Onward Christian lawyers

By Doug Koop  |  Editorial Director

A medieval knight in jousting attire stared from the badges of delegates to the national conference of the Christian Legal Fellowship (CLF). The language of battle resonated through the late September proceedings and permeated the pages of the event program.

Carefully selected verses from Scripture buttressed the conference theme. "Therefore take on the whole armour of God, so that you may be able to stand withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm" (Eph. 6:13). "Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. Do everything in love" (1 Cor. 16:13,14).

"As part of a national grassroots association of Christian lawyers, you have aligned with a band of faithful Christian professionals--servants of the most high--committed to standing guard for Canada, its religious freedoms, its traditional family and sanctity of life," writes CLF executive director Ruth Ross. "You have also demonstrated Christ's love, compassion and righteousness to a lost and hurting world."

A day of pre-conference workshops highlighted peacemaking principles, conflict resolution and mediation techniques. The main sessions drew inspiration from the historic example of anti-slave trade campaigner William Wilberforce and turned the focus onto Christian activity in the contemporary public square.

Since its founding in the mid-1970s, the CLF has been striving "to integrate Christian faith with law." Its first purpose is to foster fellowship and strengthen the spiritual life of its members.

Its second is "to encourage and facilitate among Christians in the vocation of law the integration of a biblical faith with contemporary legal, moral, social and political issues."

Its other priorities include law student ministries, networking and evangelism.

Throughout most of its 30 years the CLF remained a small, fellowship-oriented association. More recently, however, the association is accelerating into growth mode and now counts more than 500 members across the country. Much of the growth comes as a result of its focus on law and pre-law students.

"No other ministry in Canada that we know of reaches out specifically to Christian law students," says Ross. Under the cheerful leadership of Calvin Beresh, more than 120 student members are engaged in CLF activities on university campuses.

"Law in Canada has generally been abandoned to people who are not faith-based," he laments, adding that the CLF aims "to change this situation in Canadian legal practice."

The CLF is also taking on a much more prominent and activist role in public affairs. It intervened in a number of contentious cases and continues to strengthen its capacity to "represent Christian values before the courts."

The organization wants "to appropriately anticipate and respond" to issues impacting traditional family and pro-life issues. It wants to stand firm in the area of "assisting Christians to better resist the steady diminution of religious freedom and freedom of conscience in Canada."

While the CLF is careful to embrace a range of voices, its engine is geared to conservative (social and political) solutions. It's guided by an image of a culturally Christian Canada and is mounting an aggressive defense against a host of secularizing threats.

One prominent religious liberty presenter discussed the conundrum he is facing regarding Islam. "Are we creating freedoms that Christian-hostile faiths will capitalize on to our detriment?" He leans toward restricting freedoms to inhibit this potential.

Fear of diminishing freedoms and lost privilege is a powerful catalyst to action. Clearly these dynamics are spurring the Christian Legal Fellowship to new growth and influence at this stage of its life. It's part of standing firm and being on guard. But so is the mandate to "do everything in love."

The challenge for this organization--and many others--is to engage all crucial confrontations and avoid the gratuitous; to neither shirk nor seek. Law is a very useful tool to help society live up to its obligations and ideals. But reconciliation is hard when battle cries sound.

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