Do we need Adventist lawyers?
By Karnik Doukmetzian, Esq.
Twenty ago, as my generation was considering its career choices, becoming an Adventist lawyer was seldom an option in many countries.
Church members would take aside those who wanted to study law and counsel them to choose another career. Misperception of the role of a lawyer led to misdirected advice, often resulting in frustration among young people. They
wanted to serve their fellow believers and the community at large through the legal profession, but their church preferred that they enter the ministry or become teachers or physicians.
I recall an incident just after I had graduated from law school. I was participating in a church program on religious liberty when a member asked me pointedly, How can you be an Adventist and a lawyer at the same
time? I have even heard some people say that Ellen White had warned against such a career choice.
The fact is that Ellen White gave a quite differentbut still challengingcounsel on this subject: It requires more grace, more stern discipline of character, to work for God in the capacity of a lawyer,
carrying the precepts of Christianity into the ordinary business of life, than to labor as an acknowledged missionary in the open field. It requires a strong spiritual
nerve to bring religion into the.
business office [shall we say, courtroom?], sanctifying the details of everyday life, and ordering every transaction to the standard of Gods Word. But this is what the Lord requires.
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