Southern Methodist University Wants to Sever Ties to Its Church. Can the Church Stop It?
The New York Times
The dispute, which some critics say tests the church’s autonomy, reached the Texas Supreme Court on Wednesday for arguments.
The Texas Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Wednesday in a battle over whether Southern Methodist University can separate from the United Methodist Church. The university, founded in Dallas by Methodists in the early 20th century, has been trying to extricate itself since 2019 amid turmoil in the denomination over gay clergy and gay marriage.
At stake is the question of who ultimately controls the university: its own board, or the church that founded it more than a century ago and wrote its ownership into the school bylaws. The case will determine whether one of the flagship institutions of Methodism will remain connected to the church, the country’s second-largest Protestant denomination.
In Austin on Wednesday morning, the justices sounded wary of allowing the school to sever the relationship.
The court’s new chief justice, Jimmy Blacklock, concluded the hearing by saying the court should be “very, very hesitant to undermine what seems to be over 100 years of settled expectations.” He called the school’s case “clever lawyering.”
“I have difficulty imagining, just in equity, that it would be proper for the courts to vindicate that kind of a maneuver,” he said.
In 2019, the private university abruptly changed its articles of incorporation and named its own board as its “ultimate authority.” That displaced a regional governing body of the church that oversees congregations in Texas and seven other states.
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