context, June 11) asks for rejection of a George W. Bush  
> presidential complex, including a library, museum and partisan  
> policy institute, on the campus of Southern Methodist University. A  
> portion of SMU land proposed for the complex is owned by the  
> jurisdiction.
>
> In preparation for the jurisdictional meeting, UM NeXus interviewed  
> representatives of SMU and of a grass-roots opposition campaign that  
> has mounted a final education effort regarding the Bush complex. An  
> informational web site will soon be available.
>
> In this interview, the Rev. William K. McElvaney, one of the public  
> spokesmen, responds to questions about the opposition’s educational  
> campaign. A retired clergy member of the North Texas Annual  
> Conference, Dr. McElvaney is LeVan Professor Emeritus of Preaching  
> at UM-related Perkins School of Theology at SMU and past president  
> of UM-related Saint Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, MO. He  
> recently celebrated his 50th anniversary in ordained ministry. Read  
> SMU interview:
>
> http://www.umnexus.org/?p=99
>
> Petitioner Felt Called to Oppose Bush Complex at SMU
> Posted on Jun 10 2008
> By Cynthia B. Astle
>
> Diane Smock thinks of herself as an average United Methodist. She  
> attends worship regularly. She has served on church committees and  
> taught Sunday school, but she hasn’t gotten involved in United  
> Methodism’s institutional workings.
>
> However, when the Greenville, SC, city councilwoman learned that  
> Southern Methodist University was proposed as the site for a George  
> W. Bush presidential complex, Ms. Smock did something she’d never  
> done before: She sent a petition opposing the plan to the  
> denomination’s top lawmaking body, the General Conference.
>
> And surprisingly, her voice was heard.
>
> Instead of dismissing her petition outright as they had done with  
> hundreds of others, delegates to the 2008 General Conference, held  
> in late April in Fort Worth, TX, referred Ms. Smock’s petition to  
> the South Central Jurisdiction, a 10-state regional unit which owns  
> the land on which SMU sits. Now Ms. Smock and thousands of other  
> United Methodists are waiting to see what the South Central  
> Jurisdiction does with her petition when it meets July 15-19 in  
> Dallas, TX.
>
> A lawyer by training, Ms. Smock served two terms as a judge in  
> Greenville. Then she campaigned for City Council and is now in her  
> second term. “[City Council] isn’t supposed to be a full-time job,  
> but I’ve made it into one,” she said. Concentrating on local efforts  
> in early childhood education, affordable housing, public art, and  
> the environment, she calls her community service “an avocation and a  
> passion.”
>
> http://www.umnexus.org/?p=91 --- You are currently subscribed to  
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