Poised for the Public Square

Grounded in a unique philosophy, Trinity Law School prepares Christians who will use the law as a means to help others.

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Just inside the large glass doors of the two-story Trinity Law School building in Santa Ana, California,a tall 24-year-old woman with short blond hair sits in a black leather chair in the lobby next to the elevator. Before her lies a wooden chessboard with white and brown pieces poised for battle.

“My parents brought me up to look out for other people,” the blond woman, Jennie Ruth, says. Her father, a police officer, instilled in her the worth of fighting for victims, of bringing restoration. Jennie decided to become a lawyer. After considering five different schools, she chose Trinity for the same reason many of her classmates did. Jennie is a Christian, and she wanted to understand what it could mean to be a Christian lawyer.

Trinity Law School began in 1980 as the Simon Greenleaf School of Law. Its founders, Dr. John Warwick Montgomery, Dr. Harold Lindsell, and Dr. Walter Martin, hoped to integrate law, human rights, and Christian apologetics into one institution. In 1997 the law school joined Trinity International University as Trinity Law School. It offers a Juris Doctor, as well as a Master of Arts in Bioethics and a Master of Arts in Communication and Culture, with a dual degree option to combine the study of law with either master’s program.

Reconnecting Law and Morality

Trinity is one of only four evangelical law schools in the country. In light of the increasing secularization of American society, the mission of Trinity Law School becomes even more critical.

"People don't realize the postmodern foundations undergirding most legal education today," says Donald McConnell, a 17-year faculty member and newly appointed dean of the law school. "If they did, they would be horrified."

At the turn of the twentieth century, Oliver Wendell Holmes hypothesized the separation of morality from law in The Path of Law. The article dramatically affected other thinkers, who adopted this approach. Now law students learn that they cannot draw any conclusions about what may be "better" or "worse" philosophies of law, only which may be more "successful." They no longer ask "What should we do?" only "What can we do?"

"Legal education today is divorced from its foundation in morality. It has moved in the direction of legal positivism and, in some cases, has even devolved into nihilism," says adjunct Trinity law professor Kevin Holsclaw. "The law is seen as the equivalent of the will of the strong imposed on the rest of society. Students can come out adversely affected by this. Trinity Law School is unique in that it seeks to address the spiritual, as well as the intellectual, needs of its students."

Trinity Law School approaches the law with a "natural law" philosophy. Its starting point is found in Romans 2, where the Apostle Paul argues that the requirements of the law are written on all people's hearts. The reformer John Calvin's Institutes echoes this idea: "Now it is evident that the law of God which we call moral is nothing else than the testimony of natural law, and of that conscience which God has engraven on the minds of men" (IV, xx, 16).

The Declaration of Independence relies on natural law philosophy when it proclaims that human beings are "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights." If the rights of people come from a Creator, they will be understood differently than if they are created by human beings. Rights created by humanity can be changed. Rights that are understood to be a part of the design of creation in God's image are inherent, unchanging.

"We are equipping students who understand the law from a Christian perspective, who understand that the law is about justice and mercy," says Dean McConnell. "That perspective is needed in our courtrooms, it is needed in our communities, and it is needed in our churches."

Trinity president Dr. Greg Waybright agrees: "Trinity Law School not only equips students to practice law as a profession, but it focuses on the development of the person and seeks to help the student understand the role of law within a Christ-centered worldview."

Learning in Community

The theoretical foundation by which a law school operates cannot help but affect the relationships among students and faculty. Most law schools are notoriously competitive-with student pitted against student, as resources mysteriously disappear and students seek personal advantages over one another.

Conversely, Trinity Law School has a unique sense of community. Students help absent classmates with class notes. Professors volunteer their time at regular "law and pizza" study groups to help with bar exam preparations. And students, such as third-year law student Henry Maruyama, benefit.

"I used to be really shy when I first came here. I would sit in the front of class and almost whisper when I talked," says the 47-year-old, who was voted student body president last year. "Law school has given me the confidence and ability to speak intelligently."

Engaging Society

Within its supportive environment, Trinity Law School is tenaciously committed to preparing its students to engage the culture around them effectively.

"My education here has been an eye-opening experience," says LaDonna Jackson, a second-year student with a growing interest in trial advocacy work and a passion for First Amendment issues regarding religion. "I'm learning how to operate within the law in a way that is Christian, learning how to do that and remain effective. I can recognize now where my opponents are coming from. I can understand the other points of view-hear and recognize where they are coming from-and respond in their secular system with my Christian perspective."

Trinity students also gain valuable preparatory experiences by taking advantage of opportunities outside the classroom. Assistant Professor of Communication and Culture Dr. Stephen Kennedy takes a group of law students each July to the annual International Institute for Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. The Institute gathers 400 lawyers, judges, professors, students, and government officials from 100 countries to teach and study international human rights. The law school has been affiliated with this premier training program for twenty-five years, and according to Dr. Kennedy, Trinity students are the only consistent Christian voice there. The students are often greatly impacted by their first opportunity to discuss human rights while living for a month in an international community. All Trinity law students benefit experientially from their location in Orange County, California, one of the major centers of legal activity and thought in the U.S. Law student Eileen Stevenson currently works part time for the Pacific Justice Institute (PJI), a Christian nonprofit legal defense organization in Sacramento, which specializes in the defense of religious freedom, parental rights, and other civil liberties, and which offers regular internships to Trinity students.

Eileen says that the most frequent problems she encounters at PJI are Religious Land Act cases (which involve churches that face zoning threats) and parents and teachers who seek to understand their rights as Christians in the public school system. She helped two parents who wanted their five-year-old to opt out of a lesson that affirmed gay and lesbian behavior but who were told, "This is not sex education; it's life education." In another case, a teacher was trying to refuse a dictate to teach a daily self-esteem creed to students that included the line, "I am the divine light of the world." Another teacher contacted PJI because he had put together a PowerPoint presentation on evolution and was told that he could not, as part of that presentation, discuss any problems with the theory.

"It's been so valuable to take what I'm learning and make it practical. I can help people," says Eileen, a 50-year-old mother of two grown children and former nurse. "I came to Trinity because I wanted a school that would teach me how to think. It teaches you how to analyze, which is a lost art." She and her husband, Charles, hope to move to Tanzania after law school, combining medical and legal knowledge to help those with AIDS.

Recent Trinity graduate John Snyder and law student Chris Neiswonger work to affect the world around them through a radio show on the largest Christian station in the U.S., KKLA 99.5 in Los Angeles. Its late-night Friday roundtable discussions seek to provide intelligent Christian perspectives on current issues. Listeners respond to their broadcast and website (www.apologetics.com) from as far away as Australia and the Philippines.

"Traditionally Christians have been concerned with training theologians," John says. "It's magnificent what Trinity has done in transforming the world in this way. But there are things going on now that require more than traditional pastors, traditional apologists. Trinity is now producing people to go into the public square, not only as pastors but as ‘soldiers.' In the West, Christians live in a hostile culture for the first time in 1600 years. Now we need attorneys who can argue the case, who can go into the public square and make an argument. It runs contrary to our instincts as Christians-we're supposed to be lovers, not warriors. But if you love something, you fight for it."

Trinity Law School graduates engage society from a wide range of positions, including family law, human rights, the FBI, and government legislation. They live out the school's vision as they propose public policy, defend their faith in the marketplace of ideas, and work to help the oppressed.

"It all points to a bigger vision over time," says Dean McConnell. "We need Christian legal education because lawyers are important agents in society for change and stability. Lawyers can solve problems and resolve conflicts. If we as Christians want to transform the world-then we need Christian lawyers as transformative agents.