Christian Family Law Association

Remarks of Lloyd Kelso, Founder of the Christian Family Law Association,

To the Wake County Chapter of the Christian Legal Society, October 16, 2009

VOICE OF TRUTH

I would like to thank the Wake County Chapter of the Christian Legal Society for inviting me here today to speak to you. You are certainly indebted to Rik Lovett. Rik puts so much of himself into helping organize your meetings. Rik sent me an inspiring email, back on August 6^th, and asked that I be your speaker for today. At that point, the Christian Family Law Association had been formed for a little over one month and had one member, me. Since that time, we have added three members, surprisingly all from the State of Texas. When Rik contacted me, frankly I was encouraged by the fact that the CLS Chapter in Wake County was organized and is actually having meetings. That is something we are still working on in the Charlotte chapter. Let me encourage each of you to give all you can to this endeavor. Only a unified Christian bar is going be able to be the Voice of Truth to those in power. I pray that my being here today will be an inspiration to each of you to continue to support this Christian ministry.

I would like to start by reading three short passages of Scripture that I believe sets the tone for what I have to say. All three are from one of my favorite books of the Bible, the Gospel of John 14:12-17; 15:26-27; and 16:13-15:

12 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. ¹³ "Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴ "If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it. ¹⁵ "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. ¹⁶ "I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; ¹⁷ that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.

26 "When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me, ²⁷ and you will testify also, because you have been with Me from the beginning.

13 "But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. ¹⁴ "He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. ¹⁵ "All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.

Let us pray: Heavenly Father, send the Spirit of Truth to us today. Fill us today with your Spirit. Spirit of Truth, hear what we have to say today. Speak through me today to Your disciples. Disclose Yourself to us, and lead us into a full knowledge of Your Truth. In the name of LORD and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Rik asked that I talk to you today about the Christian Family Law Association, which is a brand new association, and my Christian discipleship in my work in family law. The Christian Family Law Association was formed in June 2009. We have already had 965 hits on the website. I hope you will visit the website at www.christianfamilylawassociation.org. It contains articles that I have written on alternative families, unmarried cohabitation, marriage, divorce, and same-sex relationships. These articles should be helpful to you and your clients as they deal with the spiritual aspects of these issues. It also contains the membership application and statement of faith that must be signed and sent in with your application. Our focus will be both external and internal. Externally, we will be speaking as the Voice of Truth on such issues as same-sex marriage, unmarried cohabitation, marriage, divorce, same-sex adoption, and other areas related to justice and truth in family law. Internally, we will be seeking to disciple family law attorneys and help them to view their practices in family law as a ministry. So why do we need a new family law association? I will attempt to answer that question as I proceed with my talk today.

When I began practicing law in 1977, and I believe for years before that time, our State and nation was on the right course, a course that seemed consistent with God’s truth and God’s will. There appeared to be a holy alliance between lawmakers and the Word of Truth contained in Scripture. That is not the case today. In the past two decades it has become obvious that we need a new association of Christian attorneys that will be the Voice of Truth to persons in power, presidents, governors, bureaucrats, legislators, and the judiciary. We have abandoned the Bible’s mandate to define marriage as between one man and one woman. We have abandoned the Bible’s mandate to marriage period. Over one-half of the households in America today are composed of unmarried people. We have abandoned the Bible’s mandate for children to have parents with opposite genders. We have abandoned the commandments, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness. In my prayers for our State and nation, it became obvious to me that we needed someone to speak the Voice of Truth to some of these issues. Like Isaiah, I heard a voice telling me, "Here am I LORD, send me." God acts through His people. If someone is going to speak the Voice of Truth, it will have to be us, Christian attorneys who feel strongly about God’s issues. So the Christian Family Law Association was formed to be a Voice of Truth on these and other issues that are important to God’s Kingdom. So the first part of my speech to you will focus on this external focus as the Voice of Truth.

The second part of my talk will focus on the Christian Family Law Association as a means of equipping Christian attorneys to do God’s work. If we are to be the Voice of Truth externally, we must be a model of Christian discipleship internally, otherwise we have no credibility to those who hear our message. Gandhi once said, "I would consider becoming a Christian if I could only find one who lived like a Christian is supposed to live." Let’s take inventory of how we are doing as Christian attorneys. Are we modeling Christian behavior to our staff, our clients, at the courthouse, and in our community? We must not simply talk the talk, we must walk the walk. We must be equipped as Christian attorneys to model Christ-like behavior to the world. We must conduct the practice of law like a ministry. If we can do that, we will be effective as the Voice of Truth for God’s Kingdom.

So let me take the external first. We are called by God to be the Voice of Truth to those in power. What sets us apart as Christian attorneys from other members of the bar? As Christian attorneys, and indeed as Christians, we are called to be in the world, but not of the world. What exactly do I mean by that? I will get into this a little more in a moment, but as Christians we must accept on faith that the Word of God contained in Scripture is Truth. Jesus makes this clear to us in the Gospel of John, 17:13-17. Jesus is praying to the Father about his disciples, saying:

13 "But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves. ¹⁴ "I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. ¹⁵ "I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. ¹⁶ "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. ¹⁷ "Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.

What is Jesus saying here? First, He makes it clear to those listening, his disciples [ and us], that He has given the Father’s Word to us. Second, because of the Word, the world has hated them. Do any of you today feel hated today for being a Christian attorney? In my area of the State, I often feel hated for being a Christian attorney. When I made my practice a ministry, I had to set some parameters for the types of cases that I would take. A couple of years ago I was offered a substantial advanced fee to take a case for a father, living with his girlfriend, who was seeking custody of his child from a mother, who he says was living with a boyfriend. After I told him he would have to find a different lawyer, he left the office slamming the door so hard that the plaques about fell off of my walls. The decisions we have to make as Christian attorneys will not always be popular in the world. As a Christian attorney, persecution is something you are going to have to accept.

What else is Jesus saying in this passage? He is praying to the Father to protect us from evil. As long as we are in the world, we must pray daily for the Father to fill us with His Holy Spirit and to protect us from evil. As Christian attorneys, we are faced with evil temptations every day. Jesus says, they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. When we become Christians we accept the concept on faith that we are now citizens of God’s Kingdom. We are no longer like the world. We are to be in the world, but not of the world. Finally, Jesus asks the Father to sanctify them with the Truth. And what is the Truth? Jesus makes a profound statement: "Your Word is TRUTH." He is referring here to Scripture, the Bible, the Word of God. Therefore, the first thing we must do, as Christians, is to accept on faith that the Bible is the Word of God. That His Word is the Truth for how we are to live our lives. How many of you accept God’s Word in the Bible as Truth?

The second thing we must do is to be able to distinguish between the Voice of Truth and voice of error. There are many voices speaking in America today. Some of them are the Voice of Truth, while others are the voice of error. How do we distinguish between those who are speaking the Voice of Truth from those who are speaking the voice of error? The Apostle John gives us some help. The answer is contained in 1 John 4:1-6:

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. ² By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; ³ and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world. ⁴ You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. ⁵ They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. ⁶ We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

As Christian attorneys, we are going to find that there are persons in power who know God, and they will hear and listen to our message. We will also find that there are those in power who are of the world, and the world listens to them, and they will not listen to us. As we discern between those who listen to us, and those who do not, we are able to discern the Spirit of Truth and the spirit of error.

Let me give you an example of the voice of error. On September 15, 2009, a bill was introduced, with 91 original co-sponsors, in the U.S. House of Representatives, referred to as the "Respect for Marriage Act". It calls for the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act. If this legislation becomes law, states will no longer have the right to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages that have been entered into in states that allow same-sex marriages. If you have not kept up with that issue, the number is now five. Ten percent of our states recognize same-sex marriage, and the number will be six in January 2010, when New Hampshire joins the group. At the introduction of this bill, Representative Jared Polis, a Colorado Democrat, spoke in strong support of the bill. Quoting from his speech,

"Throughout history, we have only moved forward when society has distinguished between traditional values and valueless traditions. The Defense of Marriage Act - DOMA - is a valueless tradition that undermines the spirit of love and commitment that couples share and sends the wrong message to society. It is time for its repeal."

The Bible tells us that marriage is between a man and a woman. It provides a consistent witness against homosexuality. It is a sin. The repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act will open the door to promoting homosexual marriages in every state. Yet Representative Polis refers to a bill that preserves the Bible’s definition of marriage as a "valueless tradition." I hope you can see that based on Scripture, what Representative Polis said is a good example of the spirit of error speaking to us today.

There are many other examples of the spirit of error being voiced today. We recently saw the voice of error speaking to us from the North Carolina Court of Appeals is affirming a decision of a district court judge to grant a same-sex couple a Decree of Adoption for a minor child. At the request of Tami Fitzgerald, who I believe is here today, the Christian Family Law Association has joined with the petitioners in that case, Boseman v. Jarrell, in seeking discretionary review to the North Carolina Supreme Court. I hope you will pray with me that the Supreme Court grants discretionary review. Let the Voice of Truth speak loudly and clearly in North Carolina in reversing the Court of Appeals’ decision.

Who will stand with us as the Voice of Truth? There are several organizations that have made it clear that they will stand with the voice of error. This may come as some surprise to you as it was for me. On the issues of same-sex marriage and same-sex adoption, the voice of error includes such powerful association as the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, and the American Bar Association. Based on what we have observed thus far, the North Carolina Bar Association, North Carolina Advocates for Justice, and the North Carolina Association of Women Attorneys are more aligned with these organizations than with the Voice of Truth. I am a member of the Christian Legal Society, and I support it in every way that I can. I also support Liberty Counsel, Matt and Anita Staver, and the work they are doing in this areas as well. But the Christian Legal Society and Liberty Counsel have their plates full. They have focused more of their time and resources on the protection of free speech and religious liberty. I believe the Christian Family Law Association will focus its time and resources directly on issues related to family law.

Fellow Christian attorneys, God has prepared us for such a time as this. We must be organized and speak as one voice to those in power. The message must be clear. God’s Word is unequivocal that marriage is between one man and one woman. Homosexuality is a sin. It is wrong, and we will not support any legislation or court decision that supports it through the recognition of same-sex marriages or same-sex adoptions. There are those who would say that our position is discriminatory and homophobic. But I am not a homophobe. Rather, I am a Godophobe. I saw what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah, and I don’t want to see our State and nation go down the same path to destruction. It is a matter of loving the sinner, but hating the sin. In this day, when the voice of error is blaring in our ears every day, we need the Voice of Truth. The Christian Family Law Association is and will be that Voice of Truth. As founder of that association, it is my prayer that those in power will listen to the Voice of Truth and be sanctified by It. God’s Word is Truth. As Christian attorneys, we are in the world, but we are not of the world. There are many loud voices yelling the voice of error at the top of their lungs. But nothing is impossible with God on our side. WE MUST JOIN TOGETHER, BE UNITED, AND STAND FIRM AS THE VOICE OF TRUTH!

If we are to have credibility as the Voice of Truth, we must model our Christian ethics and faith to the world. I would be remiss if I did not include something in my talk today about Christian discipleship. If we are to model Christian ethics and faith then we must truly be Christian disciples in a personal sense.

Let me address first what it means to become a disciple of Jesus Christ, and second, how we can model our discipleship in the practice of law? In Romans 12:1-2 the Apostle Paul gives us a recipe for Christian discipleship – which I define as living a life that is within God’s will and glorifying to Him. Paul says:

"Therefore, I urge you, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will."

Let me break this biblical imperative for Christian discipleship down into three parts: (1) Acknowledging God’s authority over your life; (2) Surrendering yourself to God’s authority; and, (3) Allowing spiritual transformation of yourself into God’s perfect will.

First, acknowledging God’s authority over your life. While in seminary, we were required to write a paper about ourselves and how we saw God working in our lives, from birth to the present. When you are 55 years old, that can be a rather lengthy paper. In that paper I describe how throughout the first twenty years of my law practice, I kept God in a box. I would take him out for a little while on Sunday mornings and then put him back on Sunday, right after church. I actually avoided reading the Bible because I did not want to feel convicted for how I was living my life. Frankly, I did not think it was possible for a trial lawyer to be a Christian disciple. At that point in my life, God was simply a blip on the radar screen. I would go on Sunday, pay my premium on heaven, and go back to live however I wanted to live all week. In that paper, I describe how my wife, Debra, who is here with me today, dragged me to a disciple Bible study in the Fall of 2000. I also described how reading God’s Word on a daily basis affected me. I began to see God’s authority over my life. I began to see that life was not all about me, my success, and how much money I could make as an attorney. My life had been a life of being served by others. I was at the center of my universe, and those around me were there to serve me. Then, one day, after two years of Bible study, August 2002, I found myself on vacation at Wrightsville Beach, sitting in a condo, and reading the Gospel of Mark. One passage began to illuminate me. It was Mark 10:45, which says,

"For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."

I had already learned in my discipleship classes that we are to be Christ-like in our thinking and behavior. If this was Christ’s model, then I had fallen far short of what Jesus wanted for my life. I realized it was not all about me, but was all about Him. He should be our top priority, the center of our universe. We are to give our lives to the service of Him. After that illumination, with great joy I ran out to the beach to find Debra and told her I felt God was calling me to attend seminary. So I entered seminary in January 2003.

I am not telling you that each of you have to have a similar experience and enter seminary. But I do believe that God calls all of us to follow Jesus. He calls us to love him. Remember Jesus gave us the great Commandment: Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. We often remember the second part of that Commandment, but how are we doing on living up to the first part? What does it mean to love God? Jesus tells us in the Gospel of John that we show God that we love him when we obey his laws. As a trial lawyer, I found that passage highly convicting. It was a struggle first read and try to understand God’s law. Second, the greater struggle for us is to live in obedience to it. The Bible sets forth God’s law, or ethical principles for how each of us are to live our lives. To know and understand God’s law, I suggest that you become involved in a Bible study. For me, I had to know as much as possible about God and His Word. I took 40 courses in seminary between January 2003 and May 2006, including Greek and Hebrew. But the bottom line after all that study is that we must all come to an acknowledgment of God’s Word as the moral authority for who we are and how we are to live our lives. The Bible tell us all of God’s law that we need to know for living a life of Christian discipleship. Just as you studied the law to take a bar exam to become an attorney, you need to study God’s law to become a Christian discipleship.

Once you understand that it is not all about you. That God is in charge. The second step is a personal surrender to God’s authority. As you have often found out in handling cases, it is not enough to just know the law. Even the Pharisees knew the law. Jesus talks about knowledge of God without surrender and a relationship with Him in the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 7:21-23:

"Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!"

When we surrender to God’s law, we come into a personal relationship with Him. That is important, not only for our salvation and entrance into God’s Kingdom, but also in doing His will. Surrendering to God is not a one time deal. I have heard some folks say, well, I came forward in church one time, or at a Billy Graham crusade, and that did it for me. But living a life of Christian discipleship requires a daily, and sometimes hourly, surrender to God’s authority. I find that many times I have made my life a living sacrifice, cast myself and all my cares on the altar of God, only to find that within a few hours I have crawled off the altar. Complete surrender to God’s authority is a daily exercise. Recognize His authority through His word and ask the Holy Spirit to fill you and guide you in all that you do in your personal and professional life. The good news for me, as I concluded in the last part of my seminary paper where I said that God was only a blip on the radar screen, through obedience and surrender to His authority, the Holy Spirit brought me to a point that God had come to land on the runway of my heart.

The last point I want to make on Christian discipleship is that if we are to model our Christian ethics and faith to the world, after recognizing God and His laws as authority for our lives, and after surrendering to His authority, there must be a spiritual transformation into God’s perfect will. What does Paul tell us about how we can do that? He says, "Do not conform any longer to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." What Paul is really talking about here is a transformation of our character. What is our character? I would define our character as who we truly are ethically and morally. Our character is the sum total of all of our virtues and vices. It is not who we are for two hours on Sunday morning at church. It is who we are 24/7. It is who we are when we are alone in the privacy of our homes in front of the computer screen. So if we want to be transformed into what God wants us to be, we must eliminate and reject the vices that are part of the patterns of this world and be transformed by the renewing of our minds.

Paul refers to the patterns of this world. What are the pattens of this world? I believe what he is talking about here is our worldly culture. It is what we see on television, view on the computer, and hear in our everyday conversations with others. In seminary we were taught about our culture. I really wish more law schools studied culture in preparing lawyers to practice law. Since I have been an attorney, I have been to very few seminars that teach anything about our culture. I don’t know how anyone today could properly select a jury in any kind of case without some knowledge of our cultural ideologies, such as modernism and postmodernism. How are you going to communicate your case to folks with such worldly ideologies. Many attorneys tragically assume that clients or jurors will think like they do. When I was in law school, it was three years of hard study to learn some law, but more importantly to learn how to "think like a lawyer." Friends, from my perspective, learning how to "think like a lawyer" is a pattern in this world that can become a license for dishonesty and deceit. In my experience, for some lawyers, thinking like a lawyer is akin to "thinking like an NFL middle linebacker." It sometimes involves:

Filing lawsuits that have little or no merit to punish an adversary;

Placing zeal for a client’s cause over truth and calling it "justice";

Cross-examining a witness we know has testified truthfully; or,

Serving our colleagues in the firm, even if it means over-billing, because everyone else is doing it.

These are by no means an exhaustive list of lawyers thinking like NFL linebackers. In the court of public opinion, today’s legal profession is viewed as relativistic, unfeeling, and unscrupulous. The public does not see us as Christians, purveyors of truth, or seekers of justice. Many people and lawyers believe that there is a wall of separation between God and the law. Although God is absolute, the law is something we can and should twist to fit the case. But it should not be that way. I often tell my prospective clients that "you may think you want a Christian attorney until you actually have one."

Why do so many lawyers have difficulty with biblical and ethical decision-making. I believe it comes from much of our training. When I was in seminary, I wrote a paper for my Christian ethics class with a legal theme entitled "A Return to Ethical Billing Practices." In that paper I quote from Harvard Law School Professor Alan Dershowitz’s book, letters to a young lawyer, which is now on the reading list of many law school ethics classes. In it, Dershowitz writes:

In deciding what course of action is moral, you should act as if there were no God. You should also act as if there were no threat of earthly punishment or reward. You should be a person of good character because it is right to be such a person. ... [E]very good act would be done simply because it was deemed by the actor to be good. Good character ... would involve striking an appropriate balance among often competing interests, such as the interests of oneself and of others, of the present and of the future, of one’s family ... and of strangers.

Dershowitz’s approach fails to include truth as a standard for moral conduct. For example, using Dershowitz’s standard, an associate attorney in a firm may deem charging excessive fees or padded billing morally permissible by balancing the various interests. The associate might think: Padded billing provides a financial reward for the firm and the associate; it helps the associate’s family by allowing him more time with them; it causes only minimal harm to clients in most cases; it has little effect on the present or future; and, everybody else does it, so there is little likelihood of punishment. In my paper I warned that Dershowitz’s postmodern concept of morality is likely to lead many law students into a vast minefield of uncertainty in their quest for moral guidance in making ethical decisions in the legal profession. I believe Dershowitz’s statement creates a pattern for young lawyers. It epitomizes the way that the world and many most in the legal profession look at ethical decision-making, and it lacks any element of biblical Truth.

The Bible provides us God’s authority for ethical decision-making. We must allow biblical Truth to transform our minds for us to become Christian attorneys. The Holy Spirit can renew our minds, and conform our thinking to think like a Christian lawyer. Michael Lerner, in his book, Spirit Matters, writes, "Imagine how different the norms of the legal profession would be if we began with the notion that law was a moral calling, a calling to serve the public good." In beginning to see law practice, and particularly family law practice, as a Christian calling, we must first become Christian disciples and abandon the earthly patterns established for the way we think about ethical decision-making. We must learn the ways of Christ. We must think like a Christian lawyer. This involves, not just a change of mind, but also a change of heart. Immanuel Kant once asked, "Can a man who is by nature bad, become good?" The answer is yes, if God implants within him a new heart. Second Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" Attorneys often seek to change their behaviors on their own with the help of seminars, retreats, counseling, support groups, psychic help-lines, and will power. I am not saying that some of these may not be helpful. What I am saying is that it is Christ alone who can give us the ability to hate our sin and the to desire to love Him above all else. God makes a wonderful promise in Ezek 36:27. He says, "I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances." If we ask God, he can cleanse our hearts, recreate our hearts, and put his Spirit into our hearts. Jesus calls this a "new birth." Once a person is born again, he begins the fight for holiness, commits to purity, and has a new love for God. Success as a Christian attorney comes through the disciplines of the Christian life - Bible reading, prayer, and Christian fellowship. Christian attorneys do not rationalize by saying, "Everyone else is doing it so I have a right to do it too." Christian attorneys do not support the evil conduct of their associates and colleagues. Christian attorneys do not conform to the patterns of this world. Rather, they are guided by biblical Truth. They adhere to the standard of contextual absolutism which holds "that in each and every ethical situation, no matter how extreme, there is a course of action that is morally right and free of sin." Examples of contextual absolutes are contained in the Ten Commandments. For instance, God makes it clear in the eighth commandment that we are not to steal (Exod 20:15), and in the ninth commandment that we are not to give false testimony against our neighbor (Exod 20:16). If we engage in over-billing of a client, it is both false and steals from the client. Over-billing is a sin, and attorneys need to stop it.

One of the areas I spent a lot of time with in seminary was the study of justice and its relationship to truth. In fact, after graduating from seminary, I chose "truthdrivenjustice" as the domain name for my law firm web site. I have been working on a new book entitled, "Truth Driven Justice," which focuses on the fact that our system of justice is more process-driven than truth-driven. Our justice system is concerned with how quickly we can dispose of cases. We look at the numbers to see how one judicial district compares to another in terms of the speed at which cases are disposed of. But it is not the speed at which we dispose of cases that should guide us. Rather, we should be focused on the fact that in every case there is a truth. Either a party is entitled to the relief requested, or the party is not so entitled. A determination of that truth is based upon historical facts or real conditions existing at the time of a hearing or trial. Yet we so often get it wrong. As we have seen over the past few years, particularly in criminal cases, where DNA evidence has shown that many criminal defendants were wrongly convicted. If this is the case in criminal cases, where the burden of proof is so heavy, how much worse is it in civil cases where the burden of proof is much lighter? My point is, in our justice system today there is a lack of emphasis on the truth of the case. Even when we know someone has lied under oath, how many liars have you seen that were prosecuted for perjury? How many attorneys coach their clients in their testimony with a reckless disregard for the truth. It is all about winning. It is all about meeting the elements necessary to prove a cause of action. And even when attorneys know the truth, they often fail to counsel their clients to take responsibility for their actions. Probably more clients could be counseled to take responsibility if the penalties were not so great. Over the past 33 years that I have been an attorney, the penalties in criminal cases have become more and more strict. There is simply a lack of grace in dealing with those who want to come clean. The need for grace, and a care perspective, in our system are just as important as the pursuit of truth.

So the goals of the Christian Family Law Association will be externally: to become a voice for Truth. In addition to some of the issues I have discussed, I believe we should be at the forefront in new legislation and court decisions that deal with abortion, frozen embryos, and genetic engineering. Internally, we must be prepared to equip Christian lawyers live as disciples of Jesus Christ, and to view their practices as a Christian ministry. The Christian Family Law Association needs your help and support. I hope you will join the association. If not, we need your donations. We are in the process of obtaining tax-exempt status. We need funds to operate and complete that process. If you don’t join with us, I hope you will encourage others to join. We also need your prayers. Pray that the association will grow in numbers and that it will remain true to God’s Word throughout its existence. I know God is going to grow our association. I trust in Him to do that, because what we are doing is all about Him and in service for Him. It is new perspective. Tomorrow is a new day. God is with us in this endeavor, and nothing is impossible with God. Thank you for listening. May God bless each of you in every area of your lives!