Classrooms Across the Country

Since I became dean in 2000 (and interim dean the year before), I have had only one semester in which I did not teach. It was the worst semester of my life! Administrative work is necessary and important, but the fun is in the classroom. And it is the classroom that gives purpose to the administrative tasks.

This week served as one more reminder that the classroom is where the action is. On Tuesday I was in Virginia Beach with my 1L Christian Foundations of Law students. After slogging through difficult readings by Aquinas, Bracton, Coke, and Blackstone on the existence of a higher law, we stepped back to ask why a higher law matters. Through the eyes of Martin Luther King in his Birmingham, Alabama jail cell, we hashed out how a Christian citizen (or judge) should handle conflicts between the requirements of human law and the higher law. Great fun! My bright 1Ls approached different scenarios presented with thoughtfulness and passion.

Today I am in Tulsa, Oklahoma where I taught a class on Faith and Law to Oral Roberts University undergraduates. I saw the same earnestness in these students to live out their faith despite difficult situations and temptations. I was able to share how Regent University School of Law could help prepare them to integrate faith and law with excellence and integrity. Once again, it was a joy!

Tomorrow, off to more classrooms at Evangel University.