God vs The Gavel

Wednesday afternoon I went back to the Penn bookstore to hear Marci Hamilton speak. It was fortuitous that she came to speak here- I saw a sign for a speech she was giving the first time I went to New York. She was presenting then at Cardozo Law School (where she is a professor) about her book God vs. The Gavel, and I wanted very much to go. But her presentation was on a Tuesday night, and I had to be back in Philadelphia Tuesday morning for an interview. So I was doubly excited to see that she was speaking here!

Not a great turnout, maybe 15 people, and most of them were obviously there to write either for a newspaper or for class. A nice old lady sat next to me; I think we were the only ones there for fun.

Authors giving presentations come in two types: the ones who summarize the book and/or read from it, and the ones who give an active presentation about information that goes beyond what is printed in their book. I was pleased that she was of the second variety. She explained how she had found herself following the path that led her directly into church-state issues and how that had evolved to the level that she is on now. She was extremely articulate, which I'm sorry to say not all authors are. I think being a Penn Law graduate probably helped.

I really enjoyed her presentation a lot, and she was very friendly during the question and answer session. I can see that she probably offends a lot of people by the nature of her work (she tries to eliminate exemptions for churches and activities of a religious nature, so that even religious people and institutions are subject to the same laws as everyone else), but I agreed with almost everything she said.

I talked to her after the presentation about her work and law school. I asked if she knew of any religion and law programs outside of Emory. She didn't think there are any, but told me that I should consider finding faculty who are actively working and publishing in the field and then contact them to find out if they work with students. She noted that her most recent book was done with the extensive help of one of her students. She suggested I email her, which I did last night. Now she might think I'm stalking her. That might not be entirely untrue.

Here she is speaking:



And here's her signature in my book!:



I went home and looked at different law schools. Now I'm all confused again.