[A.G.]

From the Roanoke paper:
http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/78760

Laws of change
Christian college hopes its students will change society.

By Pamela J. Podger
981-3131

LYNCHBURG -- Students start their classes in prayer, heads bowed and hands clasped above their computer keyboards. At times, they sing a Christian hymn when the daily lesson is done.

Here, at Liberty University's School of Law, the Bible is a touchstone as Jerry Falwell's young law school trains "lieutenants for the Lord."

With lessons resuming Monday and the inaugural class approaching the bar exam, Falwell predicts his graduates will be "counterculture lawyers" sent out like missionaries into politics, government and private practice.

"This school gives me an opportunity to study law from a perspective that recognizes the Bible as truth," said third-year student Daniel White, 25, who hopes to enter politics and worked last summer at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. "The Lord placed me here."

United by common values, many of these 160 evangelicals consider the law a career as well as a higher calling. Many want to stop abortion, reinstate prayer in public schools and ban same-sex marriage.

While some in the legal world praise Falwell's private school as an unusual experiment, others slam it.

"I think the bottom line is their Christian faith trumps any disagreement with the Constitution," said Barry Lynn, the executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

Founded in 2002, with $14.6 million invested so far, it may be too early to judge the provisionally accredited school. Falwell knows his school will earn its reputation based on where his graduates land jobs, and how they comport themselves in courtrooms and in the legal world. The students' rate of passing the bar and other achievements are vital to the school's gaining full accreditation.

"We're sort of at their mercy, so we better teach them something," Falwell said.

Many graduates will embark on careers in private practice or as clerks to federal and state judges. Others may not enter a courtroom, but will run for political office or become missionaries. "They will all be activists for the Judeo-Christian ethic, for a return to the faith of our fathers and to basic Christian culture," Falwell said.

A.E. Dick Howard, a constitutional law scholar who teaches at University of Virginia's law school, said he's fascinated by Liberty's law school. He worries, though, that the school's religious affiliation will stifle spirited inquiry and intellectual debate.

Liberty "reminds existing law schools of the pluralism in legal education. It is useful to have law taught from various perspectives and it enriches the dialogue," Howard said. "But is there sufficient diversity of viewpoint in the classroom? That is a relevant question. Legal education teaches inquiry, skepticism and even doubt."

Legal education with a Christian twist

Liberty's law students say they're drawn to the school's conservative mission, one that reinforces their deeply held beliefs. With an average age of 27, these students are unerringly upbeat and follow the school's professional dress code, which bans piercings and Birkenstock-type sandals. They also agree to act honestly, chastely and with integrity.

Many in the first class were awarded full scholarships to the then-unaccredited law school. That pattern has continued for some students in subsequent classes who face $23,000 a year in tuition. Classrooms have been carved from the shell of an industrial plant -- a former cellphone factory -- that houses the school.

Religion isn't taught at the school, but it binds many of the students. Like secular schools, the law students vigorously debate issues and discuss judicial cases.

Biblical quotations are included in the schools' mission statement on its Web site.

"Without a true Christian rooting of a legal education, all you have is law as power instead of law as justice," said Nikolas Nikas, president and general counsel of the Bioethics Defense Fund in Scottsdale, Ariz., who is a guest lecturer at the school.

Some of the classmates went to Bible colleges or attended Liberty as undergraduates. Students, who include a Jew, say they are respectful of all faiths.

In this cocoon of conformity, the students say they feel free to discuss their faith. Some say they wouldn't hesitate to proselytize.

"As a Christian, one of the callings is to go baptize, share and teach the Gospel," said Kevin Bailey, 27, a second-year law student who attended Southeastern Free Will Baptist College in Raleigh, N.C. "You have to be sensitive and respect others' beliefs, but if I was given a chance, I would share my faith."

Heidi Thompson, a 35-year-old mother of two, went to Liberty as an undergraduate and then received a master's degree in counseling at Washington State University. She said she was attracted to a Christian law school and applied only to Liberty.

"It was refreshing to come back to a place where I had more in common with my peers," said Thompson, who is part of the inaugural class. "It is a misperception about our school that we'll all start pounding the Bible in court. Is there a possibility that you could sit across from an interviewer who thinks you got your degree from a Cracker Jack box? Sure, but if you pass the bar, that speaks for itself."

Many Liberty law students define success in terms of the divine more than dollars.

"For most of us in our class, success isn't going to just be the paycheck," Thompson continued. "As evangelical Christians we're looking for what we were promised: The life more abundant."

Others say there is less of the political correctness that stifles debate at secular schools, because discussing Christianity, as one student said, "isn't taboo." Some students say their Christian values will guide what types of cases they would be willing to argue.

"I couldn't argue something that I thought was morally wrong -- I think a person should be consistent," said Julie Burgess, 27, who did biblical studies as an undergrad at the University of the Nation in Switzerland. "My job would not be my highest priority."

While life may be black-and-white to some students, Howard and others say life is a colored prism.

"The world is full of nuances," said UVa's Howard. "These students must be able to move in a world that is more checkered and nuanced than the one they live in themselves. Can the students live up to that challenge? I'm guardedly optimistic."

The school's mission attracts those who share views on issues such as school prayer, homosexuality, abortion and the death penalty. Many will be working in secular workplaces. But they said it is highly unlikely that they would quote from the Bible when arguing a case.

"In a courtroom, you're arguing on legal statute or precedent," said Ryan Lane, 24, who is in the inaugural class and majored in math at Dordt College in Sioux Center, Iowa. "I wouldn't quote from a Bible or a John Grisham novel."

A 'desperate need'

Founding Dean Bruce Green shepherded Liberty's law school through its provisional accreditation by the American Bar Association in February. Green is now a consultant for the school. He said Liberty addresses the secularization of legal training with what he calls a "growing movement of faith-based law schools." These include religious broadcaster Pat Robertson's Regent University School of Law in Virginia Beach and the Ave Maria School of Law, a Catholic school in Ann Arbor, Mich., that was helped by a $50 million donation by Thomas Monaghan, the founder of Domino's Pizza.

According to the American Bar Association, there were 54 ABA-approved schools with some historic religious affiliation out of the total 187 ABA-accredited law schools in 2004, the most recent breakdown available.

"Christian law schools would seem to be the next frontier in evangelical, political organizing," said Diane Winston, a professor of media and religion at the University of Southern California. "It is hard not to think that a main reason is to turn out lawyers who are astute in First Amendment cases."

Falwell said there was a "desperate need" for more Christian law schools and, two years into the project, he said he feels vindicated.

"We have a heavy commitment to the sanctity of human life, born and unborn. We will be trying to reconcile couples rather than help them get divorces," Falwell said. "We need Christian lawyers. -- We are to be the conscience of the culture and confront the culture when necessary. We will assist families giving birth to their children rather than aborting them. And we will attempt to overturn Roe v. Wade one day."

Falwell, who likes to use military symbolism, said his law school is dispatching fresh troops in the cultural wars.

"We're training lieutenants for the Lord," he said.

Chriss Doss, former director for the Center for of Law and Church at the Cumberland School of Law in Birmingham, Ala., said Falwell's law school is very open about "training people to go forth as Christian crusaders. They are very good at bringing forth converts."

Green, who was part of the inaugural law school class at Regent University, said faith-based law schools emphasize the historic connection between law and morality.

"Is law what it is because it has state power behind it or because there are transcendent principles that make it right?" Green said. "Of course, we would say those transcendent principles originate with the creator."

Mat Staver, executive director of the Liberty Counsel, a conservative Christian legal group, became the law school's interim dean May 15.

Staver said his arrival signals no hard shift to the right, although the Liberty Counsel's litigation headquarters has assumed offices above the law school. The chief counsel at the Liberty Counsel is an adjunct professor at the law school. Some students do summer internships at the Liberty Counsel.

Staver bristles at the suggestion that Liberty's law school will be regarded as a Bible school with a legal veneer or as second rate, like going to medical school in the Caribbean.

"I think they have to come and find out that we are a Christian school, but we teach law and the foundation of the law," Staver said. "We're not opening up the book on Exodus to find our position on capital punishment."

Liberty can apply for full accreditation after two years in its provisional status, ABA spokeswoman Nancy Slocum said. It will have five years to achieve full accreditation.

Richardson Lynn, dean of the John Marshall Law School in Atlanta who chaired the ABA site team that evaluated Liberty last September, said there was academic freedom and rigor at Liberty.

"At some places, there are some issues that if you discuss them, it sounds insensitive. There are some things that political correctness took off of the table," Lynn said. "I didn't have an impression at Liberty that things were out of bounds. Academic freedom seemed like it was much like in any place, but because of the mission it might be a little bit different."

White, who is part of the inaugural class and who wants to enter the U.S. Senate, said the challenge is blending Liberty's mix of religion and law out into the world.

"We recognize there is a need for a shift in the law," White said. "How do we effect change without people feeling we are trying to impose our morals on them?"

[bigsmooth]

this was on the front page. the roanoke times has really been giving LU a lot of love this year. you would be surprised how little many people in the star city know about LU.