Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, June 14, 1993                   TAG: 9306150383
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

FARRIS IS A SERIOUS LEGAL SCHOLAR

The article contained one statement about Farris that said nothing about him and everything about you. Your writers credited him with several books "explaining his evangelical faith." This was in error. His books are not polemics for his evangelical faith but serious works of legal scholarship, dealing with real-world dilemmas in terms of constitutional law. He is the only candidate for state office who has argued constitutional law before the Supreme Court and won victories for the liberties of the citizen.

Why did your people miss the point? Because they, like any of us, are influenced by peer culture. According to several studies, journalists' convictions tend to be well to the left of those of the public. In the journalistic universe, the primary collective entity is the "class." History is driven by friction between the haves and have-nots, the top dogs and wannabes. Progress requires displacement of the current thesis by the antithesis, so that a new synthesis can be formed, to become the next thesis. Media figures around the world assure us that gallant revolutionaries bring in utopia with smoking guns. At home, proliferating "victims" blaze new legal trails to turn old "wrongs" into new "rights." And nothing "religious" is worth serious attention.

In your readers' universe, however, the primary collective entity is those to whom we are bound by ties of blood and covenant, our families. Progress requires nurturing young and weak family members, so that they can become productive, creative and nurturing adults.

Farris might not compute for you, since he defends families' rights rather than those of classes. Therefore, he can be easily overlooked as "merely" a "religious" (private, irrelevant) zealot. Such a presupposition could mislead you about what is really going on around you. A fair reading of his work indicates serious intellectual rigor and substance. Give the man a fair hearing and reading. He makes sense. The family is worth defending, since no predatory "class" of "victims" can ever replace this unit. THOMAS C. SMEDLEY VINTON