A Hidden Agenda?
I really enjoy reading your publication. I have always thought that your stories were fair and just to their subjects. Your newspaper has filled a void in this entire region. I will tell you right now that I support Van Hilleary. I have a comment on the story you did on Van. While I totally disagreed with the article, I thought that when you wrote the story on Van Hilleary that you did so from an objective viewpoint, with as they say in Tennessee, "no dog in the fight." I had no earthly idea that you had given the maximum amount allowed by law to Jim Henry's campaign. I will always wonder, from this point forward, what unspoken hidden agendas may lie beneath your reporting.
David Ogle
Gatlinburg
Publisher Joe Sullivan responds:
Prior to the publication of my cover story on Van Hilleary, I had written opinion columns making clear my support of Jim Henry and, even more so, my opposition to Hilleary. So Metro Pulse readers should not have been unaware of my convictions. My financial contribution to Henry's campaign was just another way of expressing them. At the same time, I believe my feature article on Hilleary was entirely accurate and made every attempt to be fair to him. Nonetheless, if our esteemed editor Jesse Fox Mayshark had been aware of my contribution to Henry, he would have insisted upon a disclosure of it, which I failed to make. I serve on several boards and contribute to numerous other causes and candidates, and Jesse has always appended a disclosure note when I write about them. My column this week on the Volunteer Ministry Center includes such a note, and perhaps my cover story on UT should as well since I contribute annually to the university. But I'm concerned about coming across as pretentious rather than precautionary.
—J.S.
Disentangling Church and State
I am writing in response to the Loco Parentis column (July 18) praising the Cleveland voucher program Supreme Court decision (Zelman v. Simmons-Harris). People should get more facts about an issue before cheering out loud and then writing about it. I am not against the voucher program or the writer's opinion, but I am against hidden attempts to violate the Establishment Clause of the Constitution with quick-fix band-aids for public education's ills and the obviously ignored socio-economic class problems facing our Republic.
Beyond the oversimplifications she used that alone could take three weeks in a Constitutional Law class to lay bare, Ms. Granju failed to address the fact that the voucher program in Cleveland gives parents just enough money to attend faith-based private schools but not enough money to attend secular schools (coincidence?). Faith-based schools are all lower in price because of tax-breaks and substantial congregation funds. If low-income parents want to send their kids to a non-faith-based private school, they will have to pay the difference out of their pockets while also paying taxes for schools that their kids are not attending. Maybe this fact is the reason why 96 percent of Cleveland voucher recipients send their kids to faith-based schools.
which is at least better than Cleveland public schools in educational quality.
I hope that subsequent programs across the country do not so blatantly have the effect of church/state entanglement, because as the program functions now in Cleveland, the government (tax payers) WILL be funding faith-based education roughly 96 percent of the time. We don't need another Supreme Court decision to prevent this entanglement; localities can draft programs that allow parents to truly have an equal choice between all of the private schools without being economically persuaded to choose the faith-based option.
My parents are wealthy and Catholic, and after sending me to a Christian elementary school they looked around and discovered that the faith-based school options in our area beyond elementary school consisted of nothing but pretentious and discriminating atmospheres. To avoid exposing me to that atmosphere (because there were no secular private schools at the time) I went to a public school from sixth grade to high school.
Low-income families should have the same choice without having to either pay more or resort to public education and tutors if they do not agree with the atmosphere or policies of the local faith-based school.
Alexandria Solomon
Knoxville
Methodist Clergywomen
I rejoice that an ever-increasing number of denominations are recognizing the contribution of women clergy. While many continue to wait for the Holy Spirit to reveal that women are called by God and can serve, others are moving to the level that allows for female chaplains and youth leaders. This is progress! Oh for the day when we all take it for granted that they may be eligible to hold the highest office (and/or the lowest).
A discussion of the strides that women clergy are making in East Tennessee remains incomplete, however, without the inclusion of The United Methodist Church. The United Methodist Church has been celebrating God's call and ordaining women for many years now. In the Holston Conference alone (which includes Southwest Virginia, East Tennessee, and part of North Georgia), there are approximately 697 Charges (or over 900 churches) and other connected institutions. Some 127 women currently serve at all levels. Three of our 12 districts are led by female elders. The following are additional positions held by our female clergy: pastor, senior pastor, associate pastor and/or deacon, chaplains, Wesley Foundation directors (college campuses), VP of Holston Homes for Children, conference evangelists, camp directors, and the list goes on.
While statistics alone can be misleading, allow me to speak about the United Methodist clergywomen of the Knoxville District. Our new District Superintendent is the Rev. Stella Roberts, who came from the Cleveland District, where she served faithfully and well as the Senior Pastor of a 1,000-plus member church for several years. Rev. Roberts' job is now supervisory and administrative, in addition to pastoral, as she bears responsibility for approximately 70 active pastors and shepherds 55 church congregations. The other women serving in the Knoxville District include: The Rev. Nancy J. Wilhite, Evangelist; The Rev. Kimberly S. Isley, Pastor of Sand Branch UMC; the Rev. Lauri Jo Whitehead, Director of the UTK Wesley Foundation; the Revs. Jan Buxton-Wade and Susan A. Sneed, Associate Pastors of Church Street UMC; the Revs. Sarah A. Martin, and Rebecca Cox Fetzer, Associate Pastor and Director of Ministries of Cokesbury UMC; the Rev. Lynn Hutton, Director of Music and Education at Central UMC; and the Rev. Julie Collins, Associate Pastor for Congregational Care of Washington Pike UMC.
I am pleased to commend my colleagues to you as you seek to learn more about the ministry of and opportunities for clergywomen in our area.
The Rev. Bill Beard, Pastor
The Pleasant Hill UMC
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