2008 Woodie Awards
Wither the "M" in SMU?
Issue date: 9/13/07 Section: Opinion
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What happened to the "M" in Southern Methodist University? At least once or twice each semester someone asks me this question. Sometimes it's a letter from a person in the Dallas community, occasionally someone who finds it incredulous that SMU requires neither chapel attendance nor courses in religious studies for graduation. In principle, each question reflects a concern: Does the "M" in "SMU" still have substantive meaning relative to the United Methodist Church to which it points? More often than not, this question -- and the way it is put -- reveals a misunderstanding of the United Methodist Church's historic involvement in founding and subsequently supporting higher education in our society. I regularly assure those bearing such questions that, yes, indeed, the "M" has both significant and effective meaning and that such meaning is both contemporary as well as historic.
For folks concerned about such things as institutional ownership and control, constitutional authority and fiduciary trust, Southern Methodist University is today and since its founding has always been owned - every brick, roofing slate and blade of grass -- by what is known today as the United Methodist Church. The agency of that ownership is the church's South Central jurisdiction. Whether SMU is perceived as Methodist "founded," "related" or "affiliated," the "M" in SMU has both historic and contemporary significance.
But what does it mean to be Southern Methodist University? First, Methodism has clearly, across more than two centuries in America, affirmed the dynamic inter-relationship between the life of the "spirit" and the life of the "mind." Methodists, however, characteristically do not seek to impose theologically delineated doctrinal criteria, standards or restrictions upon the processes of intellectual inquiry, reflection, and learning. The quest for Truth (or truth) in this context is just that -- an authentic quest -- not dependent upon that quest's outcome. That means no dogmatic straightjackets.
For folks concerned about such things as institutional ownership and control, constitutional authority and fiduciary trust, Southern Methodist University is today and since its founding has always been owned - every brick, roofing slate and blade of grass -- by what is known today as the United Methodist Church. The agency of that ownership is the church's South Central jurisdiction. Whether SMU is perceived as Methodist "founded," "related" or "affiliated," the "M" in SMU has both historic and contemporary significance.
But what does it mean to be Southern Methodist University? First, Methodism has clearly, across more than two centuries in America, affirmed the dynamic inter-relationship between the life of the "spirit" and the life of the "mind." Methodists, however, characteristically do not seek to impose theologically delineated doctrinal criteria, standards or restrictions upon the processes of intellectual inquiry, reflection, and learning. The quest for Truth (or truth) in this context is just that -- an authentic quest -- not dependent upon that quest's outcome. That means no dogmatic straightjackets.
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mark anderson
posted 9/21/07 @ 9:39 AM CST
Pilate asked, "What is truth?" [John 18:38]. He was looking at the Truth, but didn't see. If he had ears to hear, he could have heard:
Truth is exclusive. (Continued…)
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