The following are excerpts from student journals, written by those who have previously attended the Law, Justice and Culture Institute:
“I cannot even begin to accurately relate what a life-altering experience the Institute has been. I am coming away from this class with an incredible desire to take action and to make a stand for morality, truth, and God. The public arena is so desperate for Christians who will promote what is honorable, good, and noble.”
Samuel Jordan
Texas A&M University
2004 LJC Institute Graduate
“The dedication of the Center for Law and Culture to teach my generation what truth is has been invaluable. A classroom full of intelligent and well-educated Christian students began this Institute unknowingly jaded by the prevailing influence of post-modernist thought, but left it realizing that truth must be sought, claimed, and preached. To believe that there is no objective truth, applicable to non-Christian and Christian alike, is like claiming that there is no God. God is truth.”
Christina Blackford
Wheaton College
2006 LJC Institute Graduate
“I stand before you a reformed post-modernist! … These past two weeks at the Institute have given me a fantastic opportunity to begin learning what justice is and what my role is in God’s Kingdom to bring it to bear.”
Abby Kirkbride
John Brown University
2006 LJC Institute Graduate
“The Institute taught me that we have a responsibility to respond to injustice. The attainment of knowledge does not mean we are to be aloof from society, but that we are even more responsible for the life that God has given us. To me the class represents more than the law and its course in history. It is what living is all about. True justice, that which is God-inspired and driven, must trickle down into a main stream. This class has emphasized to me that participation in government is the duty of everyone; it is the selfless act that God requires in returning His created world to shalom.”
Nathan Vis
Trinity Christian College
2004 LJC Institute Graduate
“During the Institute, I was confronted with real world issues, challenged by a rigorous curriculum, and introduced to many Christians who live their lives according to God’s will and teaching. With its balanced style of teaching, the Institute successfully educated our group of young adults in a range of perspectives—each relating uniquely to the ultimate goal: showing students that there is a direct need for Christians to participate in the legal sphere of society.”
Kris Rose
Spring Arbor University
2006 LJC Institute Graduate
“The Institute has truly enlightened me as to how I should live my life. It helped me to understand what justice is and inspired me to live my life promoting justice in whatever calling public life God leads me to. I now have an overarching foundation to seek true justice and to promote religious liberty in American society.”
Riley Todd
Biola University
2006 LJC Institute Graduate
“The LJC Institute caused me to ask: ‘What civic virtue do you have? Are you storing up things from this citizenship in America that will also be stored up in your home in heaven?’ The intense two weeks of reading, writing, presenting, and discussing have given me ideas that will endure. I learned about the Old Testament truths that live on today, the all but forgotten American legacy of religious liberty, the horrors of government falling into the wrong hands—those of the Nazis—and the world’s response when crimes are committed against them and their people, and finally, the law of human nature as attesting to the truth of God.”
Anna Fafinski
Trinity International University
2004 LJC Institute Graduate
“The Institute has helped me to understand that the contemporary American judicial system refuses to recognize a holistic view of justice, instead reducing it to a favorable verdict within the courtroom. True justice, however, follows a biblical Hebrew model, where legal remedies were an integral part of the economic and social structure of ancient Israel. Justice means bringing a situation more closely in line with biblical standards so that it better conforms to God’s expectations for His world. Justice demands that human beings be treated as individuals, not statistics. Justice compels the church to be an advocate for those who are unable to plead their own cause. Justice requires a constant search for shalom, that comprehensive wholeness and goodness which once existed in the Garden of Eden.”
Amy Nugteren
Dordt College
2004 LJC Institute Graduate
“The LJC Institute has given me invaluable clarity and purpose as a Christian in my pursuit of a career in law. I would highly recommend the Institute to any student hoping to gain a sound Christian perspective on law and justice in American culture.”
Jonathan Tofilon
Judson College
2004 LJC Institute Graduate
“This course raised many issues in my mind. It gave me a new perspective on law and justice, and about the ideas that are promoted by our institutions—including some that ultimately undermine what America stands for and those that threaten our freedom of conscience. I am leaving this course not so much confused as feeling incomplete. I now feel a stronger motivation to try to affirm my beliefs in a divine moral law, from which all laws are drawn. I have been aware of many issues we discussed but never really saw their implications for society. The course has inspired me and made me determined to investigate further the justice issues raised. Professor Emmerich teaches us not to be afraid of engaging and confronting the grand questions of our time and their implications.”
Daniel Werner
Trinity International University
2004 LJC Institute Graduate
“I would recommend the LJC Institute to any Christian student that is interested in a career in law or public service. The course offered me a biblical, Reformed view on what it means to be a Christian involved in the public arena. It offered me the opportunity to look deeply and thoughtfully into the basis of our legal structures and to examine them in the light of scripture. I think one of the most important parts of the LJC Institute was the opportunity to interact with like-minded Christians from all over the country and examine the issues of law, justice, and culture together and in the light of scripture. If you are seeking an honest, biblically Reformed look at the moral and legal foundations of our country and want to examine these foundations with like-minded Christians, the LJC Institute is for you. In an age where the Christian worldview is becoming increasingly marginalized, courses like this, taught by gifted Christian scholars like Professor Emmerich, are of utmost importance and value.”
Gerrit Wieringa
Trinity Christian College
2004 LJC Institute Graduate
“The Institute did what my deconstructive high school years could not do: it gave me guidance by providing constructive ideas that built up my confidence in pursuing the answers I am seeking, and it gave me a deeper look into the abyss of modern thought. … My career path and personal behavior have been deeply influenced by the new understanding of justice in the Judeo-Christian tradition and the thousand-year Anglo-American tradition of law. I now understand that we are to be stewards of a world wanting to be without the Creator yet one that demands Him; that is the aim of being a Christian in law and culture.”
David Marusarz
Trinity Christian College
2006 LJC Institute Graduate
