News and Information
Emory University
Atlanta, GA 30322

Release date: Sept. 29, 1999
Contact: Elaine Justice, Assistant Director, 404-727-0643, or ejustic@emory.edu

Law School, Theology School Weigh in on National Issues in Time Magazine

The latest issue of Time Magazine (Sept. 13, 1999) has Emory faculty weighing in on two developing stories, one on scientists' isolation of a gene in mice that is connected to intelligence, the other on the proposed Religious Liberty Protection Act now making its way through the U.S. Senate. On the discovery of the so-called "IQ gene," Ethicist Liz Bounds of Candler School of Theology pointed out that engineering human genes for certain "desirable" traits runs the risk of "shaping a much more homogeneous community around certain dominant values." Bounds told Time she finds that idea "frightening." As for the proposed religious liberty bill, Marci Hamilton, visiting professor at Emory Law School, explained why both conservative Christian and left-leaning groups are cooperating to oppose the legislation, which "opens the door for all kinds of religious entities and individuals to make creative claims." Hamilton ought to know; she successfully challenged the constitutionality of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1997.

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