Falwell law school to teach faith and law
 

Falwell law school to teach faith and law
Grads could tackle abortion rights, gay marriage

ROANOKE, Virginia (AP) -- The Rev. Jerry Falwell will open a law school this month in hopes of training a generation of attorneys who will fight for conservative causes.

"We want to infiltrate the culture with men and women of God who are skilled in the legal profession," Falwell said in a telephone interview Tuesday with The Associated Press. "We'll be as far to the right as Harvard is to the left."

Graduates of the law school -- part of Falwell's Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, which is affiliated with his Baptist ministry -- could tackle such issues as abortion rights and gay marriage, Falwell said. Classes begin Aug. 23 for the first-year class of 61 law students.

"I'd love to fight Roe v. Wade," said incoming law student Heidi Thompson, 33, a Liberty graduate who has spent the past few years working as a high school counselor in Orlando, Florida.

"I have a long way to go before I find myself in front of the Supreme Court," Thompson said with a laugh. "But I'm hoping through some medical advances and some legal intervention that people can recognize the great wrong that was done" with the decision to legalize abortion.

Falwell said his law school will be similar to its Christian-leaning counterparts like Regent University in Virginia Beach, which religious broadcaster Pat Robertson founded.

Classroom lectures and discussions will fuse the teachings of the Bible with the U.S. Constitution, stressing the connections between faith, law and morality, said law school Dean Bruce Green, who has experience in civil liberties litigation.

"There is a strong need for this," said Green, who believes many of his colleagues take sides on abortion and genetic engineering without first considering what is morally right.

"There are certain views that might carry the day in legal circles that are morally indefensible and at one time was legally indefensible," he said.

Joe Conn, a spokesman for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said the law school is part of a crusade by Falwell to get the government to carry out his religious agenda.

"When Falwell talks about using the legal system to advance his personal religious beliefs, I get a whiff of the Taliban," Conn said. "This is a very diverse country with many different religious beliefs, and when you set up a law school to try to get the government and legal system to conform to only one of them, you're leaving everybody else out."

http://www.cnn.com/2004/EDUCATION/08....ap/index.html

Re: Falwell law school to teach faith and law
 

Right there he's got a problem. He wants to "infiltrate" the culture. What is he doing, creating spies?

Re: Re: Falwell law school to teach faith and law
 

It's called talking tough -- that's what gets him donations so he can buy new cars, big houses and new suits.

I have no problem with it really. It's just the Christian-extremists becoming more involved in politics. Their views will still be balanced by the other side. And conservative lawyers/judges are not exactly a new thing.

Re: Re: Re: Falwell law school to teach faith and law
 

I have no problem with it either. I'm just saying he sounds like a moron, but if it's what the religious right/extremists want to hear, then alrighty.
But then again, Tinky Winky is the downfall of society.

Re: Re: Re: Falwell law school to teach faith and law
 

Cosign.

Liberals have the ACLU, Christian-extremists have Falwell.

Liberal lawyers/judges aren't exactly a new thing, either.

Ugh, my town is being taken over by more Falwellites... I heard they haven't been accredited yet.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Falwell law school to teach faith and law
 

As long as they dont work to repeal freedoms, I'm fine with it. Once that happens I'll label them in the same category as Fred Phelps and Osama bin Laden.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Falwell law school to teach faith and law
 

That seems to be one of the major parts of their movement. I don't think this is groundbreaking stuff except that Falwell is involved. Just another reason for certain people to send him $$.

This might be kind of off topic: You know what I find interesting about Christian fundementalists? Their beliefs aren't really all that different from Roman Catholicism (regarding abortion, gay rights, family values, etc), yet they get so much more publicity (usually negative) from the media (other than the abuse situation).

It's probably because of the way that many other Christians and Catholics regard many fundamentalist leaders. Pat Robertson and Falwell for example, I view as being complite hypocrites in many regards. The Catholic Church has its problems, but at least it is attempting to fix its problems and its members admit to having those problems.

It's kind of different when you have someone that proclaims he's right because God told him so.

I also think it's also that right wing religious extremists are told to go out and spread the word. The Catholic church doesn't seem to push that agenda as much.

Eta: Evangelists in general are told to go out and spread the word. But I just want to clarify that I'm not saying that all evangelistic Christans are right wing extremists. No hateful PMs please!!

Oh, I agree. If part of your faith means trying to bring others to it, more power to you. I'd rather have a country full of religious kooks than drug dealers -- well to a point anyhow.

Just so long as they do their thing and I can still do mine, everyone's happy :D

Unfortunately, if your country is dominated by religious kooks the odds of being able to do your own thing are pretty slim. Theocracies don't work.

But given a choice, I'd agree w/ you ktsnake.

I think a theocracy run by Unitarians would be okay. But for the most part, that's true. I'd hate to live in a theocracy.

Well if the Unitarians that would be in charge are anything like the Unitarian churches I've been to, then gay marriage would be legal ;)