Liberty Law School

So Jerry Falwell's Liberty University has opened a law school, promising: "We'll be as far to the right as Harvard is to the left." Not surprisingly, that comment got a lot of (negative) attention. Over at Mirror of Justice, however, Rob Vischer has a post quoting a friend of his defending the school:

Liberty Law School's mission is less to train an army of warriors who will, upon graduation, immediately try to mount a battle against (fill in a social issue, newly minted fundamental right of your choice here). Rather, it is to train law students in the fullness of the Anglo-American common law tradition. In our climate, that means giving students confidence that there is such a thing as objective truth, and that these truths are publicly accessible, not private religious commitments.

Bruce is a deacon in the continuing Anglican Church. He is very much an Anglo-Catholic and is not a Baptist. Bruce has and will, I believe, continue to leave his mark on the law school. I'd encourage you to try to look past Falwell and look at the law school itself, as things unfold in Lynchburg in the weeks, months, and years to come.

I'm willing to try, provided I first get an answer to the following. On the one hand, the new dean is an Anglo-Catholic. He also has a blog (does everybody have a blog now?), in which he reports :

Bernard Dobranski, Dean and Professor of Law at Ave Maria School of Law, has agreed to serve as an ABA Consultant to the LU School of Law.

Dean Dobranski was responsible for selecting the core faculty, establishing educational guidelines, and overseeing the general operation of Ave Maria from inception through the acquisition of provisional approval by the American Bar Association. Ave Maria is now in the process of seeking full approval by the ABA. Dean Dobranski has served on the Accreditation Committee of the American Bar Association Section on Legal Education. He will provide counsel to our law school to ensure compliance with the American Bar Association standards for legal education. ...

The assistance already provided Liberty University School of Law and me by administration and faculty at Ave Maria School of Law exceeds normal bounds of collegiality. We are particularly encouraged that Dean Dobranski will be providing formal counsel on the process of seeking approval of our program by the American Bar Association.

Ave Maria, of course, is a very seriously Catholic law school.

On the other hand, Liberty University's Theological Q&A says:

While some think all Catholics will miss Heaven, neither I nor Dr. Falwell feel that way. We believe that there will be some Roman Catholics that go to Heaven in spite of the Roman Catholic Church. If a person has simple faith in Jesus Christ they will go to Heaven, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved” (Acts 16:31). Obviously we are not Roman Catholics, and there are many things that Roman Catholicism has added to the Gospel. If a person follows everything that the Roman Catholics teach, we do not believe that they will be saved. However, many Roman Catholics just believe in Jesus Christ; we believe they will go to Heaven because of their faith in Christ, not their Roman Catholic alliance.

Frankly, I can't help wondering what's going on here. Has there been a sudden outbreak of Christian unity in southeast southwest Virginia? Anyway, I'm glad us Papists can be of help "in spite of the Roman Catholic Church."