Saint Thomas More’s Zero BAG Index & The Legal Profession
Soon doctors won’t be required to be board certified and pilots will be allowed to fly if they can fly a drone.
Saint Thomas More, ironically, patron of those in the legal profession, believed no lay ruler has jurisdiction over the Church of Christ. His willingness to die for his belief illustrates the The Belief- Action Gap Index also known as the cognitive dissonance index (C D I) – the gap between the person’s beliefs versus his action – no gap at all in the case of Saint Thomas More.
For his beliefs, saint Thomas was beheaded on Tower Hill, London, on July 6, 1535, because he steadfastly refused to approve King Henry VIII’s divorce and remarriage and establishment of the Church of England.
More was a literary scholar, eminent lawyer, gentleman, father of four children, and chancellor of England. An intensely spiritual man, he would not support the king’s divorce from Catherine of Aragon in order to marry Anne Boleyn. Nor would he acknowledge Henry as supreme head of the Church in England, breaking with Rome, and denying the pope as head.
More was committed to the Tower of London to await trial for treason: not swearing to the Act of Succession and the Oath of Supremacy. Upon conviction, More declared he had all the councils of Christendom and not just the council of one realm to support him in the decision of his conscience.
The film, A Man for All Seasons, a 1966 British historical drama film directed and produced by Fred Zinnemann, adapted by Robert Bolt from his play of the same name, depicts the final years of Sir Thomas More, the 16th-century Lord Chancellor of England who refused both to sign a letter asking Pope Clement VII to annul Henry VIII of England’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon and to take an Oath of Supremacy declaring Henry Supreme Head of the Church of England.
As patron saint of those in the legal profession, Saint Thomas More must feel an extreme level of shock at what has happened to the legal profession: Passing the bar exam will soon not be required. Consider the Association Board of Governors, Washington Supreme Court Justice Raquel Montoya-Lewis, one of the chairs of the Bar Licensure Task Force, said the movement comes in part “from law students who have raised issues about equity, not just in the history of the adoption of the bar exam, but also over the course of many decades, when you look at the disproportionate impacts that the bar exam has on examinees of color.” She went on to note, “They tend to fail the bar exam in disproportionate numbers.” The Bar Licensure Task Force found that the traditional exam “disproportionately and unnecessarily blocks marginalized groups from entering the practice of law” and is “at best minimally effective for ensuring competent lawyers.”
Soon doctors won’t be required to be board certified and pilots will be allowed to fly if they can fly a drone.
Lawyers are now paid to come up with the best argument money can buy. Not to uncover the truth. A lawyer will argue that because a wealthy client broke the law, the law must be changed: Either a 180 degree Belief to Action Gap Index, to zero for Saint Thomas More.
Prayer to Saint Thomas More:
I pray, for the glory of God and in the pursuit of His justice, that I, with You, St. Thomas More, may be trustworthy with confidences, keen in study, accurate in analysis, correct in conclusion, able in argument, loyal to clients, honest with all, courteous to adversaries, ever attentive to conscience.
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