Biblical Diversity Aids Justice Mission at Trinity Law School

Trinity Law School students from many backgrounds and ethnicities seek a Christian response to injustice.

By Paul Hughes

Simon Greenleaf’s hands are creased in the portrait of him that hangs in the stairwell at the Trinity Law School campus in Santa Ana, California. Expansive, huge, and growing as you gaze, his hands reach as if to lay hold of an enormous challenge. He was, the plaque says, an exemplar of faith and a Harvard professor of law. His goal—combining faith and law— is the daily justice-seeking vision of Trinity Law School. It is a mission that has found a unique appeal to the diverse nearby community in southern California.

“Trinity Law School was founded on apologetics, law, and human rights,” says Interim Dean Myron Steeves. “We were way ahead of the curve.” Evangelicals largely avoided the public square roughly 30 years ago when the institution was founded as Simon Greenleaf School of Law, he says. But over the last three decades, the social justice seeds planted earlier by evangelical leaders such as Carl Henry and Billy Graham have borne fruit. Now, the integration of faith, social action, and biblical diversity is a prime focus of Trinity Law School.

“Our 200 students spread the spectrum of color and experi- ence,” Steeves says. In a 2009 U.S. Department of Education survey of 30 law programs, Trinity showed greater diversity than the average school in every category measured. In many cases, the law school has two or three times the average per- centage of minority students.

EveryTribe
Reflecting both the diversity of the Santa Ana community as well as the diversity of God’s creation is a part of the law school’s attempt to integrate faith with its instruction. “Chris- tians shouldn’t discriminate because we’re equal from the start—made in God’s image,” says Doug Eaton, admissions director. While some students are not Christian, Trinity Law School is able to find ways to connect them to its faith commitments. “Other religions relate to human rights even if they don’t believe in Jesus.” Often, the law and human rights can provide a foundation for learning more about Jesus Christ.

It may seem counterintuitive to some, but Trinity Law School finds that amid an ethnically and religiously diverse student body, Christianity provides a basis for understanding. Many students who have come from outside the United States know about human rights violations from firsthand experience. Among law schools, Trinity uniquely provides a common ground from which to understand equality and human rights.

Diversity that is grounded in the school’s faith commitments provides a framework to understand the law, human rights, and justice. “Our students see that laws aren’t human con- structs,” Eaton says. Rather, God has created humans as moral beings able to know God’s moral laws. As Paul wrote, “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world.” (Rom. 1:20) The school’s diversity emphasizes this. With students from all corners of the world, certain truths are, indeed, self evident.

Robert Nguyen was born into a Buddhist family in Vietnam in 1981, and came to America 10 years later. He isn’t Christian, but he came to Trinity because it is. “That’s laid a foundation for all of their thought,” says Nguyen, who began studies in the summer of 2010. Nguyen has a bachelor’s in political sci- ence. He plans to stay in California, using his law degree to help troubled juveniles.

Eaton says students are attracted by more than just the school’s faith-based curriculum. They come to Trinity Law School because of its academic reputation, location, affordability, and flexible schedules. These serve diverse students concerned about cost and proximity to work and family. “We give a lot of people an opportunity to go to law school,” Eaton says.

From its beginning, Trinity Law School has existed for others. That’s what human rights and religious freedom may mean, in practice—including a law practice: working on behalf of others. Trinity’s attorneys pursue both goals, in all places.

Pursuing Justice
Another painting at Trinity Law School is of a Bible open on a desk, with a row of law books nearby. Below the picture, Romans 12:12 is quoted, counseling joy, hope, patience—and constant prayer. The brace of chairs below are upholstered with images of the hunt: horses, hounds, and forest. It creates an image of a space for perseverance and learning.

“Two things we offer are a socially conservative atmosphere and a faculty committed to absolute truth,” Steeves says. These are not popular offerings in many parts of Southern California, but it has attracted a number of immigrants to the school and is one of several reasons why enrollment has surged in the last year. Immigrants and minorities, even if non-Christians, want a place to pursue absolute truth in a conservative environment.

“We’re a mini L’Abri,” says Steeves, citing Francis Schaef- fer’s work with spiritually seeking young people in the 1960s.
Anyone, including a nominal Christian, can come to Trinity to “think through the implications of faith,” Steeves pauses a moment and then says — “slowly.” Those who are new to thinking about the Christian faith or who have not fully embraced it need time to explore.
It often happens in class. “I can begin with a prayer without someone asking, ‘Why are you talking about God?’” says Professor Sara Hakami, an Iranian Christian. “I’m also able to incorporate discussions of morality and ethics.”

Such discussions continue for years, says Steeves, as students go through school, and even after they graduate. “If students are struggling, I pray for them,” says Hakami. “Students feel it when professors implement Christ’s teaching. Everyone appreciates faculty who care.”

“The one thing I most wanted was the emphasis on faith in law,” says Nduka Ibekwe. “It’s not something you usually hear about lawyers.” Ibekwe, a Roman Catholic student with a bachelor’s from Rutgers and work experience in mechanical engineering, is a first-generation American, born in Pennsyl- vania. His parents are from Nigeria.

He sought Trinity’s Christian commitment. “It does the right thing, and it promotes justice,” he says. He quickly also discovered the school’s attempt to create a biblically diverse community. “I definitely noticed when I got here,” Ibekwe says. “Cultures were crossing.”

“It’s nice to see all of us here for the same purpose. No matter where you come from, you’re striving to be better,” Ibwkwe says. He worked on detainee’s rights this summer at the Inter- national Human Rights Institute in Strasbourg. He graduates in May and plans to work in intellectual property law.

Hakami says much of her classes in legal writing are pre- defined: students must learn how to brief cases. It is a straightforward process and an essential skill. But she can still teach—and show her students—how practicing law dovetails with how we live. “You don’t want to separate these; our loy- alty lies with Christ.”

Most law schools train lawyers, producing professionals for a profession. Trinity creates lawyers who are pursuing a higher commitment. “People sometimes think faith is incompatible with the life of the mind,” says Dean Steeves. “They come here and learn that’s not the case.”

Seek Justice
The third framed expression you see, after Simon Greenleaf and the Bible, is a photo of Martin Luther King, Jr. He is pensive, looking forward into the distance while internally immersed in thought.

In his best-known speech, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Dr. King cites justice or injustice 11 times in 16 minutes, quoting the prophet Amos that “justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.” In the passage, God says he wants nothing of sacrifice or music or feasts or offer- ings — nothing to do with worship — but rather justice.

“Justice” is how human rights and religious freedom converge. “We care passionately about the philosophy of law,” says Steeves. “Thirteen out of 90 units cover it. “We want them to come away with a great appreciation for God and the human mind and heart. Then we want them to go out and do it.”

Trinity grads often stay in their communities and build a practice. Many Korean or Hispanic attorneys, the first from their family to attend college let alone law school, can return home as licensed lawyers to build a decent practice helping other people in the community.

Many grads are increasingly going into direct service for others. Trinity asks alumni to give 20 percent of their time to pro bono work: law as service. “We want large percentages of grads do this,” says Steeves.

Many even do it as full-time work. Chris Neiswonger, a Trin- ity grad, is a legal specialist with World Vision International in Monrovia, Calif. He says Trinity’s human rights emphasis is essential. “Many people from Trinity are better prepared because they know international issues better,” he says. His education, Neiswonger says, is “more real world. It’s organic to Trinity.”

Neiswonger, now earning his MBA in international develop- ment, met his wife at Trinity. Denada heard of Trinity Law School in her native Albania. She was attending a conference where Trinity professors were speaking. “They were passion- ate about defending human rights,” she says. Denada then came to the U.S. for a bachelor’s degree, and she earned her J.D. at Trinity in 2003.

Proclamation
Simon Greenleaf lived 70 years, from our Republic’s founding to just before it would be nearly shredded by one of the most terrible wars ever, and one that deeply involved human rights. Late in their lives, when Greenleaf was in middle age, John
Adams wrote Thomas Jefferson: “My friend, we have lived in serious times.”

It’s hard for young people, such as the students in Santa Ana, to remember that all times are the serious ones. Americans today aren’t writing a Constitution, but we have constitutional struggles. Neither do we war against one another at Gettys- burg, but Americans today are no less involved in war.

We live in serious times. What can a tiny law school founded on and upholding its Christian values, increasingly dimin- ished elsewhere, do about such things?

Dean Steeves says it keeps doing what it’s always done, pursu- ing the gospel and meeting the needs of people. Born amid 1970s social and political unrest and an increasing Christian concern for liberty and law, Trinity Law School teaches future lawyers that the gospel speaks to both.

“All Christians can bring the gospel and meet immediate material needs,” he says. But only attorneys, with time and intention can do what needs to be done when the law is involved. “If people commit and sacrifice to making the gospel a living reality in the legal profession, it can be done,” Steeves says. “But it has to be by Christians getting law degrees.”

Paul Hughes is a writer in Southern California, the “Faith Based” columnist for Patch.com there, and editor of the book Think and Live for apologetics.com.