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.