I am Scott, a Lutheran layman (not professional church worker). I’m actually a criminal defense lawyer, but before that I worked as a dishwasher, busboy, lawn care worker, lumberyard worker, janitor, carpenter’s apprentice, army officer (I was really bad at this), lawn sprinkler installer, prosecutor, divorce and bankruptcy lawyer.
Some people ask me how I can defend criminals. Well leaving aside for a moment that they aren’t all guilty, there are a number of good answers. But the best is probably that God has ordained certain institutions among men which include governments and legal systems for the good order of the societies we live in. For reasons He does not divulge, He seems to have called me presently to act as accused people’s advocate, and not their judge.
Moving on to religious stuff, I was baptized as an infant (cf: http://whatisalutheran.com/index.php/category/baptism/) and raised as a Lutheran. But my parents did not specifically emphasize being “Lutheran” so much as just being “Christian.” In college I was probably best described as a “non-denominationalist.” I tried atheism (briefly) but found it intellectually unsatisfying, raising many more questions than it answered. Later I joined a Baptist church because that’s where my friends went. As I studied the faith I had more and more questions about Church history and the practices of baptism and came to realize I “fit” much better in the Lutheran church. So, I went back to the denomination of my childhood.
My hobbies include history and languages and I have read many of the texts of the early Church and am fascinated by Biblical manuscripts and “Biblical textual criticism” – a long phrase meaning trying to figure out what the books of the Bible originally said. (Not to spoil things, but they originally said the same thing that they say now, but just not in English.) If you like to talk about history and manuscripts, I would love to hear from you, but if your just looking for free legal advice or want to talk about trying to raise children in Tallahassee, I’m good with that too.
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