{"id":3,"ordinal":0,"modified":"2026-09-18 18:24:23","content_modified":"2026-09-18 18:24:23","featured":0,"title":"Reckoning  with Southwestern's Methodist affiliation","creator":null,"description":"<p>Southwestern University, just like all four of its root colleges, is directly connected to Methodism.  This relationship was particularly problematic in the mid- to late-19th Century, when all of the four root colleges were founded and when the Methodist Church in America split into its Northern and Southern factions over the Church's acceptance or rejection of slavery.\r\nFor all of Southwestern's history, it has been affiliated with the Methodist Church. That affiliation has undergone renegotiation in recent decades, but has been a significant force in the development of the University throughout. Today, as we work to diversify the University, there are significant unsettled questions about whether our affiliation with Methodism is an impediment or a way forward, especially when we consider the way the most prominent symbol of that affiliation, the Lois Perkins Chapel and its centrality to campus today, encapsulates this conflict.</p>","postscript_text":"","tour_img":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/fullsize/7310245c38a43f89a14fd27416049c71.jpg","items":[{"id":9,"title":"Who was Lois Craddock Perkins?","latitude":30.6356712383128666488119051791727542877197265625,"longitude":-97.665195465087890625,"thumbnail":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/square_thumbnails/7310245c38a43f89a14fd27416049c71.jpg","fullsize":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/fullsize/7310245c38a43f89a14fd27416049c71.jpg","subtitle":"Exploring the Life of the Woman who Inspired the Chapel","address":null,"custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":39,"title":"Construction of the Lois Perkins Chapel","latitude":30.635993968652339702885001315735280513763427734375,"longitude":-97.6652061452660973372985608875751495361328125,"thumbnail":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/square_thumbnails/ae9978e3cea485b91a3f328d927cb01a.jpg","fullsize":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/fullsize/ae9978e3cea485b91a3f328d927cb01a.jpg","subtitle":"A look into the History of Southwestern’s Central Religious Building.","address":null,"custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":48,"title":"Lois Perkins Chapel as Memory Space","latitude":30.63606062530353568718055612407624721527099609375,"longitude":-97.66520072189769052783958613872528076171875,"thumbnail":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/square_thumbnails/ff42cc68aa17ac816973c3be13a3fef8.jpg","fullsize":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/fullsize/ff42cc68aa17ac816973c3be13a3fef8.jpg","subtitle":"The Lois Perkins Chapel, once the heart of the community, is now more of a materialized memory of an older Southwestern.","address":null,"custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":63,"title":"The complex legacy of the Chapel as a place","latitude":30.635833916776249452595948241651058197021484375,"longitude":-97.665173818947323525208048522472381591796875,"thumbnail":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/square_thumbnails/871790f46e3d8f161192b616893b6987.jpg","fullsize":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/fullsize/871790f46e3d8f161192b616893b6987.jpg","subtitle":"The presence of the Lois Perkins Chapel on campus forces students and faculty to grapple with difficult questions of tradition and belonging.","address":null,"custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":56,"title":"Southwestern and Methodism","latitude":30.636018543452276929883737466298043727874755859375,"longitude":-97.6651845431609899605973623692989349365234375,"thumbnail":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/square_thumbnails/104d97688f84fe703d0e7964bed1701b.jpg","fullsize":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/fullsize/104d97688f84fe703d0e7964bed1701b.jpg","subtitle":"Southwestern’s complicated relationship to Methodism, past, present, and future.","address":null,"custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":79,"title":"Mood-Bridwell: The Building's History & Legacy","latitude":30.6346246033361779836923233233392238616943359375,"longitude":-97.6666892442217431380413472652435302734375,"thumbnail":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/square_thumbnails/04c51695acefa2e80c9ffd01d4f13835.jpg","fullsize":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/fullsize/04c51695acefa2e80c9ffd01d4f13835.jpg","subtitle":"Mood-Bridwell is undergoing another major renovation.  Should we take this opportunity to also change its name?","address":null,"custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":8,"title":"Charles Umlauf’s “Madonna and Child”","latitude":30.635799275218772663720301352441310882568359375,"longitude":-97.665064036846160888671875,"thumbnail":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/square_thumbnails/a0e450b12269ded0c78819b85e9bcdf9.jpg","fullsize":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/fullsize/a0e450b12269ded0c78819b85e9bcdf9.jpg","subtitle":"Forgotten Sculpture by Famous Local Artist in the Chapel Courtyard","address":null,"custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":3,"title":"F. A. Mood Obelisk","latitude":30.63435609735314102408665348775684833526611328125,"longitude":-97.666968405246734619140625,"thumbnail":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/square_thumbnails/e10bf8e902bc8c12198813551b1267c9.jpg","fullsize":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/fullsize/e10bf8e902bc8c12198813551b1267c9.jpg","subtitle":null,"address":null,"custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":30,"title":"Candlelight Service","latitude":30.63586703781816567015994223766028881072998046875,"longitude":-97.66520882140440562579897232353687286376953125,"thumbnail":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/square_thumbnails/8b55a4189caf0ab40a8ab3511cce15d4.jpg","fullsize":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/fullsize/8b55a4189caf0ab40a8ab3511cce15d4.jpg","subtitle":"One of SU’s longest-standing traditions has taken many forms, and is now making strides to be more inclusive.","address":null,"custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":114,"title":"A Pride Flag in the SUB Ballroom?","latitude":30.635609022832408498970835353247821331024169921875,"longitude":-97.665985822895891033113002777099609375,"thumbnail":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/square_thumbnails/a832198ec911f9c0c549bc9411ea190e.jpg","fullsize":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/fullsize/a832198ec911f9c0c549bc9411ea190e.jpg","subtitle":null,"address":null,"custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}}]}