Law professor Jeff Brauch argues that our beliefs about human nature will drive our politics, our policy, and our culture. In his recent book, Flawed Perfection: What It Means to Be Human and Why It Matters for Culture, Politics, and Law (2017), he lays out a compelling case for the importance of an accurate understanding of human nature.

He begins with the idea that our fundamental presuppositions about the nature of human beings will drive how we approach almost anything in the public sphere. From there, he provides examples from the fields of human rights, criminal justice, and bioethics, to name a few. 

Join Professor Brauch, Executive Director of Regent Law School's Center for Global Justice, Human Rights, and the Rule of Law, as he and host Mike Schutt discuss this important topic. 

Professor Brauch joined the Regent Law faculty in 1994 and served as dean from 1999-2015. He has taught Christian Foundations of Law, International Human Rights, Civil Liberties and National Security, Torts, Negotiations, International Criminal Law and other courses.

Prior to teaching, Brauch served as a law clerk for Justice William Callow of the Wisconsin Supreme Court and then worked five years as an associate with Milwaukee law firm Quarles & Brady, where he specialized in commercial litigation.

Cross and Gavel is a project of the Institute for Christian Legal Studies, a cooperative ministry of Regent University School or Law and Christian Legal Society, founded eighteen years ago through the collaboration of Dean Brauch and CLS in the work of Cross & Gavel host Mike Schutt. 

Pick up a copy of Flawed Perfection from our friends Byron and Beth Borger at Hearts & Minds Bookstore. 

On the 80th episode of Cross & Gavel, August Huckabee, economics professor at Worldview at the Abbey in Colorado, returns ("Feel the Bern," Ep. 52) to discuss cultural trends and countermeasures in these strange times.

August teaches students at the Abbey, directs TeenPact programs around the country, and lectures at Worldview Academy. Host Mike Schutt asks him about trends he is seeing in this generation and what educators and parents might do to cultivate both courage and grace in the face of the challenges facing people of faith as they both engage and create culture.

Join the conversation and pass it on to friends! You'll be encouraged and edified by the conversation. 

If you'd like to learn more about Worldview Academy or Worldview at the Abbey, follow the links. 

Here are some of the books Huck and Mike discuss on this episode. Visit our friends at Hearts & Minds Books to order:

• F.A. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom
• Burton W. Folsom, The Myth of the Robber Barons
• Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom

Cross & Gavel is a project of Regent University School of Law and Christian Legal Society. 

This week, the Supreme Court of the United States decided Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, holding that the Commission's "clear and impermissible hostility toward" religious beliefs violated the First Amendment of the US Constitution. Already, commentators dispute the breadth and lasting import of the Court's 7-2 holding on narrow legal grounds. 

In this episode, Mike Schutt talks with Kim Colby about these questions. Kim is Director of Christian Legal Society's Center for Law & Religious Freedom, an expert in First Amendment law and a long-time friend of religious freedom. 

Listen in as the discuss what the case held, why, and what the holding may mean for future cases. Also learn what Constitutional lawyers mean by GVR. 

Kim Colby is the director of Christian Legal Society’s Center for Law and Religious Freedom , where she has worked since graduating from Harvard Law School in 1981. She has represented religious groups in several appellate cases, including two cases heard by the United
States Supreme Court. She has filed numerous amicus briefs in federal and state courts. Ms. Colby has prepared several CLS publications addressing issues about religious expression in public schools, including released time programs, implementation of the Equal Access 

Act, and teachers’ religious expression.

Visit the Center's website for resources on its first amendment work. 

Cross & Gavel is a production of Regent University School of Law and Christian Legal Society. 

Episode 78 is Part 2 of our conversation about three Academy Award-nominated films, and it focuses on Call Me By Your Name, a romanticization of predatory sexual relationship. It's visual beauty hides the reality behind the relationship at the heart of the story and the deadly message that sexual experience is the defining element of our lives. 

Dr. Trotter and Mike Schutt discuss this film and its themes, and they wander into topics of movie-going, thoughtful criticism, and Christian worldview on the way. While the conversation is rated PG-16, you'll be edified by their approach to this movie and films in general. 

Drew Trotter is the Executive Director of the Consortium of ChristianStudy Centers. He was for twenty-two years the Executive Director and President of the Center for Christian Study in Charlottesville, VA. Drew has written on film and popular culture for over thirty years in such publications as Books & Culture, Christianity Today and Critique, and in the field of Biblical studies. For over twenty years, he has presented a seminar entitled Show and Tell: How to View a Movie Responsibly, helping laypeople and students in churches, Christian college and secular university environments understand this powerful medium and how to think about its influence both on the individual and the society. He has taught seminars on popular culture, university education in America today, a Biblical model of discipleship and how to interpret the Scriptures. Drew has three sons, two daughters-in-law and six grandchildren and lives with his wife of forty-four years, Marie, in Charlottesville, VA. 

Mike Schutt is host of the Cross & Gavel Podcast. He is Associate Professor at Regent University School of Law, Director of the Institute for Christian Legal Studies, and director of Law Student Ministries at Christian Legal Society. He is the editor in chief of the Journal of Christian Legal Thought and director of the CLS Law School Fellows program. 

Dr. Drew Trotter, executive director of the Consortium of Christian Study Centers, is a film critic who understands the role that movies play in shaping us as a society. His lecture, The Movies and America: What the Nominees for Best Picture Tell Us About Ourselves, is an annual favorite around the country. 

In this episode, Dr. Trotter sits down with host Mike Schutt to discuss three of the nominees, including the winner for best picture. In Part one, they discuss Guillermo del Toro's The Shape of Water and Greta Gerwig's Ladybird. 

Drew Trotter is the Executive Director of the Consortium of ChristianStudy Centers. He was for twenty-two years the Executive Director and President of the Center for Christian Study in Charlottesville, VA. Drew has written on film and popular culture for over thirty years in such publications as Books & Culture, Christianity Today and Critique, and in the field of Biblical studies. For over twenty years, he has presented a seminar entitled Show and Tell: How to View a Movie Responsibly, helping laypeople and students in churches, Christian college and secular university environments understand this powerful medium and how to think about its influence both on the individual and the society. He has taught seminars on popular culture, university education in America today, a Biblical model of discipleship and how to interpret the Scriptures. Drew has three sons, two daughters-in-law and six grandchildren and lives with his wife of forty-four years, Marie, in Charlottesville, VA. 

Mike Schutt is host of the Cross & Gavel Podcast. He is Associate Professor at Regent University School of Law, Director of the Institute for Christian Legal Studies, and director of Law Student Ministries at Christian Legal Society. He is the editor in chief of the Journal of Christian Legal Thought and director of the CLS Law School Fellows program. 

In August 2016, the American Bar Association, seeking to impose a "cultural shift" on the legal profession and change how lawyers think about gender and marriage, amended Model Rule of Professional Responsibility 8.4. The rule has no legal force-- it simply suggests a "model" from the ABA for states to follow in their ethics codes-- until a particular state adopts it. Yet the Model Rules are influential, followed by many states as a matter of course. 

The current rule-- the rule that ABA Model Rule 8.4(g) would amend-- combats invidious discrimination and disciplines lawyers who corrupt the legal process through bias and prejudice in the course of representing a client.

The proposed rule would expand the conduct for which lawyers could be disciplined to any "conduct related to the practice of law," which is defined to include "interacting with witnesses, coworkers, court personnel, lawyers and others while engaged in the practice of law; operating or managing a law firm or practice; and participating in bar association, business or social activities in connection with the practice of law." 

In addition to this expansive reach into employment law and social activities, the rule does away with the requirement that the words or conduct that could be censured are "prejudicial to the administration of justice." Under the proposed rule, a mere "offense" given by words or conduct could subject a lawyer to a grievance, even though it has nothing to do with protecting clients, the court, or justice. 

It's a bad idea. And it is a threat to religious liberty and lawyers' autonomy. 

Host Mike Schutt, who taught Professional Responsibility as a Regent Law professor is joined by Kim Colby to discuss the rule and its implications. 

Kim Colby is the director of Christian Legal Society’s Center for Law and Religious Freedom , where she has worked since graduating from Harvard Law School in 1981. She has represented religious groups in several appellate cases, including two cases heard by the United States Supreme Court. She has filed numerous amicus briefs in federal and state courts. Ms. Colby has prepared several CLS publications addressing issues about religious expression in public schools, including released time programs, implementation of the Equal Access Act, and teachers’ religious expression.

For more resources on this rule-- including videos explaining the issues and critical scholarship-- visit the Christian Legal Society 8.4 Resources page. 

Cross & Gavel is a production of Regent University School of Law and the Christian Legal Society. 

In our first episode of 2018, Trinity Law School Professor Myron Steeves draws on the work of Charles Taylor (A Secular Age) and Rod Dreher (The Benedict Option) to inform our understanding of the
cultural moment confronting the Church. Lately, it seems, the Church has found herself in a fully confrontational mode with the surrounding society, having moved from a period of general domination (after the Emperor Constantine) and then cultural accommodation. Professor Steeves contrasts these eras, suggesting that Christians of every age have faced challenges to faithful culture making and cultural renewal. 

During this fascination conversation, host Mike Schutt and Professor Steeves discuss the importance of faithfulness, the difficulties of cultural confrontation in light of the temptation to be seen as "normal," and our call to courage and love.

Listen in on this interesting conversation!

Myron Steeves is Professor of Law at Trinity Law School, where he has served since 1992. A graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, Professor Steeves has practiced law in the nonprofit area, particularly advising churches. Professor Steeves frequently speaks on issues including the integration of faith and law, legal careers as tools for Christian ministry, law and public policy, and law and theology.

Mike Schutt is host of Cross & Gavel and is Associate Professor at Regent University School of Law and director of Law Student Ministries for the Christian Legal Society. He is a graduate of the University of Texas School of Law.