Department of Just-Christians

Bill Maher's closing New Rules addresses the Justice Department's "conversion" into a home for Just-Us Christians. A definite don't miss.

Charlie Savage of the Boston Globe -- who just won the Pulitzer Prize for his excellent series of articles on presidential "signing statements,"see Cheney in Charge, also wrote on this issue, in Scandal puts spotlight on Christian law school, noting:

The title of the course was Constitutional Law, but the subject was sin. Before any casebooks were opened, a student led his classmates in a 10-minute devotional talk, completed with "amens," about the need to preserve their Christian values.

"Sin is so appealing because it's easy and because it's fun," the law student warned.

Regent University School of Law, founded by televangelist Pat Robertson to provide "Christian leadership to change the world," has worked hard in its two-decade history to upgrade its reputation, fighting past years when a majority of its graduates couldn't pass the bar exam and leading up to recent victories over Ivy League teams in national law student competitions.

But even in its darker days, Regent has had no better friend than the Bush administration. Graduates of the law school have been among the most influential of the more than 150 Regent University alumni hired to federal government positions since President Bush took office in 2001, according to a university website.

I can remember when getting a job with the DOJ was considered a plum job, and they only considered the top law school graduates. In fact, you had to excellent credentials, as well as solid experience, before you could even hope to get a job in the US Attorney's Office. As the Boston Globe article said:

"It used to be that high-level DOJ jobs were generally reserved for the best of the legal profession," wrote a contributor to The New Republic website . ". . . That a recent graduate of one of the very worst (and sketchiest) law schools with virtually no relevant experience could ascend to this position is a sure sign that there is something seriously wrong at the DOJ."

To think that main criteria these days is membership in God's Own Party is a very sad statement on "Justice." I'd say it's a sin.

(Via ThrowawayyourTV Blog)

See also Paul Krugman, For God’s Sake, who examines the infiltration of government by the Christian right as part of its efforts to eliminate the separation of Church and state. Krugman also remarks on the "sheer extremism of these people," observing:

You see, Regent isn’t a religious university the way Loyola or Yeshiva are religious universities. It’s run by someone whose first reaction to 9/11 was to brand it God’s punishment for America’s sins.

Two days after the terrorist attacks, Mr. Robertson held a conversation with Jerry Falwell on Mr. Robertson’s TV show “The 700 Club.” Mr. Falwell laid blame for the attack at the feet of “the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians,” not to mention the A.C.L.U. and People for the American Way. “Well, I totally concur,” said Mr. Robertson.

(Krugman's column also available at Rozius Unbound)

Tags: Law, Politics, Religion, Bill Maher, New Rules, Video