{"id":24966,"date":"2024-10-23T14:19:53","date_gmt":"2024-10-23T18:19:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=24966"},"modified":"2024-10-23T14:19:53","modified_gmt":"2024-10-23T18:19:53","slug":"texas-supreme-court-will-hear-case-to-determine-whether-smu-can-leave-united-methodist-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/10\/texas-supreme-court-will-hear-case-to-determine-whether-smu-can-leave-united-methodist-church","title":{"rendered":"Texas Supreme Court Will Hear Case to Determine Whether SMU Can Leave United Methodist Church"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_24963\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-24963\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2024\/10\/smu-supreme-court_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-24963\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2024\/10\/smu-supreme-court_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-24963\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Adobe Stock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Texas Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case between Southern Methodist University (SMU) and the United Methodist Church (UMC). The issues began in 2019 as the UMC battled over the issue of ordaining LGBTQ clergy and performing same sex marriages. At the time, the UMC voted in February 2019 to uphold the \u201cTraditional Plan,\u201d which strengthened the church\u2019s ban against LGBTQ pastors and weddings. In November of 2019, SMU\u2019s board of trustees voted \u201cto make clear that SMU is solely maintained and controlled by its board as the ultimate authority for the University.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The United Methodist Church\u2019s South Central Jurisdictional Conference (UMC SCJC) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insidehighered.com\/sites\/default\/files\/media\/smu_lawsuit.pdf\">sued<\/a> SMU for the change, stating that SMU had made changes to its governing language without the approval of the SCJC, which founded the university in 1911. \u201cThis lawsuit has become necessary because of recent, unauthorized acts by representatives of SMU in violation of SCJC\u2019s rights and interests,\u201d the SCJC <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wfaa.com\/article\/news\/education\/schools\/texas-supreme-court-will-case-smu-break-with-united-methodist-church\/287-6dd3a34c-3cf3-4563-ad7d-f5c07be0ce98\">stated<\/a> in the lawsuit. \u201c[T]he Trustees of SMU had and have no authority to amend the Articles of Incorporation without the prior approval and authorization of SCJC. Because the Trustees\u2019 acts were neither approved nor authorized by SCJC, the resulting November 2019 Articles are void from their inception.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>SMU, however, asserted its right to self-govern in February 2019. \u201cEven as we value our historical relationship with the Church, SMU is distinct from the Church. Nothing changes in SMU\u2019s day-to-day operations as a result of this action. In founding SMU, members of the Methodist Church and the citizens of Dallas created a University as a separate corporate entity governed by the SMU Board of Trustees,\u201d it stated. A Texas district judge ruled in favor of SMU in 2021, but the SCJC filed an appeal. Last year, a three-judge panel of Texas\u2019 Fifth Court of Appeals sided with the SCJC\u2019s breach-of-contract claim, affirming its historic relationship with SMU. \u201cIn this case of first impression, we must determine whether a nonprofit corporation like SMU, whose governing documents provide that it is to be \u2018forever owned, maintained and controlled\u2019 by the conference and that no amendments to said articles \u2018shall ever be made\u2019 without the conference\u2019s prior approval, can unilaterally amend the articles to remove these provisions and all other references to the conference,\u201d the Appeals court said in its <a href=\"https:\/\/setexasrecord.com\/stories\/648005756-smu-attempt-to-split-from-methodist-church-hits-legal-snags-on-appeal\">opinion<\/a>. It did, however, uphold the dismissal of the SCJC\u2019s claim that the university\u2019s governing changes were also a breach of fiduciary duty. Since the struggle began in 2019, the UMC has struck down the rules of marriage and ordination that were upheld in 2019, with many conservative UMC churches leaving the denomination. The case between SMU and the UMC is set to begin oral arguments in January 2025.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Texas Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case between Southern Methodist University (SMU) and the United Methodist Church (UMC). The issues began in 2019 as the UMC battled over the issue of ordaining LGBTQ clergy and performing same sex marriages. At the time, the UMC voted in February 2019 to uphold the \u201cTraditional&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":627,"featured_media":24963,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2444,74],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-america","category-religious-freedom"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Texas Supreme Court Will Hear Case to Determine Whether SMU Can Leave United Methodist Church<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/10\/texas-supreme-court-will-hear-case-to-determine-whether-smu-can-leave-united-methodist-church\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Texas Supreme Court Will Hear Case to Determine Whether SMU Can Leave United Methodist Church\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Texas Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case between Southern Methodist University (SMU) and the United Methodist Church (UMC). The issues began in 2019 as the UMC battled over the issue of ordaining LGBTQ clergy and performing same sex marriages. At the time, the UMC voted in February 2019 to uphold the \u201cTraditional&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/10\/texas-supreme-court-will-hear-case-to-determine-whether-smu-can-leave-united-methodist-church\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-10-23T18:19:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2024\/10\/smu-supreme-court_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cecilia Buchanan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Texas Supreme Court Will Hear Case to Determine Whether SMU Can Leave United Methodist Church","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/10\/texas-supreme-court-will-hear-case-to-determine-whether-smu-can-leave-united-methodist-church","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Texas Supreme Court Will Hear Case to Determine Whether SMU Can Leave United Methodist Church","og_description":"The Texas Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case between Southern Methodist University (SMU) and the United Methodist Church (UMC). The issues began in 2019 as the UMC battled over the issue of ordaining LGBTQ clergy and performing same sex marriages. At the time, the UMC voted in February 2019 to uphold the \u201cTraditional&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/10\/texas-supreme-court-will-hear-case-to-determine-whether-smu-can-leave-united-methodist-church","og_site_name":"Beliefnet News","article_published_time":"2024-10-23T18:19:53+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2024\/10\/smu-supreme-court_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Cecilia Buchanan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/10\/texas-supreme-court-will-hear-case-to-determine-whether-smu-can-leave-united-methodist-church","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/10\/texas-supreme-court-will-hear-case-to-determine-whether-smu-can-leave-united-methodist-church","name":"Texas Supreme Court Will Hear Case to 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