PrintJuly 19, 2008
Methodists Endorse Bush Library at Southern Methodist University
While the library and public policy institute's eventual at SMU was a foregone conclusion, the result of this vote is a satisfying victory not only for academic inquiry in general and Southern Methodist's resources in general, it is a further repudiation of the bankrupt arguments that have been trotted out by opponents of the library.
These opponents are merely opposed to President Bush prima facie. They simply despise him as a bloodthirsty warmonger unworthy of Methodism, nothing more. They refuse to acknowledge his liberation of Muslims, Arabs, homosexuals, and women in Afghanistan and Iraq, nor his worthy efforts in Africa and elsewhere -- not to mention the honorable example of his constantly turning the other cheek in the face of enemies domestic.
These opponents are merely opposed to President Bush prima facie. They simply despise him as a bloodthirsty warmonger unworthy of Methodism, nothing more. They refuse to acknowledge his liberation of Muslims, Arabs, homosexuals, and women in Afghanistan and Iraq, nor his worthy efforts in Africa and elsewhere -- not to mention the honorable example of his constantly turning the other cheek in the face of enemies domestic.
Opponents of the library and of Bush twist John Wesley, the founder of the denomination, into an unrecognizable figure as it regards Wesley's "just war" theory by deliberately misinterpreting and misrepresenting his writings on the subject. Their rank hypocrisy in not yelling as vociferously to separate Emory University (another Methodist college) from its affiliation with Jimmy Carter and the Carter Center in the wake of the former president's anti-Israeli, pro-dictator, pro-terrorist policies and statements is proof that academic freedom or the integrity of SMU was never in their interests. All they cared about was embarrassing George W. Bush and "winning" by denying SMU and its students and faculty an invaluable resource.
In the words of Calvin Coolidge when informed by Alice Roosevelt that she had wagered a friend that she would persuade the president to speak more than three words to her during a dinner, "You lose."
