On the issue of lawyers being a lower class: Matters of professional ethics
in law do, perhaps, bear some similarity to those for science and
engineering in that one of the most profound influences that a Christian
may have is simply being involved in the profession itself and attempting
to live a Christ like life in so doing. In this sense, it is important not
to foster an attitude that lawyering (or science or engineering) is an
immoral or sub-standard profession for the Christian to enter. Law (as
well as science and engineering) is an area that has a significant
influence on the development of our culture and Christians should be
involved and not just as antagonistic by-standers (though Christians ought
to be antagonistic bystanders on some things as well I suppose).
On the matter of Phil Johnson being out to lunch: True enough, but it
doesn't necessarily have to be linked to his having been trained as a
lawyer, in-spite of what he may claim. One doesn't need a Ph.D. in science
to spout scientific fallacies...then again, it does seem to help.
-----Original Message-----
From: John W Burgeson [SMTP:burgytwo@juno.com]
Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2001 9:40 AM
To: PHSEELY@aol.com; asa@calvin.edu
Subject: Re: Phillip Johnson at Northshore Church
>>Christians and Christian lawyers
in particular should be openly calling this sin "SIN" and "EVIL",
questioning
it in legal journals, and confronting the truly guilty with their sin and
with the gospel. This is what Philip Johnson for one should be doing;
but, I
wonder if any professing Christian lawyer is doing this? >>
A friend of mine, who is a law professor at Texas Tech, gave me an
interesting book recently which addressed all those issues both
forcefully and rather completely. The book was a regular issue (I think)
of the Texas Tech faculty and came out about three years ago. Don't have
it with me right now -- so I cannot cite it directly. But in discussions
with the professor, Susan Fortney, it was clear that ethical issues were,
and are, a frequent topic of writing and discussion, in her world, at
least.
Here is one point. I spent most of my working days on projects which were
morally either "good" or neutral, projects which raised few, if any deep
ethical issues. Lawyers, by profession, have to deal with such things on
a regular basis. It is very easy for me to assert that my professional
career was unmarked by moral lapses -- indeed, I faced few of these. The
lawyers are more in the thick of things. IMHO of course.
Burgy (John Burgeson)
www.burgy.50megs.com
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