Politicians have spiritual testimonies, too

Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) spoke at a cookout I was at last night that was put on for some Christian D.C. interns. Although he had a receptive crowd, it was interesting seeing a side of a politician you normally wouldn’t see watching CNN or C-SPAN or CBS. He shared his testimony, and even uncovered a little known secret of his – he’s a poetry nut. He said, “I like to read poetry…it makes me feel smart.” Good excuse.

Pence grew up a relatively poor kid, but had a dream of helping the world through public office like his hero, JFK. He became a Christian when he was 18. But after he lost his first two attempts at Congress when he was 29 and 31, at what he called the lowest points of his career, he said God showed him that the dust gathering on his personal Bible wasn’t helping him succeed. Pence used the metaphor of a vehicle’s owner manual to show that without the Bible, we can’t find our purpose in life and figure out what we are supposed to be doing on this Earth to serve God. Without scripture as our foundation, we are like the house built on the sand that crumbles when high winds and crashing waves come – which is what happened when Pence found himself in political defeat. Through the saving grace of Christ and his Word, we have eternal hope and know that God has a plan for our lives. It’s exciting.

Pence is only 47 and has been in the House only seven years. I can see a Pence ’16 presidential bid forthcoming.

FCC, Ginsberg, and the Cathedral

Well I finished my first real project on Friday, a constitutional strategy for defending the FCC’s ability to fine broadcast networks who air programming that contain isolated uses of the f-word and s-word. It’ll now be sent to other pro-family orgs to drum up support for an FCC appeal in the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. I’ll post a link when they put it up on the site. If the Supreme Court does not rule in favor of the FCC, there could be a waterfall of expletives that could be filling your afternoon/evening network stations soon.

Got to go over to the Supreme Court this morning to hear the justices read several opinions that were released today, including a case involving a high school student who was told he could not hold up a banner that said “Bong hits for Jesus” during a school event. The SC upheld a principal’s right to demand a student not engage in behavior that promotes illegal drug activity while under school supervision. The Court also upheld President Bush’s “faith-based initiatives” programs that use federal tax dollars, but only on technical grounds. You can read more about these cases and the others that were released today here….And on a side note, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, currently the Court’s only female justice and one of its most liberal, looks as pretty in person as she does in her official picture. ;-)

And, a pic from this weekend’s journeys across the metro area:
Life abounds at the National Cathedral.

Almost one week done in D.C.

Well I've been on the job a few days here in Washington, and so far, so good. I'm staying with a great family out in Falls Church, Va., and their 13-year-old son has been like a like a new little brother. He's cool. Work at the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission is going great, with my first project being to come up with a legal response to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals' recent ruling that the Federal Communications Commission can't fine broadcasters for airing expletives over the airwaves. It's been a challenge, but pretty fun. I spent several hours at the Georgetown Law Center Library this morning doing some research (the old-fashioned way - with books - since the ERLC does not subscribe to Westlaw or Lexis...figured paying attention in that research and writing class would pay off one day). Wrote a blurb outlining the case's dissent earlier this week for the web site, but a more detailed constitutional analysis is coming soon. I attended a Values Action Team meeting, coordinated by Sen. Sam Brownback's office, over at the Capitol the other day. Interesting to see all the different players in the conservative public policy arena and what the talking points and agendas are. Everybody's got them.

Also got to swing by Capitol Hill Baptist last night for Wednesday evening Bible Study. They are doing an inductive study on the book of 1 Corinthians 1-3 that is really neat. We spent an hour talking about the first half of verse 24 in Chapter 1. The format was open-floor discussion and questions for the associate pastor leading the study. Pretty neat. Also got to meet some other summer interns who do a weekly Bible study and hang out pretty often.

Parents are in town this weekend. Their first time in D.C. Should be fun.

Exploring God's creation in Sedona, AZ

We got to spend all day Wednesday exploring Red Rock Country in Sedona, about a two hour drive from Phoenix up in the mountains. We took red 4x4, open-air jeeps through the desert around the colorful mesas and got an up close look at some prickly pear cacti, which apparently were used by the Indians for everything from sunburn ointments to food. Also got to do some horseback riding south of town. Just wanted to put up some pics:

Humility important for lawyers too

Of all the seminars that have stood out to me the past couple of weeks, C.J. Mahaney’s talk on humility has probably stood out the most. He reminded us that we are God’s creation, we are sinners, and we deserve nothing. Yet we have been blessed in countless ways, with the chief gift being God giving his son to die for us on the cross. Pride can be a huge stumbling block for Christians. Here’s an excerpt from a sermon by Charles Spurgeon that shoots it straight:

"O believer, learn to reject pride, seeing that you have no ground for it. Whatever you are, you have nothing to make you proud. The more you have, the more you are in debt to God; and you should not be proud of that which renders you a debtor. Consider your origin; look back to what you were. Consider what you will have been but for divine grace. Look upon yourself as you are now. Doesn’t your conscience reproach you? Don’t your thousand wanderings stand before you, and tell you that you are unworthy to be called His son or daughter? And if He has made you anything, aren’t you taught thereby that it is grace which has made you to differ? Great believer, you would have been a great sinner if God had not made you to differ. O you who are valiant for truth, you would have been as valiant for error if grace had not laid hold upon you. Therefore, don’t be proud, though you have a large estate – a wide domain of grace, once you did not have a single thing to call your own except your sin and misery. Oh! strange infatuation, that you, who have borrowed everything, should think of exalting yourself…"

Ole Miss baseball in the desert...

Ole Miss pretty much forgot its bats at the hotel yesterday for the second Super Regional game at Packard Stadium. But what stood out most to me about my venture to Tempe (which I skipped a free dinner at Joe’s BBQ for) was that Arizona State fans are almost as fanatic as the ones from Baton Rouge. Although they have a small stadium – only about 3,000 fans – they all worked together impressively to launch insult after insult toward the 200 or so Mississippians in the crowd and the players on the field. Nothing more than the stereotypes you’d expect people to have of Mississippi, but the difference in Arizona State fans and LSU fans is that from what I could tell most of the ASU fans were sober. And while Maroon is an excellent color choice, it should never be put with yellow. Otherwise, Tempe is a really nice place, even under 105-degree, cloudless skies. And, Sun Devil Stadium (football) looks like a cool place to watch a football game. Had to throw some edification in there.

These were the guys that every Mississippian loved to hate (Notice Lance Lynn in the background, head down):

Conquering Camelback Mountain

I set out with seven other Blackstone interns and enough water to sustain a small farm to conquer Camelback Mountain on Saturday, when we had our first true free time of training. Camelback is about a mile and a half hike to the peak, with some bouldering involved along the way. We chose to go in the afternoon heat to make it more of a challenge, and I should mention that the closest thing to trees out here are little bushes on the side of the mountain and 20-foot tall cacti. Five of us made it to the top in a little over an hour; the other three had to turn back at the 5/8 mile marker. After heaving for breath the last quarter mile up the mountain and getting beat by a girl, it was worth it for the view. We made it to the top around 5:30, only a couple hours till sunset. Good reminder of God’s creativity in his creation. The entire Blackstone group is going up to Sedona on Wednesday to go horseback riding and take in the desert. More pics to come!

Live from the Valley of the Sun -- Training in Phoenix

When my plane landed at Sky Harbor International on Sunday morning, the flight attendant came over the P.A. system and said "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Phoenix, where we have sunny skies and a temperature of about a million degrees." No joke, ha. ADF is putting us up in a pretty nice hotel (the San Fransisco Giants have been here most of the week and the Red Sox just got here today for the weekend series with the Dbacks) and it's cooled off to the mid-90s, ha. There are about 100 law students here from all across the country; my roommate is from Portland and goes to Oregon (he actually goes to the same church that the christian band Kutless attended), and there are people from Yale, Princeton, Harvard, UVA, Michigan, Florida State, Vandy -- makes it a little intimidating. But it's cool to see that there are all these people across the country who want to use their abilities and legal career opportunities to serve God and the kingdom through defending religious liberty and Biblical principles.

We've been going through long days of seminars and lectures like we're in a seminary on steroids that's focused on culture, learning about epistemology, teleology, eschatology, Greek, Latin, natural law, post-modernism and a bunch of other stuff that makes my head hurt sometimes. And, we've been getting talks everyday on hot-button cultural issues like religious foundation of the U.S., right to life, same-sex marriage, paganism in the entertainment industry, etc. It's like trying to take a drink from a fire hydrant shooting full blast. Who knew that the phrase "separation of church and state" originated out of a letter Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1802 to ensure that the government did not improperly interfere in the matters of the Christian church by establishing state religions? Or that homosexuality is an image of paganism in our society, as evidenced by Romans 1:18-32? We had a guy come in yesterday who is ministering to those working in Hollywood, and he emphasized that it is important to engage the culture by meeting people where they are, learning about what they love and are passionate about and showing love and grace, rather than beating them over the head with scripture and legalistic arrogance.

Anyways, it's been a great adventure so far. We got to take in a Dbacks game last night and I hope to represent Ole Miss for at least one of the baseball games out here in Tempe this weekend, and maybe do some nature exploring. We've got one more week or so of training, and then I'll be on to D.C. for the rest of the summer to do some hands-on work (a.k.a. take on the ACLU, haha). I'd definitely appreciate your
prayers for endurance and confidence on my part, and for the Holy Spirit to work in the hearts of the nation's movers and shakers. Also would appreciate any e-mails to let me know how things are going with you. Hope you're having a great summer. Will try to keep you updated when I can. Thanks again.

SonFest in Charlotte

On the way to Washington, I got to stop in Charlotte to see Jordan (a successful E-Trade man nowadays…long way from rakin a field at New Hope’s Trojan Field back in the day). We got to catch Kutless, Mainstay, Jeremy Camp, Family Force Five, Jars of Clay, and Seven Miles in between some roller coasters. I had to get on the road to D.C. before Newsboys came on. But I did get some free stuff from a Kutless rep before we left. Good guys. The pic is a blurry, covert shot of Kutless….it was raining, cameras were not really allowed, and it was kinda dark.

On a mission -- Washington, D.C.

This summer I'll be working in Washington, D.C., for the Alliance Defense Fund, specifically in the office of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. I don't know what exactly I'll be doing, but it should be a window into the field of law that is working to uphold religious liberty and Biblical principles. I'll get to spend a couple weeks in Phoenix training (getting indoctrinated), and meeting the other ADF interns who will be spread out across the country this summer serving God through the legal field. I will try to keep this updated instead of sending out a bunch of mass emails to everyone....So, on to Arizona! Will be in D.C. on June 15 for most of the rest of the summer. Be praying that God would do great things this summer.