AP: Methodist ministers: No Bush Library at Southern Methodist University

[DeepModem Mom]

Methodists: No Bush Library at SMU
Jan 18
By ANGELA K. BROWN
Associated Press Writer

DALLAS (AP) -- A group of Methodist ministers from across the nation launched an online petition drive Thursday urging Southern Methodist University to stop trying to land George W. Bush's presidential library.

The petition, on a newly created Web site, http://www.protectsmu.org , says that "as United Methodists, we believe that the linking of his presidency with a university bearing the Methodist name is utterly inappropriate."

"Methodists have a long history of social conscience, so questions about the conduct of this president are very concerning," said one of the petition's organizers, the Rev. Andrew J. Weaver of New York, who graduated from SMU's Perkins School of Theology....

SMU emerged as the apparent winner in the library competition last month when the site selection committee said it was entering into further discussions with just SMU, the 11,000-student, private university, which is first lady Laura Bush's alma mater.

Some SMU professors have opposed Bush's foreign policy, mainly the war in Iraq. Faculty members also have complained that the library complex's think tank dedicated to the philosophy of the Bush administration would hurt the school's reputation....

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2007/01/18/D8MNQKKO4.html

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. karma squared.

I love it.

K&R

[JoFerret]

47. John Bunyan rides again

Christian values actually at work and on display.

[Missy M]

Good for them....

I hope they are successful.

[Fresh_Start]

2. After the Methodist ministers apologized for their

complicity in the Bush crimes, I'm happy to see them continuing to speak up that Bush is a bad person to think of as a representative for their religion.

[DeepModem Mom]

6. Actually, I thought the Methodist Church had opposed Bush's policies...

pretty consistently?

[LostinVA]

31. They did/have

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

16. The UMC came out with an anti-war stance in 2003

before we went to Iraq. We anti-war protestors were able to hold informational meetings about what Bush was doing in the local UMC Church--only place in town that would let us.

[okasha]

23. Huh? The UMC has been against the war

from the git-go. Bush has refused to talk to the Bishops and other clergy.

[Miss Chybil]

34. What are you talking about? nt

[Pacifist Patriot]

36. I don't think those words are coming out of the mouth.

Other end.

[Fresh_Start]

41. November 2005, Methodists bishops apologize for

complicity in Iraq war.

http://www.poe-news.com/stories.php?poeurlid=000054023

I haven't located the actual letter, but it happened.

[Fresh_Start]

42. Bishops apologized for complicity in Iraq War 11/2005

http://www.umc.org/site/c.gjJTJbMUIuE/b.1174097/k.FD54/A_Call_to_Repentance_and_Peace_with_Justice.htm

[brentspeak]

68. Basically, the ministers were apologizing when they really didn't need to apologize

They were against the war from the get-go, and were being unneccesarily self-flagellating with the formal apology. I'm not sure why they felt the need to do that.

[Bridget Burke]

51. Even Fox News gives a fuller version of the story.

In the face of the United States administration's rush toward military action based on misleading information, too many of us were silent," said a statement of conscience signed by more than half of the 164 retired and active United Methodist bishops worldwide.

President Bush is a member of the United Methodist Church, according to various published biographies. The White House did not return a request for comment on the bishops' statement.

Although United Methodist leadership has opposed the Iraq war in the past, this is the first time that individual bishops have confessed to a personal failure to publicly challenge the buildup to the war.

www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,175245,00.html

The United Methodist Church came out against the invasion before it happened. Back in 2003:
On Oct. 7, just hours before President Bush in a Cincinnati speech outlined his case for the "urgent duty" of the United States to launch a pre-emptive military strike against Saddam Hussein and Iraq, some two dozen United Methodists from eight Michigan churches joined some 500 other people in a demonstration in downtown Detroit protesting the Bush preparations for war.

"We can't sleep through this rush to war," Rev. Ed Rowe of Detroit Central United Methodist Church told the Michigan Christian Advocate. "Killing innocent victims makes us the terrorists we hate."

www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=magazine.article&issue=soj0301&article=030111

Then, in 2005:
Last week, the United Methodist Church Board of Church and Society--the social action committee of the church that both President Bush and Vice President Cheney belong to--resoundingly passed a resolution calling for withdrawal with only two 'no' votes and one abstention.

"As people of faith, we raise our voice in protest against the tragedy of the unjust war in Iraq," the statement read. "Thousands of lives have been lost and hundreds of billions of dollars wasted in a war the United States initiated and should never have fought.... We grieve for all those whose lives have been lost or destroyed in this needless and avoidable tragedy. Military families have suffered undue hardship from prolonged troop rotations in Iraq and loss of loved ones. It is time to bring them home."

www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut?pid=31572

The United Methodist clergy keep saying the same thing. Soon, they'll be shouting. (Generally, they are level-headed folks who don't shout.)

[Miss Chybil]

53. Thanks. I didn't see the "d" on the end of "apologize" when I first

read your post. I thought you were expecting one - an apology, that is. I didn't realize you were speaking of the one they had already given.

[MasonJar]

48. Actually didn't Bush's own minister try to meet with him prior to the

invasion and didn't Bush refuse? Also I know that a group of Protestant ministers tried to see Bush and he would not see them.

[babylonsister]

3. "Utterly inappropriate". You can say that again; no one wants him-

call the whaaaambulance!

[Supersedeas]

76. Ken Starr and John Yo found homes...so will Dimson

[Bonhomme Richard]

4. This kind of slap in the face must make bush......

Absolutely NUTS.

[tridim]

9. Yep, it'll be so sweet if they can't find any institution that wants the Bush library

I guess they could always build it on the pig farm.

[LionInWinter]

46. Poppy's library was built on a pig farm.

The site was the "Swine Research Center" at Texas A&M - I'm not kidding! Man did that place stink before they hauled away all the topsoil.

[hedgehog]

69. I didn't know about that connection.

I was already wondering if Texas A&M was being used by the BFEE to park their retainers in cozy jobs until they are needed back in government.

[maxsolomon]

5. i hope every institution of higher education in the country rejects it

and that no one, not even Scaife or Murdoch, will fund it privately.

it should never be built, and even discussing the possibility of its existence revolts me.

[Jim Warren]

10. Yes good for them

for showing decency and commonsense but I'd also like to entertain the thought that they are acting on some insider information that says junior is destined to become a major embarrassment by being impeached or better yet, eventually behind bars.

[druidity33]

40. Falwell University? nt

[maxsolomon]

45. oh, yeah Heritage University

that would be a possibility.

they still like him in Utah, right? BYU?

[Jamastiene]

77. That's Liberty University, Falwell's prison, ahem, I mean

"college" is named.

[Ron Green]

7. The President George W. Bush Video Arcade.

Why have a library to house the letters of a man who doesn't read?

[phiddle]

8. Another delicious irony:

Bush is nominally a Methodist.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

54. His methods are the problem...

:hi:

[Justyce]

11. A library with a think tank for bush...

LOL! A library for a man who doesn't read, with a think tank for a man with no brain... too funny!

Glad to see them speaking out against this. Can't imagine anyone wanting this in their town -- maybe Rush or O'Reilly could pitch in and build him one in their backyard or something.

[CoffeeCat]

21. So......what's to stop someone from...

...building their own "George W Bush" presidential library?

Someone could get really creative and have a lot of fun with this.

[kysrsoze]

52. Yeah! The only book will be "My Pet Goat" and it will be displayed upside-down

He he!

[rosesaylavee]

12. Would like to have seen the WH private reaction

to this news. Priceless.

[CoffeeCat]

13. Naming a library after Georgie boy...

...is a little bit like naming an etiquette school after Charles Manson.

[yellowcanine]

26. Or a Secret Service Training Center after Wilkes Booth.

[volstork]

14. As a Methodist

who IS a Methodist precisely for the denomination's bent towards social justice, I applaud the opposition to the * library. What a joke anyway-- how much room do you need for "My Pet Goat" and 3 coloring books?

[CoffeeCat]

17. LOL!!!!!

Thanks for that!!

You made my eyes tear up.

:rofl:

[yellowcanine]

22. Most of the space is needed for pictures of shrub "presidentin and such."

[Ilsa]

58. But none of those ranchin' pics will be of * on a horse! nt

[kineneb]

39. and as a musician for a UM church

I am proud of their stance.

[Lisa]

57. And the Shakespeares!

In the Cliff's Notes format, of course.

[133724]

61. KUDO's Lutherans also havde a special

bend towards dictators (AKA adolph & company).....

[Critters2]

62. He was nominally Catholic. Bonhoeffer and Niemoller were Lutheran. nt

[acmavm]

15. Can anyone remember this happening to a president before?

Rejected. By MINISTERS.

What's that tell ya?

[aquart]

18. But the University hasn't rejected it. Not yet.

[acmavm]

24. I understand that. I mean does anyone remember such active

and vocal opposition to a president's library being located in a particular school? I understand that other president's have had some opposition, but I don't remember so much. And as for a group of influential ministers, well...

[Hangingon]

38. Yes

Duke opposed Nixon and Stanford's faculty opposed Reagan. There was also la lot of controversy in Little Rock about the Clinton Library.

[bmbmd]

19. SMU is no longer "officially" associated with the UMC

although the Perkins graduate school of theology is. So, as a lifelong United Methodist, I can't think of a beeter place for the library to be than SMU. As the only NCAA school ever to receive the so-called "death penalty", SMU has a long history of nefarious, underhanded, criminal behaviour. Seems like a perfect fit to me.

[BrightKnight]

66. A Methodist minister at a church near SMU

A Methodist minister at Lovers Lane UMC near SMU said something interesting in a sermon. He said that he did not get involved with administration or politics because it would be too easy to loose his soul.

There is a lot that is not very Methodist about SMU.

The founders of the Methodist church would not want anything to do with Bush. I hope that the school will use this as an opportunity to examine what it means to be a "Methodist" university.

[yellowcanine]

20. SMU Faculty aren't thrilled at the idea either........

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/10/us/politics/10library.html?ex=1326085200&en=3170689537c4434c&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss


Poor wittle shrubbie, no one wants his library.

[Sequoia]

25. Guess they have no need for a pre-school library with only picture books.

[Ian David]

27. I've asked them to officially excommunicate Bush. They never responed. n/t

[tularetom]

28. Maybe he can put it in falwell's phony baloney univeresity

if he wants to have it on a university.

[Massachusetts]

29. Payback is a Bitch!

and Every dog has its day. hahahahahahahahahahaha!

[Ian David]

30. Don't want Bush to drag them through the mud and besmirch such luminaries as Ted Haggard.

Even the Crystal Methodists have their standards to keep.

[Vidar]

32. Makes me proud to have been a Methodist at one time.

[Hekate]

33. Every major church body in the US condemned Bush's invasion of Iraq, including the Methodists...

...The lone exception was the Southern Baptist Convention.

I keep saying W should try to foist his "liberry" off on Bob Jones University. :rofl:

Good for the Methodists. I hope SMU doesn't cave in to pressure.

Hekate

[madrchsod]

35. anyone can sign the petition

i did

[jaysunb]

37. I thought SMU was Laura's Alma Mater...

further, I thought GWB was a fundie, since every religious utterance from him is more in line w/ Falwell/Robertson/Dobson way of thinking. I even recall something issued by the UMC denouncing Bush and his policies a few years back.

I'd say the death chamber at Huntsville would be a more appropriate venue for his library :evilfrown:

[Critters2]

64. It is her alma mater. The Bushes are United Methodist.

It's possible to be Methodist and fundie. Not common, but possible.

[MilesColtrane]

71. Bush may remain a member of the UMC, but...

he became a 'born again' twenty years ago.

It's curious, for his talk of members of congregational communities solving society's evils, he's not a regular attending member of one.

As Junior's favorite philosopher once said, "You shall know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they?"

[RiverStone]

43. Shrub does not even deserve a Book Mobile!

Much less a library!

This despot's only claim to fame is mastering the worst foreign policy blunder in US history - the tragic Iraq war.

Even with spending $200-300+ million on this joke, there would not be enough space to house the grief and anguish Shrub as brought to our planet and country through his actions.

Any place that houses the Shrub shrine to stupidity will be forever labeled as crazy for ever doing so!

[Tyrone Slothrop]

44. "How can you be so blindly pro-Bush?"

"I like his wife Laura... I used to buy weed from her at SMU."

:rofl:

Sorry, but this story reminded me of this classic exchange from Weeds.

[xxqqqzme]

49. I'm certain falwell's 'liberty university'

will step up and offer a space for chuckle nut's coloring book collection, EZ readers and photo op scrapbooks.

[cosmicdot]

50. or maybe Pat Robertson's Regent U ...

possibly Bob Jones

or somewhere along Route 666

thank seafan for the image
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x3055485#3055610


he's destroying and dividing just about everything in sight

[GoddessOfGuinness]

55. A far more appropriate venue

[Ilsa]

59. Hey, be careful. I don't want those kind of folks trying to

start their idea of a "university" here in Texas.

I don't understand why some of the other religious institutions like Baylor weren't the winners. That's his crowd:

[Guaranteed]

56. Not a Methodist, but my ancestry is Methodist, so I take on their values.

I can certainly see how the church itself would be against this. They're pretty good people (at least in my own mind).

[Cha]

60. Thank God! Some of those Ministers

are cognizant of what the hell is going on at the chimphouse!

ENOUGH of the HYPOCRISY!

[Wapsie B]

63. Yeah but those ministers are not

the well-healed alumni that would make something like this happen.

[barb162]

65. There's plenty of land in TX for him to put it elsewhere

if that is in fact where he ends up putting it. (Actually who cares where he puts it)

[Toots]

67. It really doesn't matter where the Library is, all it will contain are a bunch

of giant shredders and signs saying top secret. Bush says he is a Methodist yet refused to even see his own minister before the invasion of Iraq...If the Methodists allowed the Library to be placed there they would become a giant laughing stock through out the world..

[Seabiscuit]

70. The really sinister thing about the Bush library, which

the United Methodist organization is up in arms about is that it will contain a "think tank dedicated to the philosophy of the Bush administration would hurt the school's reputation."

http://nctimes.com/articles/2007/01/19/news/politics/14_27_421_18_07.txt

I say, stick the dumb library in some brush on his dude ranch in Crawford where Shrub can hack away for the rest of his miserable life.

[maxrandb]

72. Put his "blanking" Library inside the "blanking" Green Zone

I don't want the putrid stench of his library stinking up America.

Freepers can then make a yearly pilgrimage to the "paradise" he created.

[MilesColtrane]

73. Maybe the Bush Library will have a 100,000 gallon tank outside...

representing the blood spilled so far in the Iraq war.



That's probably too small.

Seriously though, what church would want that stinking albatross around it's neck?

I think the most logical solution would be to put the Bush Presidential Library inside the Texas Schoolbook Depository.

[Jacobin]

74. Why not put it in Bob Jones University?

I know its not in Texas, but they are more alike in their traditions and thinking. Oh, and there wouldn't be any Negroes there to bother his grave, when he's finally dead and gone.

[The Blue Flower]

75. Any Methodist can sign

We've been circulation the online petition through our congregation here in Seattle. I recommend that any DUer who attends a Methodist church adds their name.