Imperial Life On The Potomac

by digby

Last night I noted that Monica Goodling, Alberto Gonzales’ senior counsel and white house liason graduated from Pat Robertson’s Regent Unicersity law school. Apparently, she did her undergraduate work at someplace known as Messiah University, so it’s pretty clear that this 33 year old is a dyed in the wool social conservative who was likely hired for that reason. Apparently, the Bush Emerald City hiring practices were more systemic than we thought: there are more than 150 graduates of Regent University serving in the Bush Administration

It sure does make you wonder about the ethical and moral instruction at these conservative Christian colleges, doesn’t it?

Update: Chris Hayes did a very interesting piece on Regent some time back for the American Prospect. Check it out, it’s fascinating:

At a school designed explicitly to produce influential professionals, worldview plays an especially crucial role; it is the bridge from inner spiritual beliefs to public action in the professional sphere. It’s for this reason that Regent’s professors are required to integrate “biblical principles” into every subject area, and it’s the reason that law students take a class their first year in the Christian foundations of law. Regent Law School Dean Jeffrey Brauch calls the result a “JD-plus.” Students take the standard canon of legal education — torts, property, constitutional law — but supplement discussions of what the law is with discussions of what the Bible and Christian tradition say the law should be, reading Leviticus, the Gospel of Matthew, and Thomas Aquinas alongside their case law. The same model extends throughout Regent’s nine schools, which offer courses like “Redemptive Cinema” and “Church-based Counseling Programs,” while infusing standard professional training with insights and injunctions from the Judeo-Christian (read: Christian) tradition.

I wonder what book in the Bible blesses vote rigging? Did Jesus preach that lying to is a good thing or that ruining someone’s reputation in order to cover up ethical misdeeds (and potential crimes) is godly? I hadn’t heard that. But then, I don’t share the conservative Christian “worldview” so what do I know about morality?

.