[Oe List ...] Fwd: UM Opponents of Bush Institute Vow to Continue Fight

[George Holcombe]

I hope you will read this and especially if you are in the South  
Central Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church you will  
encourage the Jurisdictional delegates from your conference to vote  
against the Bush Library at SMU.


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" <info at vitalvisuals.com>
> Date: October 3, 2007 1:44:49 PM CDT
> To: "George Holcombe" <geowanda at earthlink.net>
> Subject: UM Opponents of Bush Institute Vow to Continue Fight
> Reply-To: listmanager at vitalvisuals.com
>
> +++++++++++++
>
> You are receiving this email because you added your name to the  
> petition expressing your disapproval of the location of the George  
> W. Bush Library and think tank on the campus of Southern Methodist  
> University (SMU). This email list has been recently moved to our  
> new host, Vital Visuals.  We hope you will choose to continue to  
> receive these updates.
>
> +++++++++++++
>
>
> United Methodist Opponents of Bush Institute Vow to Continue Fight
>
> October 3, 2007
>
> For immediate release
>
> Opponents of the Bush Library and Institute vowed to continue their  
> fight within the 11 million member United Methodist Church to deny  
> approval to Southern Methodist University (SMU) to host the Bush  
> complex.
>
> The South Central Jurisdictional Conference of the United Methodist  
> Church will meet in Dallas from July 15-19, 2008, when it will be  
> asked by SMU to approve the use of university land for the Bush  
> complex, which will include a partisan political institute operated  
> totally by the Bush Foundation.   United Methodist opponents of the  
> Bush complex will ask the 290 elected delegates to the Conference  
> to vote against this request.   The delegates in the South Central  
> Jurisdictional Conference represent the 1.83 million United  
> Methodists living in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Missouri, Kansas,  
> Nebraska, Arkansas, and Louisiana.
>
> Bishop Joe A. Wilson explains:  "Even though the 21 member Mission  
> Council approved by a vote of 10-4 the use of the SMU property for  
> the Library and partisan Policy Institute, this decision must be  
> ratified by the larger Jurisdictional Conference which meets in  
> July of 2008."  The rules of the Jurisdiction state that, "all  
> actions taken by the Council shall be valid and in full  
> effect.....until the next regular session of The Conference."  He  
> adds, "to place a partisan policy Think Tank, with no oversight by  
> the church and university, on the grounds of a United Methodist  
> Institution, is an issue the Jurisdictional Conference must not  
> take lightly."
>
> "The placement of the George W. Bush Library and the establishment  
> of an Institute to promote the policies of this president at  
> Southern Methodist University would be a tragedy," said Bishop  
> William Boyd Grove.  "The policies of the Bush administration are  
> in direct conflict with the Social Principles of the United  
> Methodist Church on issues of war and peace, civil liberties and  
> human rights, care for the environment, and health care.  SMU is a  
> university of the church and is home to one of our outstanding  
> theological seminaries.  Its United Methodist identity and its  
> moral authority would be seriously compromised were it to be  
> identified with the policies of George W. Bush in this way."
>
> "To place a partisan institute on the campus of a United Methodist  
> university is unacceptable," said the Reverend Andrew Weaver,  
> "especially when it will espouse the policies and values of an  
> administration that has advocated torture, violated international  
> law, and left the constitution in shambles.   We want SMU to be a  
> great university, not a propaganda machine for the Bush  
> administration."
>
> Organizers of the effort question the educational value of the Bush  
> complex, pointing to Executive Order 13233, which provides former  
> Presidents with virtually unlimited powers to deny or grant access  
> to documents generated under their administrations.   Bishop C.  
> Joseph Sprague observed, "last spring the Faculty Senate and the  
> history faculty at SMU issued statements criticizing the Executive  
> Order as incompatible with the goals of providing public and  
> scholarly access to federal documents.   It is a great concern when  
> a large number of the faculty at a United Methodist university  
> question the educational value of a project."
>
> Bishop Kenneth W. Hicks noted, "In February of 2007, bishops,  
> clergy and laity of the United Methodist Church began a petition  
> calling for the SMU trustees and the UMC to reject the Bush  
> project.   That petition (www.protectSMU.org) now has the  
> signatures of 20 UMC bishops and more than 10,900 Christians  
> (mostly United Methodists) and persons of conscience.   We are very  
> much encouraged by the national and international response that we  
> have garnered."
>
> Bishop Susan M. Morrison observed, "while I respect the office of  
> the presidency, presidential libraries are created, partly, to  
> celebrate the legacies of particular presidents.   Since George W.  
> Bush's leadership has been so problematic and contrary to much of  
> our Social Principles, it does not seem appropriate to place this  
> library in the midst of one of our celebrated educational  
> institutions."
>
> +++++++++++++++++
>
> Published in the SMU Daily Campus September 25, 2007
> Slavery, Torture and Methodist DNA
>
> "I'm gonna build a fantastic Freedom Institute ... an institute  
> that really, you know, just kind of imparts knowledge and deals  
> with big issues."   In "Dead Certain: The Presidency of George W.  
> Bush," by Robert Draper
>
>             John Wesley, the anglican priest and founder of the  
> Methodist Church, was the most influential advocate against slavery  
> in the 18th century.   The slave trade was the financial engine  
> that expanded the British Empire in Wesley's age just as "big oil"  
> has expanded the American Empire.   In the 1770's as many as 161  
> slave ships were operating out of the three ports of London,  
> Bristol and Liverpool.   Slavery was very big business, especially  
> among the powerful and prominent including the Prince of Wales.    
> To stand against these forces was to risk your life and Wesley was  
> in great danger many times when mobs, funded by slave merchants,  
> were set against him.
>
>             On his deathbed in 1791, Wesley wrote House of Commons  
> leader William Wilberforce, who was converted under Wesley's  
> ministry and became the principal anti-slavery activist in 19 th  
> century Britain.   Wesley implores him to continue to fight slavery  
> "that execrable villainy which is the scandal of religion, of  
> England, and of human nature."   America Methodists, following in  
> the example of Wesley, have been at the vanguard of the  
> abolitionist, suffrage, civil rights and environmental movements.    
> Fighting for justice is deep within Methodist DNA.
>
>             It is tragic that Bush, who claims membership in the  
> UMC, appears to be without a basic appreciation for the Methodist  
> heritage.   It is heart-breaking that Bush has acted in profoundly  
> immoral and destructive ways in office while claiming to be a  
> devout Christian.   To choose to launch a "shock and awe" war of  
> aggression against the people of Iraq, based upon a series of  
> manufactured falsehoods is not following Christ. The war is a  
> continuing catastrophe that is making many of his close friends'  
> rich on blood money.   In addition, Bush has authorized torture,  
> the moral equivalent of slavery.
>
>             Documenting this disgrace, the Washington Post on  
> September 15, 2006, published a lead editorial entitled "The  
> president goes to Capitol Hill to lobby for torture." The Post  
> reported,
>
> President Bush rarely visits Congress. So it was a measure of his  
> painfully skewed priorities that Mr. Bush made the unaccustomed  
> trip yesterday to seek legislative permission for the CIA to make  
> people disappear into secret prisons and have information extracted  
> from them by means he dare not describe publicly.
>
>             Torture is not a Methodist value; it is a crime against  
> humanity and a violation of every human rights treaty in existence.  
> It represents a betrayal of our deepest human and religious values  
> as a civilized society. (See Books Below For Full Documentation)
>
>             Because of this and other immoral conduct by Bush, in  
> February of 2007, clergy and laity of the United Methodist Church  
> (UMC) began a petition. It calls for the SMU trustees and the UMC  
> to reject the Bush project, especially the partisan institute over  
> which the University or UMC will have no oversight.   That petition  
> at www.protectSMU.org now has the signatures of 20 UMC bishops, two  
> former presidents of the New Zealand Methodist Church, a former  
> president of the Irish Methodist Church, several hundred SMU alumni  
> and more than 10,900 Christians (mostly United Methodists) and  
> persons of conscience calling for the rejection of the Bush  
> partisan institute.
>
> +++++++++++++++++
>
> Here are three comments among the thousands of petition signers you  
> can read at www. protectSMU.org:
>
> Michael Fuller -- Methodist -- I hold an undergraduate and MBA from  
> SMU.   I sent both my boys to SMU. They hold undergraduate degrees  
> and the youngest holds an additional Masters in Math.   I have SMU  
> in our family Trust and intended to leave money to the school for  
> scholarships.   If the Board of Trustees go through with this, I  
> will change my plans. I cannot support this move to tarnish my  
> school and its reputation by linking to this criminal.
>
> Kimberly Zeller, M.D. former President's Scholar (SMU '89) -- I  
> write, not from the point of view of a Methodist, but as an SMU  
> alumnus. I would hate to feel shame to admit that I began my  
> education at SMU, but the establishment of library in the name of a  
> president who has firmly established himself not only as anti- 
> intellectual but as lacking in moral integrity would be unseemly.  
> The name and reputation of SMU would be irreparably tarnished.
>
> Louise M. Tate -- Both my parents graduated from SMU. Both my  
> father's brother (Willis Tate) and my mother's grandfather (Bishop  
> Boaz) are past Presidents of SMU.   I am very glad to see and sign  
> this petition.
>
>
> It is unacceptable that a United Methodist University associate  
> itself with a Bush Institute built to polish his legacy.   To make  
> matters worse, U.S. News and World Report confirmed on September 2,  
> 2007 that Karl Rove "is planning to take charge ... of the design,  
> fundraising, and planning" for the "Freedom Institute" at SMU.
>
> THE FIGHT IS NOT OVER!!
>
> During the summer, 290 United Methodists clergy and laity were  
> elected to represent the 1.83 million United Methodists who live in  
> Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Arkansas  
> and Louisiana.   They will gather in Dallas, July 15-19, 2008 to  
> have a debate and vote on the Bush proposal.   They are the  
> ultimate authority on this issue.   A significant majority of these  
> new delegates are progressives and moderates. They have the power  
> to say NO to Bush and refuse to allow him to use the land at SMU,  
> even after Bush officially declares SMU is his choice.   Please  
> help us by signing our petition at www.protectSMU.org . and  
> educating others about the issues.
>
>
> Rev. Andrew J. Weaver, Ph.D., is a United Methodist pastor and  
> research psychologist living in New York City.   He is a graduate  
> of the Perkins School of Theology at SMU. He has co-authored 14  
> books including Counseling on Addictions and Compulsions (Pilgrim,  
> 2007), Reflections on Grief and the Spiritual Journey ( Abingdon,  
> 2005) and Connected Spirits: Friends and Spiritual Journeys  
> (Pilgrim, 2007).
>
>
> RESOURCES:
> Ghost Plane: The True Story of the CIA Torture Program
> By Stephen Grey (St. Martin's Griffin Publishers, 2007)
> Oath Betrayed: Military Medicine and the War on Terror
> By Steven H. Miles (Random House, 2006)
>
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