Emory Report homepage  

October 6, 2008
Religious leaders delve into controversial issues at law and religion lecture series

By April Bogle

The Most Reverend Wilton D. Gregory, Catholic Archbishop of Atlanta, and the Right Reverend V. Gene Robinson, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire, are among those headlining a new lecture series sponsored by Emory’s Center for the Study of Law and Religion.

The free public series, “When Law and Religion Meet,” provides a forum for religious leaders to discuss difficult legal, moral and ethical issues facing their religious communities.

Gregory leads the series by delivering the CSLR’s annual Decalogue Lecture Oct. 7 at 7:30 p.m. in the law school’s Tull Auditorium. He will address the Catholic Church’s hard stance on capital punishment and other dignity of life issues in a lecture titled “The Catholic Church and the Death Penalty.” He will also take questions about any topic from the audience. The Aquinas Center of Theology at Emory is co-sponsoring the lecture.

Robinson delivers the CSLR’s annual Currie Lecture in Law and Religion March 30, 2009, at 7:30 p.m. Robinson, the first openly gay Episcopalian bishop, will address the divide in the Episcopal Church caused by his election as bishop in 2003 in a lecture titled “Why Religion Matters in the Quest for Gay Civil Rights.” Mark Jordan, Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Religion and CSLR senior fellow, will respond.

Mona Siddiqui, professor of Islamic studies and public understanding at the University of Glasgow, lectures March 18, 2009, at noon, about the stark differences between Islamic law and English law. Her lecture, titled “Islamic Law in Britain: A Minor Problem or a Problem for a Minority?” outlines her experiences as an expert witness in anti-terrorism cases. Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na`im, Charles Howard Candler Professor of Law and CSLR senior fellow, will respond.

“We are bringing religious leaders to our podium so we can hear directly how their communities are facing and faring under legal, moral and ethical challenges,” says John Witte Jr., Jonas Robitscher Professor of Law and CSLR director. “I believe the patterns of human laws over time will reflect something of the meaning of religious truth, and the patterns of religious truth over time will, in turn, reflect something of the measure of divine laws.”