Are religiously affiliated law schools obsolete in America? The view of an outsider looking in

St. John's Law Review, Summer 2000 by Lee, Randy

If this is the future of America's religious law schools, then I believe that they are poised to profoundly impact American society. I believe that we will see them contribute to an era of justice and mercy in America the likes of which this nation has never seen before. But if religious law schools choose to be less than what their names indicate they are, I fear that we will be left to ask, again and again with increasing levels of ambivalence, whether such schools are obsolete.

Religiously affiliated law schools are not the first of God's creations to find themselves confronted with a moment of such feast or famine. In this way, such schools are like Saul, the first king of Israel.43 Unfortunately, however, Saul failed in his crucial moment. Theologian Adrienne von Speyr described Saul as a man who sought himself rather than offering himself;44 a man who ultimately forsook his mission and thus his kingship, as the prophet Samuel had presented it to him. Saul abandoned his mission because he sought to be "something not allotted to him-although something greater would have been his lot if he had found the courage to regard obedience as grace and belief as a reward."45

One may remember Saul as the ungrateful, bitter, and malicious king who stalked his loyal servant David throughout his kingdom.46 This persona, however, is the consequence of Saul's abandonment of his mission rather than the cause of it. God had stripped Saul of his kingdom long before Saul encountered David.47 Instead, Saul's downfall was that he was one who acted "autonomously when strictest obedience [wa]s required. He start [ed] remonstrating with God about the test to which he [wa]s being put. He sense[ed] the concrete, earthly stresses, but not the supernatural assistance, his being held by God above the course of events."48 For God, the last straw was when Saul failed to wipe out the nation of Amalek, "men and women, children and infants, oxen and sheep, camels and asses."49 Instead, Saul spared Agag, Amalek's king,50 and "the best of the fat sheep and oxen, and the lambs."51 In so doing, Saul failed the Lord in two ways that were subtle yet profound.

First, Saul failed because he sought to do what he thought best for God's people, rather than doing what God had assigned him to do.52 Although God labels such "presumption" as "the crime of idolatry,"53 one can still empathize with Saul. It was tempting for him to look over the vast, captured wealth of Amalek and say, "Lord, there's a lot of stuff here that can be put to good use, stuff that can ultimately bring You glory. I can't just destroy it." It is equally tempting today for religiously affiliated law schools to say, "Lord, if You and I do this my way, we can move up a tier in the U.S. News survey, and that will ultimately bring You glory." But God does not ask us to invent a mission for ourselves that we think will glorify Him. He asks that we embrace His will,54 act as an instrument in His hand,55 and pursue the mission He has created us for. In God's eyes, "[o]bedience is better than sacrifice, and submission than the fat of rams."56 Thus, as religiously affiliated law schools seek their mission, they must seek God's mission for them, rather than seek their own, even if their own is a mission with God's glory in mind.57