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REGENT UNIVERSITY AND THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION. Monica Goodling, a top aide to Alberto Gonzales, graduated from Regent University School of Law in 1999 and started working for the DOJ around 2002, under the godly leadership of John Ashcroft. Her rise to the present position looks meteoric. How exactly Goodling acquired the necessary experience in such a few years remains a mystery to me. Several hours of Googling gave very little but hearsay.Perhaps it is the greatness of her alma mater that explains her rapid promotions. Regent University was founded by the Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson with the mission of producing Christian leaders who will change the world. The very word "regent" has a special meaning in this context: the alumni of the university are expected to serve as regents until the real ruler, Christ, returns. A good way to begin changing the world is to start with the U.S. government. Digby notes that Regent University boasts 150 alumni in the Bush administration. That is an astonishing figure for a university which has been operating for a mere quarter of a century.What is it that makes the Regent graduates so desirable for appointments in high places? Christopher Hayes wrote about Pat Robertson's joint in 2005, and may have the answer to my innocent questioning:
At a school designed explicitly to produce influential professionals, worldview plays an especially crucial role; it is the bridge from inner spiritual beliefs to public action in the professional sphere. It's for this reason that Regent's professors are required to integrate "biblical principles" into every subject area, and it's the reason that law students take a class their first year in the Christian foundations of law. Regent Law School Dean Jeffrey Brauch calls the result a "JD-plus." Students take the standard canon of legal education -- torts, property, constitutional law -- but supplement discussions of what the law is with discussions of what the Bible and Christian tradition say the law should be, reading Leviticus, the Gospel of Matthew, and Thomas Aquinas alongside their case law. The same model extends throughout Regent's nine schools, which offer courses like "Redemptive Cinema" and "Church-based Counseling Programs," while infusing standard professional training with insights and injunctions from the Judeo-Christian (read: Christian) tradition.All very interesting. What do they say about taking the Fifth in those Christian worldview discussions, I wonder.
-- J. Goodrich
