Bush attorney returns to Florida roots, urges cultural engagement in Schiavo case

GRACEVILLE (BCF)—Ken Connor, a former Florida trial attorney, told students at the Baptist College of Florida Oct. 18 that Americans have rejected the foundation of “the Great American Experiment,” and have given into to a new cultural order.

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“As a culture ... we have denied the existence of God, deconstructed truth, and demoted man from the status of bearer of God’s image to simply the best of the beasts,” Connor said in a chapel service.

A Washington attorney and the past president of the Family Research Council, a Washington-based pro-family organization, Conner is also the co-author of Sinful Silence and the lead attorney for Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in defending “Terris’s Law.” He was the guest speaker for two chapel services, a faculty forum, and numerous classes at the Graceville campus during his two-day visit.

His talks with faculty and students revolved around what he said are the foundational problems in the current culture and what Christians must do to counteract the demise, a theme in keeping with his new book.

“We’ve abandoned the ideas that really were foundational to the Great American Experiment and ordered liberty. We’ve exchanged these ideas ... for new ones,” the former Florida gubernatorial Republican primary contender explained over and over again. “We are living with the fallout of a new moral and philosophical order.”

Among these changes, he noted, are the move away in the culture as a whole from the foundational institution and sanctity of marriage and concept of the sanctity of life. According to Connor, the evidence is on every corner as evidenced in mounds of statistics pointing to a cultural shift.

Among the statistics he cited:
• Forty to fifty percent of all marriages currently in existence will be dissolved before one partner dies.
• One-fifth of all adults are divorced.
• Since 1975 more than one million children a year have been impacted by divorce.
• Fifty percent of all marriages are preceded by cohabitation.
• Since Roe vs. Wade was decided in 1973 more than 42 million children have been aborted.
• One in three babies conceived today dies at the hand of abortion.

“We’re in the midst of a cultural meltdown,” said Connor.

In addition to abortion, physician assisted suicides and elimination of those viewed by the culture as physically or mentally defective only adds to the problem.

As an example, Connor talked about Terri Schiavo, whose life currently hangs in the balance. An appeal by Connor on behalf of Florida Gov. Jeb Bush to reverse the recent Florida Supreme Court decision that struck down “Terri’s Law” as unconstitutional was denied Oct. 21.

“Terri’s Law” was enacted by the Florida Legislature Oct. 21, 2003, and empowered the governor to order the re-insertion of a feeding and hydration tube to the 40-year-old disabled woman who suffered brain damage when she collapsed in 1990 under mysterious circumstances.

“When your quality of life doesn’t measure up you’re deemed to be expendable,” Connor said. “Terri’s life is deemed by any to be expendable.”

The Schiavo case, he said, is “endemic of existing tension between worldviews in our culture” and will have a tremendous effect on the way those in our country view life.

“Unless we first protect the right to life all other rights are moot,” Connor continued.

In the face of such a gloomy prognosis, Connor pointed out there is something to be done to halt the further demise and begin to turn back the tide to the founding principles of the nation. He said the effort will take a “catalyst of change in a culture that is in decline” defined by those who are willing to “go out on a limb, take some risks, stick out (his/her) neck.”

As a man once named to the top 100 most influential people in Washington D.C. by The Washington Post, Connor said he knows what its like to be classified as a “backwoods Bible thumper.” But that’s just something he can live with and all Christians should be willing to risk, he said.

Christians must have the courage of biblical risk-takers like Esther who jeopardized her life by taking the case of the Jewish people to the king without an invitation, a crime punishable by execution in those days, Connor said.

“She was terrified, she fasted and prayed” explained Connor. She ultimately made the sacrifice for a cause she believed in stating simply in Esther 4:16 (NASB): “If I perish, I perish.”

“Because of Esther’s willingness to take a risk, all of the Jews were saved and their enemies destroyed ... and the result was a huge seismic shift in her culture,” Connor explained. “Wouldn’t that be wonderful to be said of us?”

Other principles for being a catalyst for change, according to Connor are: First, guard ideas because ideas change culture. Second, maintain an eternal perspective. “Why would we risk everything now unless we are aware of the rewards in eternity, not merely the existential present,” he explained. Third, remember God measures success by obedience, “not by the outcome of our efforts.”

Application of these principles, he said, means “being faithful in our witness in every aspect of our lives, and getting out of our Christian ghettos and carrying the banner of the Gospel to the world.” This point is the theme of the book he co-authored with John Revell entitled Sinful Silence: When Christian Neglect Their Civic Duty.

This point, says Connor, is not deep and complicated, but simply that, ”in the midst of a perverse generation we need to get out of our pews and manifest the love of Christ.”

Connor’s practice is currently based in the Washington D.C. area. He tries cases around the country to defend his passion that he says lies at the “intersection of faith, law and public policy.”