Trial lawyers, clergy respond to Christian Coalition attack.

Corporations and their CEOs have found a new weapon with which to attack the civil justice system--the Christian Coalition.

"Trial lawyers are attacking our Christian values," screamed the headline of a recent political mailer distributed by the Christian Coalition of Alabama (CCBAMA) across the state.

"Trial lawyers are one of the biggest threats to the erosion of our U.S. Constitution, traditional family values, and religious freedoms in Alabama and America today," said John Giles, CCBAMA president.

Community leaders and mainstream clergy reacted swiftly and strongly, criticizing the mailer for ascribing anti-Christian sentiments to all trial lawyers based on a political disagreement over tort "reform."

Ken Connor--former president of the Family Research Council, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's attorney in the Terry Schiavo case, and founder of the Center for a Just Society--wrote in his regular commentary on the center's Web site:

   In the aftermath of the Jack Abramoff scandal,
   in which Christian conservatives were
   used as the dupes of the gambling industry,
   we now see another Christian organization
   being duped by those who want to abridge
   the right to trial by jury, a right our founders
   fought hard to protect.

   What this group seems to have forgotten
   is that trial lawyers are also defending the very
   rights that Christian conservatives hold dear.
   Who defended Terri Schiavo's right to life?
   Trial lawyers, myself included.... Who is
   defending religious liberties, from the Christian's
   right to be engaged in the public
   square to students' right to pray? Trial
   lawyers.

Political columnist Hardy Jackson accused the Christian Coalition of hypocrisy in his column in the Anniston Star, noting that the organization criticizes candidates for taking money from trial lawyers but refuses to disclose its own contributors or who paid for the mailer.

Rev. Nick Foster, director of the Interfaith Alliance of Alabama, wrote in an op-ed article that appeared in the Birmingham News:

   When it comes to trial lawyers, many of them
   would surely testify that their faith largely
   informs their choice of vocation and legal
   practice. These attorneys are often on the
   side of those who have little if any resources
   to seek justice for themselves in cases of damages
   they have suffered because of negligence--as
   in a job-related injury--or in the
   case of contractual disputes--as with an
   insurance company.

   People across the political and theological
   spectrum disagree about any need for tort
   reform, but who would dispute the right of
   any citizen--small business owners, for
   instance, and the poor--[to] capable legal
   representation in such matters? It is a worthy
   vocation.

The Christian Coalition controversy in Alabama shows, once again, that opponents of the civil justice system will use deception to cloak their true motives--and that those who attempt to use religion as a political weapon will find themselves rightly and swiftly shunned by the political mainstream.