The Jurisprudence of the Christian Right: Teachings from Regent and Liberty University Law Schools

No issue is more hotly contested in the culture wars than the proper place of religion in public life. Right wing Christian lawyers are deeply engaged in the most divisive church-state controversies and issues confronting American society today, including abortion, same-sex marriage, prayer in the schools, vouchers for private schools, and religious displays in civic places. Do they aim to establish a theocracy? If by that one means that they want government to be controlled by the church, nothing could be further from the truth. But they do aspire for government (along with all other facets of life) to be predicated on the principles of Christianity. This essay aims to be a nonjudgmental description of the jurisprudence of the religious right as it is understood and taught in conservative Christian law schools, primarily those of Regent and Liberty Universities. No issue is more hotly contested in the culture wars than the proper place of religion in public life. On the one side are those who insist that religion is a purely private matter with no place in government. Drawn up against them are those who hold that government should adhere to religious principles and that certain religiously-grounded imperatives are so necessary to the