The Benefits of Attending a Christian Law School

What are the benefits of attending a Christian Law School? Having worked for a Christian law school for more than 10 years, I have found that many believers are familiar with features of Christian education. They understand that the professors are Christians and that the subject matter is examined in light of the truth of Scripture. But what many do not seem to understand is how that actually benefits a student. I have sat across the table from countless Christians who see the Christian aspect of the school as nice but not important, as good intentioned but not really necessary. What causes this this kind of malaise? It is often a result of not thinking much about how God’s truth affects our thinking outside of our belief in Jesus, and how it impacts our lives.

With that in mind, it seems important to lay out the benefits of attending a Christian law school. Granted, a Christian law school may not be for everyone, but Christians who are considering law school should be aware of these, even if in the end they decide to attend elsewhere.

We live in a culture today where the public square has established its thinking based on secular and even atheistic presuppositions. This culture is so ubiquitous that even Christians begin to see it as the norm. Often, it is not until they take a public stand on a Christian issue that they find out just how foreign Christian truth is to this culture. When attending a secular school, a student will be swimming in a culture that is no different than the culture at large. The existence of truth will be questioned, moral standards will be relativized, and of course discussion about God will have no place in the discussion of law. In the end, they will claim that they teach this way because they approach law from a neutral and unbiased point of view. But is a school that says truth and morality are relative, and that all things should be taught from a secular point of view, because even if he does exist, God is not significant enough to bring into the discussion really neutral and unbiased?

At a Christian school that takes the Word of God seriously, you will study all the secular theories of jurisprudence that you would study at any law school, but you will also be provided with the Christian answers to the philosophical questions surrounding law. You will be shown how many of the post-modern, pragmatic, and positivist views of law all tend to crumble under their own weight. You will be in an environment where dialogue on the philosophical and theological underpinnings of the American legal system will be encouraged, not stifled. All of this will be necessary when you are an attorney if you attempt to take a stand for truth in this culture. You will not be able to get this type of training at a secular school.

Christian law schools also often have a higher focus on ethics and character. Most law schools, even secular schools, are required to teach professional responsibility and ethics, but these types of courses can often boil down to lowest common denominator requirements. The question often asked is, what do I need to do to remain in good standing with the bar, when the question should be, how do I model the character of Christ as an attorney. Modern culture abounds with the notion that your function (employment) is more significant than your character. You can be morally bankrupt in your personal life as long as you are good at what you do. This should never be the mindset of the Christian lawyer. We are to be people of character first, and attorneys second. To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, if you cannot be a person of character while being an attorney, choose to be a person of character without being an attorney.

In law school you will be placed under high amounts of pressure that will transform you into the legal professional you long to be. This is no different at Christian or secular schools. You will be transformed, but each school has a different end in mind as to what a legal professional should be. Will your new found abilities be modeled after a Christ-like pattern or a worldly one? While you are under this transformative pressure, you will not want to be at a place where you are asked to leave your faith at the door.

Also, Romans 1 teaches that when we exchange the Truth of God for a lie we become vain and futile in our thinking. This is no less true in law school. Most naturalistic and secular understandings of law find themselves standing on a foundation that is crumbling underneath them. They will fight for human rights but believe that humans have no inherent rights because rights are merely social constructs. They will argue that truth and morality are relative and that law should be pragmatic. Yet if truth is relative there can be no real truth about what pragmatically works, or what we should be working for. In the end, if we accept the secular presuppositions we will also find ourselves building on the sand rather than the rock that is God’s word.

Finally, like all law schools, Christian law schools will offer you practical training and internships in most areas of law, but they will also offer you opportunities in areas that you may not be able to find elsewhere. For example, the school where I work, students can intern and work on Constitutional Law and religious freedom cases while in school, an opportunity not available at many schools. There is also a strong focus on international human rights with possible internships helping the persecuted church around the world. These opportunities can often open up doors for employment for students that would not be available at a secular school.

So here are a summary of the benefits mentioned above.

1. You will better understand how to articulate Christian truths in the public arena.

2. You will be shown how most secular theories crumble under their own weight, which will be needed when taking a stand for the truth.

3. If done correctly, you will emerge with a stronger Christian character and a closer walk with God.

4. At a Christian law school you will be transformed into a professional who knows how to integrate your faith into your practice, and bring the light of Christ to this darkened world.

5. You will have a legal education that is not built upon shifting sands but built upon rock of God’s timeless truth

6. You will be able to get practical experience in areas not available at most schools, such as internships focused on religious freedom, and international human rights work focused on the persecuted church.

Though it is possible to emerge from a secular law school and still be a Godly attorney, it will only come by fighting against much of what is presupposed by the school, and by supplementing your studies with what will willingly be left out and possibly even ridiculed. As Christians we understand that there are times to be in the world fighting against its philosophies, but there are also times of training, like a soldier preparing for battle, where we should take time to grow in order to be more effective when it comes time to fulfill our calling.

God Bless,

Doug

Legal Writing Competition at Trinity Law School

Trinity Law School is hosting a legal writing competition on the topic of "A Christian's Response to Human Rights." Below is the information taken from the TLS website.

___________________________

Writing Competition

The Center for Human Rights invites the submission of scholarly papers.

Topic
Scholarly papers must address the issue of "A Christian's Response to Human Rights."

Papers may consider addressing issues of the source of Human Rights, the nature of Human Rights, why it matters if Human Rights have a religious or secular basis, how Human Rights are (or should be) protected and enforced, religion's role in protecting Human Rights, etc. Scholars are not bound by these suggestions and are encouraged to thoroughly address the topic in a manner that best addresses the pertinent issues.

Eligibility
Only students that are currently enrolled in a JD, LLM, and/or SJD program within the United States are eligible to submit a paper.

Article Format
Submissions must be original, unpublished academic works by one author. Students may only submit one paper. Multiple submissions will result in disqualification.

All papers must be submitted electronically to mmoore@tiu.edu. All submissions should be in English and in Microsoft® Word format. The text should be double-spaced in 12-point font with 1-inch margins. The length should be approximately 25 to 50 pages, including footnotes. Footnotes may appear in single-spaced 10-point font. All citations must conform to The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation.

All papers must be accompanied by a single cover page that includes:

The title of the paper;
The author's name, address, telephone phone number & e-mail address;
The name of the author's law school, degree program (i.e., JD, LLM, or SJD) and anticipated date of graduation.

Submitted papers will not be returned.

The failure to comply with the requirements of the Article Format will result in disqualification.
Judgment Criteria for Award

Papers will be judged on originality, quality of writing and scholarship, depth of research and analysis, and readiness for publication. All eligible submissions will first be reviewed by members of the Trinity Law Review. Papers that pass initial review process will then be reviewed by a panel composed of the Director of the Center for Human Rights, select TLS Faculty, and editors of the Trinity Law Review.

Prizes
A First, Second, and Third place will be chosen from the eligible submissions. The prizes will be awarded as follows:

First Place: $1,000
Second Place: $500
Third Place: $250

The First, Second, and Third place winners will also receive expedited consideration for publication in the 2012/2013 Trinity Law Review, which will be a special symposium issue on the Center for Human Rights.
Submission Deadline

Submissions are due on or before April 15, 2012. No papers will be accepted after that date.

Winners will be announced by May 30, 2012, via e-mail.

Please submit all papers, questions, or inquiries to: mmoore@tiu.edu

Christianity, The Church, and Government

Why is it that many Christians who decry Christian political involvement (read Tony Campolo types) because power and politics are tools of Satan, then go on to argue for government solutions to global warming and health care? Do they really want Satan and his tools cooling our plannet and running our health care? Perhaps a more balanced approach is needed.

Should Christians be involved in government? Isn’t Christ our hope not politics? Is any influence of Christian thought on the state a violation of the separation of church and state? In this episode of Apologetics.com radio, Dean, Donald McConnell of Trinity Law School, Doug Eaton, and Lane Chaplin discuss several questions that pertain to the Christian’s role in government and the governments role in Christianity.

http://www.apologetics.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=385:christianity-the-church-and-government&catid=43:kkla-995-fm-los-angeles&Itemid=74

This show can also be downloaded for free as a podcast in itunes. Simply search for apologetics.com in the itunes store.

The Decay of Freedom

I think it can be said that no people is fit to govern itself if it does not hate to be governed. That healthy hatred of being governed, formerly so strong in the American people, is gradually being lost. No interference is resented today, no menace to family life, no government monopoly, if only it be thought to confer physical benefits. I do not think that we ought to deceive ourselves about this matter. We are witnessing today in America the decay of free institutions. And that decay is proceeding quite in the well worn track which it followed, for example, when the Roman Republic gave place to the Roman Empire about two thousand years ago.

J. Gresham Machen: from the book Education, Christianity, and the State.

Alexandra Snyder, Trinity Law School, and the Fight to End Abortion

This is a good friend of mine.

For more information on Trinity Law School visit www.TLS.edu.

Doug

Crucial Issues for Christians Lecture MP3's

Below are the MP3 downloads of the lectures from the Crucial Issues for Christians Seminar. These lectures can be downloaded by right-clicking the link and selecting, "save target as."

Abortion, Euthanasia, and Embryonic Stem Cell Research - Donald McConnell

The New Atheism - Christopher Neiswonger

Aesthetics and the Christian - Lindsay Brooks

Postmodernism and the Emergent Church - Doug Eaton

A Look at the California Ruling on Homeschooling

This video is of Dean of Trinity Law School, Donald McConnell discussing the recent ruling by the California appellate judges against homeschooling parents. Visit www.hslda.org to sign a petition to have this opinion depublished.

Doug

A God and Governing Conference? How Good Could it Be?

I tend to get pretty interested when I see an amazing line-up for a pastors conference or some kind of biblical or theological conference, but most of the time when I see a line-up for an evangelical conference on government I’m less than enthused. My lack of enthusiasm is not due to an indifferent attitude toward the Christian’s responsibility to be involved in politically, but more to the shallow nature of many of these types of gatherings. After all, many of these conferences tend to deal with the artifacts of culture more than the worldviews that produce them, much like a doctor focusing only on the symptoms and failing to address the disease. You probably know what I mean when we as evangelicals spend so much time focusing on trying to get department stores to say “Merry Christmas” instead of “Happy Holidays”, or to have nativity scenes allowed on city property. Now there is a place for some of this type of thing but so often it is all surface level, and rarely is freedom of speech addressed in its constitutional understanding or a correct understanding of the establishment clause ever really dealt with, and almost always what is left out is a discussion of the worldviews that are driving these aberrant understandings.

Then about a year ago Trinity Law School began to plan for the God and Governing Conference. This conference was going to be different. It was going to look, theologically, philosophically, and historically at the political issues facing us today, and that is exactly what took place.

When you have speakers like David Wells, Dallas Willard, and Os Guinness, you are in for mental stimulation that will keep you going for some time. The lectures were of a wide range. From Dallas Willard and Pat Nolan reminding us of the importance of character as we engage in politics, which has been lost due to the lack of focus on sanctification in contemporary Christianity, to Os Guinness bringing to mind the framers understanding of freedom and that it is our job to maintain this balance of freedom in order not to loose it to too much security one the one hand or license on the other.

David Wells in his usual brilliance linked the breakdown of evangelical theology to much of the disarray that is found in today’s Christian involvement in Government. One of the primary issues being the loss of human nature in the philosophical worldviews of modernism and post-modernism that have made inroads into contemporary Christianity.

Vishal Mangalwadi, reminded us of the tyranny that tends to accompany paganism, and gave ample examples of the corruption of freedom in pagan India where he currently resides. Then he pointed out the many inroads paganism has made into the United States and college campuses and pointed to the popularity of tantric sex and the Da Vinci code, among others as mere symptoms of a deeper issue.

Paul Marshal dealt with many different issues regarding evangelical involvement in government such as those who tend to follow the Anabaptist model and contradictorily decry governmental power and then the minute they see a social ill they desire the government step in and fix it.

Donald McConnell spoke to us about ten ways to improve the evangelical involvement in Government and Dr. Stephen Kennedy spoke to us about natural law and a rights theory which flows from a Trinitarian theology and belonging.

Now some people might hear of such a conference and think that this group got together to work toward establishing a theocracy, but it was quite a contrary message that was given. In fact it is the Christian faith that drove the establishment clause in the first place and it is only the intolerant who want “freedom of religion” to become “freedom from religion.”

When it was all said and done, the attendees left with an enrichment that they will carry for some time. We were both challenged and inspired, as all of it was built upon the foundation of the inerrant and infallible Word of God and driven home with times of prayer. Pastors, teachers, theologians, philosophers, lawyers, laymen or anyone who loves the Word and God and wants use its light to think through the political issues facing us today would benefit from this conference. And rumor has it that the audio for these lectures will soon be available.

Doug Eaton

Trinity Law School: Seek Justice

Here is the new promotional video for Trinity Law School!

God and Governing Conference this Week

This is the week of the God and Governing Conference hosted by Trinity Law School and we are busy putting together all the final pieces in preparation for a great conference. We are still taking last minute registration if you are able to attend. Contact Chris at 800-922-4748 for more info. With all the work to be done, this will most likely be my last post until next week.

God Bless,

Doug



Here is more info on the conference if you are interested...

God and Governing Conference:

A Conference on Ethics, Virtue, and Statesmanship

February 1-2, 2008Westin South Coast PlazaCosta Mesa, California

Featured Speakers:
Os Guinness Distinguished writer and speaker,Cofounder of The Trinity Forum

Dallas Willard Professor of Philosophy,University of Southern California

David Wells Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology,Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary

Paul Marshall Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute's Center for Religious Freedom

Stephen Kennedy Associate Professor, Trinity Graduate School and Trinity Law School

Donald McConnell Academic Dean, Trinity Law School

Vishal Mangalwadi International Lecturer, Social Reformer, Political Columnist Author of Thirteen Books

Pat Nolan President, Justice Fellowship, Prison Fellowship Ministries

Sponsored by: Trinity Law School and Trinity Graduate School.

Christian Law School

Looking for a Christian Law School? There are only a handful of Law Schools that truly teach law from within the Christian worldview. Trinity Law School (in Southern California) is one of the few schools which does just that.

Trinity is a dynamic Christian law school dedicated to legal studies from a Augustinian natural law perspective, Trinity Law School prepares men and women to fulfill their callings as lawyers, judges, public officials, legal advocates, and professionals in vocations that require a solid legal education.

Trinity is also affiliated with Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.