We don’t need to worry about the separation of church and
state. Rev. Jerry Falwell and televangelist Pat Robertson are
taking care of it for us. And by taking care of it, I mean they are
haphazardly bridging the separation.
Falwell is the chancellor of the recently formed Liberty Law
School, an extension of Liberty University, a Christian school in
Lynchburg, Virginia. In 1986, Robertson founded Regent Law School
in Virginia Beach, Virginia. These law schools, along with two
newly established Roman Catholic law schools are indicative of the
frighteningly conservative direction some Christian groups hope to
take the country.
In a Nov. 22 New York Times article, writer Adam Liptak
chronicled life at Liberty Law School in “Giving the Law a
Religious Perspective.” In that article, Falwell said,
“If our graduates wind up in the government they’ll be
social and political conservatives. If they wind up as judges,
they’ll be presiding under the Bible.”
But it’s not a matter of if, as Falwell suggests,
it’s when. After all, currently 39 percent of Congress are
lawyers.
The only country these law schools belong in is Iran (you know,
because it’s a religious theocracy). The schools’
foundations in Christian morality is troubling ““ students are
learning to make judgments that adhere to a specific moral code.
While the United States was formed on the basis of Judeo-Christian
values, following only this moral system will result in the
exclusion of ideals that society values.
“The whole notion of complete First Amendment rights or
the idea of fully protecting a criminal defendant ““ those
things you might not find in Christian values,” said a Los
Angeles-based lawyer and graduate of the UCLA Law School who spoke
on the condition of anonymity for business purposes.
“Probably if you ask a guy like Falwell or Robertson I think
they would tell you, “˜Of course as a Christian we will be
compassionate and protective.’ But I don’t think they
would put that into play. If you asked them if they fully believed
in Miranda Rights, I think they probably wouldn’t. That would
be counter to their moral sense, which is, if the guy did it he
would have to pay.”
Obviously, the first thing I had to do was try to apply to both
Regent and Liberty.
If I got into Liberty and chose to go there I’d be taking
a risk because it is not yet accredited by the American Bar
Association.
On the Liberty application, prospective students are instructed
to answer five questions, and one asks applicants to explain how
their faith, life and morality will allow them to contribute to
Liberty. Morality should not play such an important role in vetting
prospective students. It’s one thing to say the United States
was founded on Judeo-Christian morals, but to say this morality
should apply to the legal code is wrong. Law is taught to be sober
and devoid of emotion ““ morality makes for an emotional
argument.
“Underlying law is a certain type of moral system, but as
law progresses, it goes beyond morality,” said USC Law School
student Elizabeth Berman. “In terms of law, it’s not so
simple to look at the Bible and say, “˜What would Jesus
do?’ For example, Good Samaritan Laws aren’t upheld
because while you have a moral duty to help someone, there is no
legal duty to help someone. So, when making a legal argument
it’s not enough to make a moral argument.”
In the “Community Life Form” portion of the Regent
application, the school’s philosophy of education is
outlined. By signing this form, the applicant accepts the
school’s Christian goals, which include the idea that
“the only hope for man is to believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ.” As is the case at Liberty, anyone can apply to
Regent, but the school’s goals certainly narrow the applicant
pool.
This selective morality is problematic.
“Although every religion espouses tolerance, I think
religions in general are not tolerant,” the anonymous lawyer
said. “They are tolerant in a very patronizing way. Religions
are dogma and they think they are the right way, so everyone else
has to be the wrong way. That will creep into law you are teaching
““ the idea that I am right and you are wrong, but I will
tolerate you.”
This is dangerous because with law schools advocating
fundamentalist Christianity, it is only a matter of time before
Islamic and Jewish fundamentalists decide they need their own law
schools. Then you can get ready for religious war.
“Religion should be something private and if you make it
public, it becomes a domineering factor,” the lawyer said.
“You regress to the twelfth century instead of becoming a
society based on literature and art and all the things we
considered to be civilized. I include all religions ““
I’m against all fundamental, orthodox religions ““
Jewish, Christian and Islamic. They are fundamentally intolerant of
each other.”
Yale Law School student Alison Mackenzie contends that in the
law school experience, emotion is stripped from the law, and
students focus on rationality. Perhaps law schools are too steeped
in rationale and, to their detriment, lack any inclusion of
morality in the curriculum.
Maybe that’s why lawyers are perceived to be scum
bags.
“As a lawyer, it’s expected that you would act
ethically,” Mackenzie said. “I think it’s
ludicrous that Christian law schools would teach things with solely
their own slant, but I also don’t think it’s bad for
law to be taught with more emotion or with morality. But that is
different from talking about “˜What would Jesus do?’ The
Christian law schools’ idea is not inclusive; it would be
their idea of morality, which is too narrow of an idea of what
morality should be.”
At the UCLA Law School, students take Ethics of the Legal
Profession, in which students discuss ethical dilemmas lawyers face
along with the moral psychology of the legal profession.
“Morality is talked about a lot, especially in criminal
law classes,” UCLA Law School student Kamand Keshavarz said.
“We constantly talk about why we punish. Essentially, morals
creep in all the time. It’s not absent, but the majority of
the classes take the side that your perception of what is moral
isn’t what we want law to show.”
Secular law schools (Who could imagine we’d have to start
calling some law schools “secular”?) should consider
increasing their emphasis on morality and ethics, because if they
don’t, the proponents of Christian law schools will continue
to feel that their law schools are filling a void.
The phenomenon of Christian law schools signals another
breakdown of the separation of church and state, so you’d
better hope you’re with the right church.
E-mail Miller at dmiller@media.ucla.edu.