TeacherAide
A weekly teaching aide for student developers

Case For Freedom 

SESSION 6


HANDS ON

To start your class you can read some of the frivolous lawsuits and have students defend or oppose the lawsuit.  Divide your group in half have them sit on opposite of each other. The students will play the “lawyers” and you will play the “judge”. Read one of the lawsuits below and the select a team to be the prosecutors and one to be the defendants. Have the two teams tell why the case should be tried or why it should be thrown out. As the judge keep track of which team does the better job defending their position. You can give a reward for the group that does the best. Finish by reading the convergence story about the O.J. Simpson trial.

Here are some of the lawsuits you can read:

A student attending a college in Idaho fell from his window while mooning a friend. The student then sued the college, claiming that it had not provided adequate information about the dangers of upper-story windows.

Jerry Williams sued and won $14,500 plus medical expenses after his neighbor's beagle bit him on the buttocks. The dog was on a chain in a fenced-in yard. Williams had been shooting the dog repeatedly with a pellet gun at the time of the incident.

An Arizona woman, Michele Nations, was walking through a park when she stumbled on a gopher hole, tripped, and sprained her ankle. She sued the city for failing to post a warning that such hazards might exist in the park. She won $450,000.

A California woman sued a grocery store after she dropped a six-pack of beer on her feet. The woman was not injured, but she said that it hurt. She won the lawsuit.

A convicted killer serving time in Florida has sued the state because lightning knocked out the prison's satellite-television service. The inmate must now watch network television programs, which he claims often contain profanity, violence, and other offensive material.

 

THE MORE YOU KNOW

Faith is the means to salvation because it is the good pleasure of God to save that way.  By this means God can be the one who justifies the unjust and the justifier of those who believe.  Meaning no credit will be attributed to man for his salvation since it was impossible for him to rescue himself from his previous sinful condition.  Now, it may asked, “isn’t faith an act of work on our part that plays in our salvation,” making salvation more to do with us than we think?  Ephesians 2:9 says that salvation is not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.  Therefore, if salvation is not from works, is faith a work that comes from us?  The answer can be found in Ephesians 2:8, which states, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Emphasis added).  Here we see that grace and faith are both gifts of God.  Therefore, we need to recognize that, yes, this is our faith, but it has been given to us as a gift from God and needs to be understood in that sense.  This point can be seen elsewhere in Hebrews 12:2, which the author says that “Jesus is the author and perfecter of faith.”  Here is clearly seen that Jesus not only begins our faith (author) but that He also ends and completes our faith (perfecter) with no doubt that in the middle He sustains it.

 

ILLUSTRATING THE POINT

This story is of something that was alleged to have happened just a few years
ago at USC. There was a professor of philosophy who was a deeply committed atheist. His primary goal for one required class was to spend the entire semester attempting to prove that God couldn't exist. His students were always afraid to argue with him because of his impeccable logic. For twenty years, he had taught this class and no one ever had the courage to go against him. Sure, some had argued in class at times, but no one had ever really
gone against him because of his reputation. At the end of every semester on the last day, he would say to his class of 300 students, "If there is anyone here who still believes in Jesus, stand up!" In twenty years, no one had ever stood up. They knew what he was going to do next. He would say, "Because anyone who believes in God is a fool. If God existed, he could stop this piece of chalk
from hitting the ground and breaking. Such a simple task to prove that
He is God, and yet He can't do it." And every year, he would drop the chalk onto the tile floor of the classroom and it would shatter into a hundred pieces.
All of the students would do nothing but stop and stare. Most of the students thought that God couldn't exist. Certainly, a number of Christians had slipped through, but for 20 years, they had been too afraid to stand up. Well, a few years ago there was a freshman who was a Christian, and had heard the
stories about his professor. He was required to take the class for his major, and he was afraid. But for three months that semester, he prayed every
morning that he would have the courage to stand up no matter what the professor said, or what the class thought. Nothing they said could shatter his faith...he hoped. Finally, the day came. The professor said, "If there is anyone here who still believes in God, stand up!" The professor and the class of 300
people looked at him, shocked, as he stood up the professor shouted, "You FOOL!!! If God existed, he would keep this piece of chalk from breaking when it hit the ground!" He proceeded to drop the chalk, but as he did, it
slipped out of his fingers, off his shirt cuff, onto the pleat of his pants, down his leg, and off his shoe. As it hit the ground, it simply rolled away unbroken.
The professor's jaw dropped as he stared at the chalk. He looked up at the young man, and then ran out of the lecture hall. The young man who had stood, proceeded to walk to the front of the room and shared his faith in Jesus for the next half hour. 300 students stayed and listened as he told of God's love for
them and of His power through Jesus.