Timbre of a TimeFree Mind

Liberty University's School of Law Mission Statement: "Liberty University School of Law aspires to produce future leaders who are clear thinkers, skilled legal practitioners, and morally responsible leaders of society. Thus the purpose of the School of Law is to equip graduates in law with a superior legal education in fidelity to the Christian faith expressed through the Holy scriptures."

At first blush, Liberty University's School of Law Mission Statement appears innocuous, but it is actually a dangerous and radical declaration. Falwell is making no bones about his Law School’s mission, saying that graduates of the school "would be on the Judeo-Christian side of every issue."

Lawyers should strive to be on the constitutional side of every issue, not litigating with a sectarian religious agenda in mind. If Falwell's cadre of attorneys will be on the Judeo-Christian side of every issue, does that mean that they will petition the Supreme Court for homosexuality to be punished by death, as proscribed by the Old Testament? Will a Falwell divorce lawyer demand that an adulterous husband have his eyes gouged out to prevent lusting after any more women?

How can you teach tolerance, when you believe there is only one true and correct viewpoint? Falwell's fundamentalist mentality will preclude him from hiring professors who believe in abortion, gay rights and women's rights. Falwell's law school is destined to be a citadel of intolerance.

In our pluralistic society we don't need an influx of Judeo-Christian lawyers with their atavistic "black and white" mentality, thumping their bibles, and seeking to deprive us of our hard-fought won civil liberties when fundamentalists rule in Saudi-Arabia, Iran and the Taliban's Afghanistan women are treated like chattel, freedom of the press is abolished and adherents of minority religions are persecuted and even killed.

If fundamentalists ruled in this country, homosexuals would be imprisoned, women's rights would be set back twenty years, Top 40 radio would play nothing but insufferable ditties like Debbie Boone's "You Light Up My Life", and religious minorities would be second-class citizens.