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[John Wesley to Alexander Knox, 1785 May 6]
No full textCork
May 6, 1785
My Dear Alleck,
I hope to be at Sligo, on Saturday the twenty first instant; on Monday the 23rd at Ballyconnell; on Wednesday, 25th at Kilmore; Thursday, 26, Clones; Saturday, 28th, Armagh; Monday, [30th], Charlemont; Wednesday, June 1, Derry; Saturday, 4th, Coleraine. So I allow you a day longer than to any other place. Indeed I am so straitened for time, that I can hardly spend so much of it anywhere as I could do a few years ago. My work increases continually, so that I am obliged to shorten my stay almost at every place.
If I live to return to London, I will consider what you say concerning printing the text of the New Testament alone. I see no objection to it at present but that it would require a good deal of time—because I must critically review the whole, and again compare it with the original.
Peace with you all! I am, dear Alleck,
Yours most affectionately,
J. WesleyLetter from John Wesley to Alexander Knox. This letter is one of fifty in a bound volume
[John Wesley to Alexander Knox, 1785 June 8]
No full textColeraine
June 8, 1785
Dear Alleck,
I have sent you Dr. Horneck, which I have done with. He appears to have been an exceeding good man. And he is a lively and affectionate writer, but a dealer in many words. But Mr. Firmin’s Life I have not done with. I purpose taking a large extract from it (letting his opinions alone) and inserting it in the Arminian Magazine. He was not a Socinian, but a Sabellian. So was Count Zindendorf; as he clearly declared in those words, ‘nullum deum agnosco praeter crucifixum’.
Having now deeply considered your case, I send you my maturest thoughts; which I beg Mrs. Knox and you impartially to consider in the presence of God. But beware you do not fix your judgment before you hear the cause. Otherwise I shall lose my labour, and you may lose your life, if not your soul.
You say: ‘The reason why I do not go out is this, I am afraid of falling in the street. And I do not attend the Church or the preaching-house, for fear I should fall down there and disturb the congregation.’
This is the clear state of the case. The question is then: Is this reason sufficient, or is it not?
I am fully persuaded it is not. For first, you are by no means sure that you shall fall down in the Church or in the congregation. You have great reason to hope you shall not. Although I should not wonder if your fits were now both more frequent and more severe than they are.
But secondly, Does not common sense teach us Ex malis minimum? Now I insist upon it that your falling in the street or the congregation once every month is a less evil than the shutting yourself up. So that were it pronounced by a voice from heaven, ‘Either shut thyself up, or endure this shame once a month, or even once a week. Take thy choice’, it would be wisest to choose the latter—for it is incomparably the less evil of the two.
It is indisputably plain to every impartial person that, by thus cooping yourself up, you hurt your body. By want of air and exercise you weaken it continually. I wonder you have not fits every day. And you hurt your soul by neglecting the ordinances of God, which you have no authority to do unless you was sick in bed.
My dear Alleck, let there be no delay! Break through! At all hazards, break through! Go out this very day and trust God! If your mother hinders you, she kills you with kindness. And I am not sure that it will not cost her the life of another child, though God tries milder methods first. I say again, Go out today, and every day. It will help both your body and your soul, as well as remove a great burden from the mind of
Yours in tender affection,
J. WesleyLetter from John Wesley to Alexander Knox. This letter is one of fifty in a bound volume
[John Wesley to Alexander Knox, 1782 December 2]
No full textSt. Neots
December 2, 1782
My Dear Alleck,
I am glad you have favoured me with so circumstantial an account of your sister’s death. When we lay all the particulars together, there is no room for any doubt, of her spirit’s being removed by the ministering spirits into Abraham’s bosom. And it is highly probable, as you observe, that longer life would not have been a blessing to her. So we have another proof that all things are ordered well. I hope my dear Sally and George will profit by this providential dispensation! Peace be with all your spirits!
I am, my dear Alleck,
Yours most affectionately,
J. WesleyLetter from John Wesley to Alexander Knox. This letter is one of fifty in a bound volume
Matthew Merritt Interview
No full textMatthew Merritt (Class of 2023) was interviewed by Laura Narvaez via the Zoom internet-based video conferencing software on May 9, 2023. Mr. Merritt was born on January 13, 2001 in Duncanville, Texas. He was raised by his grandparents with his younger brother in the same neighborhood his father grew up in. He describes how his grandparents' family was only the second Black family to move in and how the demographic had changed by the time Mr. Merritt was in grade school, with most of his classmates being African American or Hispanic. His grandparents implemented a structured routine growing up that emphasized education, faith, and family. Mr. Merritt is grateful for the time and care his grandmother put into raising him and his brother and calls her and his grandfather his MVPs. His love of choir in high school led him to switch his career focus from architecture to music education. He made All-State Choir his junior and senior years. While he was offered a full-ride scholarship to Mississippi State, he enrolled at SMU after being awarded their Dallas County Mustang scholarship and a room and board scholarship from the Meadows School of the Arts. Mr. Merritt talks fondly of the community he found at SMU among his fellow Rotunda Scholars, his Alpha Phi Alpha brothers, fellow members of the Association of Black Students (ABS), and especially the other two members of the ''Big Three'': Kennedy Coleman and Sparrow Caldwell. He states that his fraternity taught him how to maintain a work-life balance despite his intensive schedule as a Music Education major. However, Mr. Merritt describes feeling that he did not belong in his classes because so few of the students and faculty looked like him. Mr. Merritt was also president of the National Panhellenic Council his junior and senior years. His other extracurriculars included Southern Gentlemen, an acapella men’s group on campus, the Vice President of Student Affairs Student Advisory Board, and Black Men Emerging (for whom he was president his senior year). He was heavily involved with ABS, being secretary sophomore year, vice president junior year, and senior advisor his senior year. He helped plan the Black Excellence Ball, Black History Month events, turnover, and homecoming. His senior year, he and Kennedy Coleman were runners-up for homecoming king and queen, the highest a Black woman had ever gotten in the lineup. His year serving as secretary of ABS, 2020, was the same year the organization sent out their demands to the President and Vice President of the University. This led to the creation of the Black Unity Forum and implementation of Chief Diversity Officers across campus. As secretary, he had polled community members and drafted those demands. His experience exposed him to what those who came before him had gone through and how he could help create change. The Black at SMU Twitter thread and ''Black at SMU'' film also affected him greatly. He describes how much his voice teacher, Barbara Hill Moore, supported him and how much he admires the impact she's made on her students and SMU as a whole. Other mentors he names are Jennifer ''JJ'' Jones, his major advisor Dr. Julie Scott, and the Vice President of Student Affairs Dr. KC Mmeje. He believes that efforts from past students and staff, ‘’Black at SMU’’, community leaders like Kennedy Coleman, Sparrow Caldwell, Damondre Lynn, Nick Jones, and Alicia Foot, and Black Unity Forum (BUF) conveners like Paige Edwards, as well as ABS as a whole, have helped SMU become more accepting of their Black students. Mr. Merritt plans to become a middle or high school choral director with the ultimate goal of either becoming a school superintendent or working in college administration
Maurice Crandall Interview
No full textMaurice Crandall (Clements Fellow 2016-17) was interviewed by Laura Narvaez via the Zoom internet-based video conferencing software on February 23, 2023. He was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where his parents had met, and was raised there with his three siblings until they moved back to Arizona around the time he was in high school. He is a member of the Yavapai-Apache Nation through his mother’s side. He was much closer to his Native roots than his father’s English and Italian family growing up. He had what he called a typical experience for Native people in the 20th and 21st centuries: growing up in an urban center and traveling back to his home community often. His family is heavily involved in tribal politics. His childhood memories include going with his maternal grandfather, who designed reservation day schools for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, to Tribal Council meetings. Dr. Crandall considered a few different careers growing up, including becoming a Marine (inspired by his grandfathers, who were both World War II veterans) and a career in law. He settled on becoming a history teacher for secondary school and was supported through graduate school by a tribal scholarship program. While it was not originally part of his plan, he entered a PhD program at the urging of his family because no one had completed a PhD before and the scholarship would continue to support his education as far as he wished to go. He worked in public education, as a museum intern, and as a historian at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in New Mexico while he made his way through school, and did not seriously consider a career as a professor until the last couple years of his education. After receiving his PhD he continued working at the Cultural Center while applying to different positions and opportunities. Dr. Crandall was accepted into the fellowship program for the Clements Center for Southwest Studies and, with the promise of a job at the Cultural Center if he did not have another opportunity at the end of the program, he and his family moved to Richardson, Texas for the 2016-17 academic year. While there, he focused on expanding his dissertation into a book manuscript that would eventually be published as “These People Have Always Been a Republic” in November 2019, as well as applying for jobs. He speaks positively of his experience with his workshop towards the beginning of his fellowship and how it helped him develop his manuscript during his time there. He also speaks fondly of the other fellows and faculty in the program and the memories he made with them. He discusses how important it was for him to be able to talk to people who were also studying Indigenous history and the borderlands, as well as those studying distinct but related subjects, and how the relationships he built during his time as a Clements Fellow led to long term relationships and collaborations that have continued to this day. Dr. Crandall accepted a job offer at Dartmouth at the end of his time in the Clements Fellowship program and moved with his family to Vermont. He is still involved with the program to this day. He is now a tenured Associate Professor of History at Arizona State University; he also does community outreach and educational programs and talks, and appreciates living near his family again. He continues to be involved with SMU and the Clements Fellowship program
Jo Lew Interview [Spring 2023]
No full textJo Lew (Class of 2023) was interviewed by Laura Narvaez in the Norwick Center for Digital Solutions on April 27, 2023. Mx. Lew was born in Grapevine, Texas, in 2001 to a Malaysian father and a Hong Kongese mother. They grew up in a diverse neighborhood in Irving, TX, where they became more familiar with the cultures of their South Asian neighbors than that of their own family. As an elementary schooler, Mx. Lew developed a passion for activism, advocating for the building of a garden at their elementary school in the first grade. While attending a small high school in Coppell, TX, they attended a seminar at SMU, toured the campus, and learned more about the Human Rights program. They received their Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, Public Policy, and Human Rights in 2023. They discussed changing themself to try to fit in at SMU during their first semester. Mx. Lew participated in many campus organizations, including serving as the queer senator for Student Senate and creating the Unity Coalition @ SMU in response to the 2021 Atlanta spa shooting and increase of violence against the AAPI community following the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. They discussed the racism they experienced while running for student body president in 2022 and in their political science classes. After graduation, Mx. Lew plans to focus on self-care and recovery from academic burnout
Shara Jeyarajah Interview
No full textShara Jeyarajah (Class of 2023) was interviewed by Laura Narvaez in the Norwick Center for Digital Solutions at Southern Methodist University on April 27, 2023. Mx. Jeyarajah was born in Dallas, Texas, in 2000 and discussed class consciousness in their youth, their parents’ Sri Lankan backgrounds, and reflected on gaining the language to explain the racial and cultural dynamics of that time. In addition, they discussed entering SMU with the financial support of the President’s Scholarship, experiencing the white supremacy of the campus culture, the Human Rights Program and its impact on them, the support they found in the university’s queer community, and the creation of Maladjusted, a podcast that explored the history of SMU through a racial justice lens
Marcos Rincon Interview
No full textMarcos Rincon (Class of 1972, MA 1975) was interviewed by Laura Narvaez in the Norwick Center for Digital Solutions on October 23, 2023. He transferred from El Centro Community College to SMU and got his BA in Political Science and MA in Public Administration. His grandparents migrated from Mexico during the Mexican Revolution to work as migrating farmers in the United States. Mr. Marcos recounted his experience as the oldest of nine children and the challenges he faced to get his education. After being told he wasn't ''college material'', Mr. Marcos enrolled in community college, where he became involved in the Chicano movement and connected with a student who encouraged him to transfer to SMU. His personal experience encouraged him to help disadvantaged students by mobilizing and creating resources on campus to help them excel, as well as collaborating with other student organizations such as Black Citizen. Mr. Marcos considers SMU to be a welcoming school and encourages minority students to consider attending
Jennifer Gomez Interview
No full textJennifer Gomez (Class of 2004, M.L.S. 2022) was interviewed by Laura Narvaez in the Norwick Center for Digital Solutions on May 30th, 2023. Mrs. Gomez was born in Houston, Texas in 1974 and has a longstanding history with SMU, first attending as a transfer student in 1997 and, at the time of her interview, working with the Student Financial Literacy Program in the Student Financial Services Office. She found herself working at and attending the university after a chance visit to the campus and has since majored in Corporate Communications, returned to pursue a Master’s in Liberal Studies with a concentration in Organizational Dynamics, and become the parent to an SMU student. Mrs. Gomez discussed her role in financial services, her experiences attending the university as a Latiné woman, and the increase in student scholarships funded by the university. She hopes to found a non-profit that provides information to first-generation students about funding their college careers before they begin attending school, due to her struggle to fund her undergraduate career, which took ten years to complete. Ultimately, Mrs. Gomez has found her time at SMU to be positive and stated that she even chose to get married on the campus at Perkins Chapel
[Christmas Worship Service Program, 2022]
No full textProgram for the Perkins Christmas Worship service in 2022