UF00083761_00023.pdf

UF00083761_00023.txt

UF00083761_00023_pdf.txt

METHODIST LAWYERS' CONFERENCE

Junaluska, North Carolina
July 5, 1963

The Christian layygr in today's world

So pleasant to be here
Opportunity to relax with the bar
Opportunity to be quiet

If I seem biased - I am

And

The
And

Methodist Bishop -- -- Catholics -- Protestants
Not that I love laymen less lawyers more, not without reason
No other group has had greater impact
Madison
Lawyers in Legislature
Japan -- Karragawa -- 93 M 6T
Few Rte. - few laws
But "Building a better world"
A large task
No grand design -- no miracle formula
And how shall I dare?
Churchill
woodrow Wilson
One thing in common
They called out the best in man
Created a climate
Courage -~ willingness to sacrifice
Idealism -- love of peace
Not martial law
Not the great treaty
But the reaponse they evoked
The hearts and minds they challenged
If freedom prevails -- peace preserved
The great mission of lawyers in the world today
Not to build a better world
But to build a world in which people can be better
Not notions -- not tribes - not clubs
But individuals

for those who follow Christ

His pointing finger as he selected his disciples

The harsh alternative the Jewish teaches -- be born again
His instructions to the rich young man

climate in which men can build better lives in the climate
of freedom

a lawyer's peculiar responsibility -- his unique contribution
is the preservation and growth of a society in which men
can find freedom -- under law

I told you I love lawyers

But I am not sure I am proud of them
They have the capacity --

But do they have the will

BOQI

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Sometimes M. D.'s are accused of living on yesterday's reputation

What about lawyers?
Do we look in the mirror - Madison - Lincoln

When this country founded
Certain things accepted
English Common Law
But tides of immigration
and we have not had to fight

From whom shall the peeple learn the great common law traditions --

if not from legal profession

Shall they learn it from a professor?
From businessmen?
From politicians not lawyers?

How shall they learn due process of law?

3011? Mother's knee? Church? T.V. Commercials?
Why should Americans care about 2g§

How can they understand the fifth amendment?

Why is it better that 10 guilty men go free?



Freedom -- and Democracy, her handmaiden -- don't spring from the soil
Do you remember a war fought to make the world safe for Democracy?

Ambassador from Indonesia
Went ;to press conference
Asked us to be tolerant

We move so fast
More scientists live than in all previous history

Social and political revolution too
Great issues
Great tides of Opinion
Stoms of controversy

We shall come through, if we don't lose our bearings

Who can explain it to the peOple -- if not lawyers
Corruption of words -- who can purify them?
Corruption of power -- power corrupts

"Distribution of powers"
"Tyranny of the majority"
Ends do not justify means

Finally -- lawyers understand that disputes are best
Settled in the courts -- not the streets

A few months ago a rocket fired at Uanaveral
Magnificent
Lost contact - Went off course -~ now too late

Is it too late for freedom?
Sometimes, late at night, I think it is
I don't hear a clear voice from the Bar
Our resoonsibility -- not just professtional excellence
This 0886 we cannot lose.
We stand not Just before the bar of government today

but of history. and Judgment.



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