The Texas Supreme Court will hear arguments Wednesday in a dispute over whether Southern Methodist University can secede from the United Methodist Church. The university, founded in Dallas by Methodists in the early 20th century, has been in the midst of an exodus since 2019, amid intense turmoil within the denomination over whether the church would allow gay clergy and same-sex marriage. I'm aiming for it.
At issue is the question of who will have ultimate control over the university. Is it the university's own board of directors, or the church that founded the university more than 100 years ago and whose ownership is written into its bylaws? The case will decide whether one of Methodist's main institutions will maintain ties to the church, the second-largest Protestant denomination in the country.
The private university abruptly changed its articles of incorporation in 2019, naming its board of directors the “supreme authority.” The move abolished the South Central Jurisdictional Conference, one of the church's regional governing bodies that oversees congregations in eight states, including Texas.
The university's articles of incorporation state that it is “in perpetuity owned, maintained and controlled” by the conference, which has a say in the selection and approval of its directors, including three United Methodist bishops. Ta.
In response, the conference sued Southern Methodist University, arguing that the university did not have the authority to declare independence without church approval. A district judge in Texas ruled in favor of the university in 2021, but an appeals court reversed that decision.
Southern Methodist University was founded in the early 20th century by Southern Methodists who wanted to establish a flagship university west of the Mississippi River. Today, however, there is relatively little practical interaction between universities and church conferences. Representatives from the conference were not involved in the hiring decision and the conference has not made a direct financial contribution in “nearly a decade,” according to a brief submitted by the university.
University President R. Gerald Turner said in 2019 that the university needed to formally separate from the church because of confusion over its stance on gay rights. The university argued that this hampered its ability to attract students of all denominations. Of the students who report a religious affiliation at Southern Methodist University, approximately 9 percent are Methodist. Methodists make up less than 4 percent of the U.S. population.
At the time, the denomination approved plans to strengthen bans on same-sex marriage and gay and lesbian clergy. Dr. Turner told the Dallas Morning News that year that the school wanted to sever formal ties before the church split.
But since then, trends within the church have changed dramatically. In 2024, the church officially recognized same-sex marriage, overturning a long-standing ban on “self-proclaimed homosexuals” being ordained as clergy. By then, more than a quarter of the denomination's churches had already left, citing differences. Some remain independent, while others join a rival denomination, the new Global Methodist Church, which says it does not ordain or marry homosexuals.
University spokeswoman Megan Jacob said the university does not comment on pending litigation.
Although there is no direct financial relationship between the school and the church, the relationship is important to the church and its dissolution risks “undermining the distinctive Methodist character that has shaped the university's identity.” , said the church's president, Pastor Derek Berase. The South Central Jurisdictional Mission Council said in a statement:
In a brief filed on behalf of the church, the Beckett Fund for Religious Freedom said that if the court allowed universities to unilaterally separate from the church, it would violate the legal principle of church autonomy and that the church They argued that it would invalidate the established regulations and essentially allow the university to continue its activities. Government interferes in church affairs.
“At the heart of this case is the question of who gets to decide how religious institutions are structured,” said William Horn, senior counsel at the Beckett Fund. He said it could have a “chilling effect” on associated universities, hospitals, and churches and other religious groups considering opening homeless shelters.
Critics of the separation said the university had little input from the church in its decisions.
“It was very unpleasant for church leaders to be ignored,” said Ted Campbell, a former elder at the United Methodist Church Texas Annual Conference. “We felt like we were being ignored,” said Dr. Campbell, who is also a professor in the university's Perkins School of Theology.
Many of America's most prominent universities were founded with an explicitly religious mission, but later shed their formal ties and Christian identity.
Vanderbilt University, another school founded by Southern Methodists, declared its independence from the church before Southern Methodist University was founded, and its separation was ultimately upheld by the Tennessee Supreme Court. In response, church leaders specified the church's connection to Southern Methodist in the school's constitution.
Over the next century, Southern Methodism grew in the direction its ambitious founders had envisioned. We currently have 12,000 students and an endowment of more than $2 billion. Dr. Turner, who became president in 1995, took over the George W. Bush Presidential Library in 2008. The school joined the Atlantic Coast Conference last year and the football team made the playoffs.
The board announced last week that Jay Herzl, the current president of the much larger University of Texas at Austin, will be Southern Methodist University's next president.
