Published Bi-weekly by TPC Publications, Inc.
Publishers of The Progressive Christian Magazine
NeXus EDITOR Cynthia B. Astle, editor@umnexus.org
NeXus PUBLISHER Kathleen Palmer, skp@umnexus.org
Volume 3, Number 16

IN THIS ISSUE:
Breaking News
Ruling on Bush Institute at SMU Delayed Until Spring
By Cynthia B. Astle
Commentary:
What If You Had to Deliver Your ‘Last Lecture’?
By Thomas Lane Butts
Context:
Immigrant’s Case Shows Need for Policy Changes, Say Her Supporters
By Jan Read
UMNS
E-Pistles
Quotables

NEWS BRIEFS

YOUNG VISIONS: What engages young Christians these days? Forgiveness, sweatshops – and making movies!

The youth group at Bayou Blue UMC in Houma, LA, opted to scrap the traditional Vacation Bible School projects for a more Hollywood approach to depicting spiritual lessons, reported HoumaToday.com. The group of 13 young people created a five-minute movie about forgiveness that revolves around a car collision between two couples; a troubled couple and a churchgoing couple. Youths of various denominations including Catholics, United Methodists and Assembly of God members worked together in front of and behind the cameras, which were loaned by a local production company. Brett Hebert, 12, of Houma, said the video was created “to show how when you’re a Christian, you’re supposed to forgive people no matter what they did.” The video garnered much audience appreciation when shown at the end of VBS, but hasn’t yet made it onto YouTube.

Another youth-produced video, “A Sweatshop (Converse)ation,” was created by 13-year-old twins Helen and Annika Rieger of Dallas, TX, to take on issues of labor injustice. Members of Northaven UMC in Dallas, Annika and Helen animated some athletic shoes to talk about sweatshop issues, with an immediate goal of getting the City of Dallas to buy only “sweat-free” uniforms for its workers. Their MonkeyBunnie Productions team included their mom, Rosemarie, working the camera, and music by family friend Corey Harris, with email promotion by their justifiably proud papa, Dr. Joerg Rieger, professor of systematic theology at UMC-related Perkins School of Theology.

50 GRAND: That’s right - $50,000 is the total amount raised thus far by seven-year-old Katherine Commale of Downingtown, PA, for The UMC’s contribution to the Nothing But Nets anti-malaria campaign. United Methodist News Service reports that a June story in the New York Times netted Katherine some $10,000 in donations, or enough for 1,000 families at $10 per net. Katherine sends out homemade certificates for each donation she receives. Now her certificates have been adopted by Mission Possible Kids, a non-profit group that helps youngsters change the world by helping others. So now, children all over the country will help with the certificates. Katherine and Nothing But Nets will be featured in the cover story of the Christmas edition of Good Play, a magazine published by Macy’s and FAO Schwarz.

BELLS ARE RINGING…for the Klipnocky Klangers (love that name!) of First UMC in Oneonta, NY, who scored a once-in-a-lifetime trip to the Aug. 6-8 International Handbell Symposium in Orlando, FL, reported Denise Richardson of The Daily Star. The Klangers group heard other bell choirs perform and learned different styles of playing at the conference, Sophia Konstantine, 13, told the Star. First UMC’s music ministries director John Jurgensen said the symposium is held every two years in a different country, so this really was a lifetime opportunity. Esteban Cruz, 13, of Oneonta, the fourth member of his family to join the Klangers, told the local newspaper: ”Bells are just fantastic. It sounds better than birds in the morning.”

MISSION IMPERATIVE: Global education to shape future leaders is an imperative mission for the International Association of Methodist Schools, Colleges and Universities, say those who met in July at Rosario, Argentina. The IAMSCU organization was founded in 1991. Since then, members pointed out, the relationships built among church-related schools and colleges have produced collaborations including distance education networks and exchanges of students, faculty and staff, reports UMNS reporter, Linda Green. (As an aside, UM NeXus finds plenty of leadership right now in the aforementioned efforts of Katherine, Annika, Helen, the youths at Bayou Blue UMC and the Klipnocky Klangers at First-Oneota. Why won’t grown-ups see young people as leaders of today’s church as well as “tomorrow’s church”?)

GUEST VOICE: Robert S. McElvaine, Elizabeth Chisholm Professor of Arts & Letters at UM-related Millsaps College in Jackson, MS, got a turn last week on The Washington Post’s “On Faith” blog. The professor prognosticated about the presidential candidates’ Aug. 16 appearance at Saddleback Church, using terms from his latest book, “Grand Theft Jesus: The Hijacking of Religion in America,” McElvaine described Senators John McCain and Barack Obama and Saddleback pastor Rick Warren as “Jesus Followers,” but terms longtime evangelical leaders such as Pat Robertson and James Dobson, “Jesus Thieves.”

JUSTICE FOCUS: Two Korean United Methodist pastors, Rev. Youngsook Kang and her husband, Rev. Jin Ho, are among the spiritual leaders invited to lead prayers during the Democratic National Convention next week in Denver, CO, reports the Rocky Mountain News. Rev. Kang, superintendent of the Metropolitan District of the Rocky Mountain Conference, and Rev. Ho, pastor of Christ Central Korean UMC in Aurora, CO, will focus on justice and peace during their benediction Aug. 26. Rev. Kang told the News, “I hope that my husband and I bring a message of creating a community that demands justice for workers in the market and that seeks peace…”

LAID TO REST: Nearly 1,000 people jammed Little Rock’s Pulaski Heights UMC Aug. 18 to say good-bye to Arkansas Democratic chairman Bill Gwatney, who died of wounds inflicted by a gunman Aug. 14, reported ArkansasMatters.com. Gwatney and wife Rebecca were married at Pulaski Heights nine months ago. Funeral speakers included Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe, former President Bill Clinton and Gwatney’s brother, Russell. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who also attended, noted that Gwatney was to celebrate his 49th birthday on Aug. 26, the night she is scheduled to speak at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, and that she had planned to surprise him with a birthday greeting. An investigation has yet to turn up a motive for Timothy Dale Johnson’s shooting of Gwatney. Johnson, 50, died later in a gun battle with police. The only clue thus far is a note with Gwatney’s name written on it, found in a search of Johnson’s home following the shooting.

WAR AND A BISHOP: For the past three years, members of the North Alabama Annual Conference have proposed a resolution objecting to the war in Iraq, but each year the resolution has either been defeated or “greatly modified,” Bishop Will Willimon told the Anniston Star. Consequently, this year the bishop proposed that United Methodists discuss the issue in a series of “prayerful conversations” that start Aug. 20 at First UMC in Anniston. “The challenge is to think about the war like Christians,” Bishop Willimon told the Star. “It is a dilemma, being a Christian in war with Jesus as our role model, but part of the role of the church is to help our members think and act like Christians. …We’re not coming together to produce a statement or provide a platform for one group or another. Instead we want to discuss how Christians should think about war.”

BUDGET PINCH: Wondering why you and your church suddenly have too much month left at the end of your money? Here’s the skinny from the Aug. 19 New York Times: Producer prices jumped 1.2 percent in July, a 9.8 percent gain over July 2007. The NYT says “inflation at the wholesale level is running at the fastest annual pace since 1981.” Comment below on how your congregation is coping with runaway prices.

HUNGRY FOR FRIENDS: Melkite Catholic Archbishop Elias Chacour, 1994 World Methodist Peace Prize honoree, made quite an impression on Minnesota Lutherans, reports Ann Hafften, who blogs at “A Texas Lutheran’s Voice For Middle East Peace.” She cites the Minneapolis-St. Paul Metro Lutheran’s report on the archbishop, who is known affectionately to United Methodists as “Abba Chacour:” While preaching at a Luther Seminary chapel service, Chacour announced that he came as a beggar — not for money, but for friendship, for solidarity with Palestinian Christians. Chacour asks those people who visit the Holy Land to put aside at least one day to share food and water with Palestinian Christians. “When you are an archbishop of a land that includes people named Jesus, Mary, and Judas, you realize you have a responsibility. And you recognize that you need to be in relationship with other Christians around the world,” said the Bishop. While in Minnesota Chacour also spoke at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, MN. Podcast

LATINO LEADER: Pfeiffer University in Misenheimer, NC, will celebrate its annual opening academic convocation with an appearance by Dr. Justo Gonzalez, internationally known United Methodist historian and theologian, reported the Salisbury Post. Dr. Gonzalez will deliver Pfeiffer’s convocation address, “When the Spirit Leads to Trouble,” at 10 a.m. Sept. 5. A public lecture, “Hispanic Ministries: Opportunities, Challenges and Pitfalls,” will follow at 1:30 p.m. A leading voice in Hispanic theology, Dr. Gonzalez is one of the few first-generation Latino theologians to come from a Protestant background. He helped found the first academic journal related to Latino theology, “Apuntes,” published by the Mexican American Program of Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University. Before retiring he taught at UMC-related seminaries Candler School of Theology in Atlanta, GA, and United Theological Seminary in Dayton, OH, as well as the International Theological Center in Atlanta.

BISHOP DIES: Bishop Ralph Edward Dodge, The United Methodist Church’s last white bishop in Zimbabwe and an outspoken advocate for justice during that country’s colonial era, has died at age 101, reported UMNS. His son, Dr. Ralph Edward “Ed” Dodge Jr., said his father died Aug. 8 under hospice care in a private home in Inverness, FL. Bishop Dodge’s 1956 election to lead central and southern Africa marked the only time that an American Methodist missionary was elected bishop by the denomination in the colonial territories of Angola, Mozambique, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo). He led the church in Rhodesia for eight years before being expelled in 1964. He had long advocated for an inclusive church and representative rule in the white-minority-led country. The government of Prime Minister Ian Smith gave no reason for expelling Bishop Dodge from the country. He was re-elected in exile and served another four years.

‘I FELT BETRAYED’: Once a senior business executive, Rev. Chuck Savage has found peace and a new path in the two decades since his personal and professional humiliation in Columbia, SC, reports Clif LeBlanc at TheState.com. In 1985, Savage was rejected for membership at Columbia’s Spring Valley Country Club, even though he was then IBM’s senior executive in the state and he and his family lived in an upscale neighborhood. Savage said he felt the community had denied him the rewards of his hard work scaling the corporate ladder. “I felt betrayed,” he told the newspaper. After resisting the call to ordained ministry for 17 years, Rev. Savage now breaks ground in racial reconciliation. He was one of the first cross-racial appointments in the North Georgia Conference in 2001, serving a mostly white church in Roswell, GA. This year he was appointed to Kingswood UMC in Dunwoody, GA (North Georgia Annual Conference). Its congregation of 750 has four black members, the pastor said.

HUNGER ACTION: This week’s UMCOR Hotline reminds us that September is Hunger Action Month. Next month, through its Hunger Action Month campaign (formerly, National Hunger Awareness Day), America’s Second Harvest, whose name will become Feeding America in September 2008, will host nationwide events including food drives, concerts, volunteer outreaches and advocacy work. All to help bring relief to the 35.5 million Americans who live in food-insecure households. UMCOR urges congregations to donate canned goods to local food banks or collect a special offering. Online donations can be made to America’s Second Harvest or World Hunger Poverty, UMCOR Advance No. 982920

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