Are We Safe Yet?
(Sept 18-19, 2008)
"Crumbs from the Table?" (Sept 21-22, 06)
The 2005 Sarah Smith Memorial Conference
Agenda 
Speakers
Religiously Incorrect? Public Faith in a Pluralistic
World
September 15–16, 2005 | Yale
Law School, New Haven, Connecticut.
Nancy T. Ammerman, one of the
leading scholars of American religious life, is Professor of the Sociology
of Religion at Boston University’s
School of Theology. Dr. Ammerman has spent much of the last decade studying
American congregations, and previously did extensive work on conservative
religious movements. She served on the panel of experts convened by the
U.S. Departments of Justice and Treasury to make recommendations in light
of the government’s confrontation with the Branch Davidians at
Waco, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the same subject,
and lectured in Israel under sponsorship of the U.S. State Department.
Among her many important books are the recent Pillars of Faith: American
Congregations and their Partners (2005), Congregation and Community (1997),
and Bible Believers: Fundamentalists in the Modern World (1987).
Stephen L. Carter, recognized
as one of America’s
leading public intellectuals, is the William Nelson Cromwell Professor
of Law at Yale University. The author of seven critically acclaimed nonfiction
books on law, ethics and politics, he has helped shape the national debate
on issues ranging from the role of religion in our politics and culture
to the role of integrity and civility in our daily lives. Professor Carter
is a trustee of the Aspen Institute, for whom he has moderated seminars
for business executives on the role of values in leadership. He has written
two books on the the role of values in business and public life (Civility
and Integrity). Carter has written several books on the complex relationship
between religion, law, politics and government, including the landmark
book The Culture of Disbelief. He has also written on affirmative action,
and served as a law clerk for two of the great veterans of the civil
rights movement, Judge Spottswood W. Robinson, III, of the U.S. Court
of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and Justice Thurgood
Marshall of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Floyd Flake is Senior Pastor of
the 20,000 member Greater Allen A.M.E. Cathedral in Jamaica, New York,
and President of Wilberforce University in Ohio. During Flake’s 29-year pastorate, Greater Allen
has become one of the nation’s foremost Christian churches and
development corporations and, along with its subsidiaries, operates with
an annual budget of over $34 million and net assets valued at over $100
million. The church also owns expansive commercial and residential developments,
social service enterprises, and a 500-student private school founded
by Flake and his wife Elaine. Flake served eleven years in the U.S. Congress
and was a member of the Banking and Finance and Small Business Committees.
Flake has authored a best-selling book, The Way of the Bootstrapper:
Nine Action Steps for Achieving Your Dreams, and other works.
Joan Gottschall Judge Joan Gottschall is a
United States District Judge for the Northern District of Illinois.
She has been an attorney with the Office of Legal Counsel at the University
of Chicago; a partner at Jenner & Block; and a staff attorney with
the Federal Defender Program. She is a member of the Visiting Committee,
and a member of the Board of Directors of the Martin Marty Center,
at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago. She is a member
of the American Bar Association, the Chicago Bar Association, and the
North Shore Choral Society. She has a B.A. cum laude from Smith College
and a J.D. from Stanford Law School.
Wendell Griffen Judge Wendell L. Griffen was
appointed to the Arkansas Court of Appeals in 1995. Prior to his appointment,
he was a partner in the Little Rock law firm of Wright, Lindsey, and
Jennings, and was appointed by Governor William Clinton as Chairman
of the Arkansas Workers’ Compensation
Commission. He previously served as a member and Associate Editor of
the Arkansas Law Review and was the first recipient of the Silas Hunt
Memorial Justice Award. Judge Griffen is an ordained Baptist minister
and former pastor who has written on issues of religion and law.
Robert Henry Judge Robert H. Henry was appointed by President
William
Clinton to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in
1994. Prior
to his appointment, he served as Dean and Professor of
Law at the Oklahoma
City University School of Law.
Judge Henry also has experience in private
practice and in state
government, having served as Attorney General of
Oklahoma and
in the Oklahoma House of Representatives.
William Pryor Judge William Holcombe Pryor,
Jr. was the former attorney general of the State of Alabama from 1997
to 2004, and presently serves as a federal appeals court judge on the
11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Born on April 26, 1962, in Mobile,
Alabama, and raised as a devout Roman Catholic, Pryor earned his B.A.
from Northeast Louisiana University in 1984 and his J.D. from Tulane
University School of Law in 1987, where he served as editor-in-chief
of the Tulane Law Review. Pryor served as a law clerk to Judge John
Minor Wisdom of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
from 1987 to 1988. From 1988 to 1995, he worked as a private attorney,
also serving as adjunct professor at the Cumberland School of Law at
Samford University (1989–95). From
1995 to 1997, he served as Alabama deputy attorney general, and became
Alabama attorney general, and the youngest state attorney general at
the time, in 1997. Pryor was nominated by President Bush on April 9,
2003, to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. During the confirmation
process in the U.S. Senate, many Democrats criticized him for his comments
regarding homosexuality and abortion, as well as for what they described
as his extreme right-wing views and reputation as a conservative ideological
warrior who lacked the temperament to avoid being an “activist” judge.
Pryor’s nomination was prevented by a Democratic filibuster from
being put to a vote. He was installed as judge on February 20, 2004,
during the Congress’s recess period, bypassing the Senate confirmation
process. Pryor resigned as attorney general that same day and took his
judicial oath for a term lasting until the end of 2005. On June 9, 2005,
he was confirmed to the 11th Circuit by a 53–45 vote in the Senate.
He received his commission on June 10, 2005, and was sworn in to his
new lifetime judicial position on June 20, 2005.
Mike Volkema is Chairman and
CEO of Herman Miller, consistently named by Fortune magazine as the
nation’s most-admired furniture
company. The company has a far-reaching reputation for enlightened people
practices and employee ownership and participation. It is also well-known
for helping people to create great places to work, learn, and heal. Herman
Miller has been cited among the leaders in all industries for innovation
and social responsibility. In addition, Business Ethics magazine lists
Herman Miller among the Top 15 in its annual ranking of the “100
Best Corporate Citizens.” Industry Week magazine has selected Herman
Miller to be among its 100 Best-Managed Manufacturing Companies in the
world.