Phillip A. Bishop,
Exercise Physiology,
University of Alabama
[Feb 19, 2012] —
As a professor, I have been asked on occasion to give testimony in the courtroom as an expert. I find that to be challenging, fun, and even lucrative.
I attempt to motivate my students by mentioning that someone I know makes over $300/hour chiefly because of their depth of knowledge on the information we cover in class. Alas, so far it has not made them lean forward in their seats to drink more eagerly from so rich a fountain of sagacity.
Testimony Required
Expert witnesses must have expertise in something of use to a civil court. It means that one has studied something and written a detailed and careful report. Usually it involves giving a deposition to hostile inquisitors. Often, being an expert requires testimony before a judge and sometimes to a jury about what we know and believe to be true.
As profs giving testimony, we must prepare. We must stay up-to-date and stay within our area of expertise. We must prepare to face hostile interrogators who will attempt to dispute our claims to the truth. We must speak with confidence from a basis of knowledge. If we aren’t able to speak with authority, we must study, consider all the evidence, and prepare to give testimony in a deposition and in court.
As Christian profs if we are to be expert witnesses we will hone our “Christian worldview.” We study to help us understand our faith in an academic way. We fellowship on campus to learn from Christian colleagues. We constantly consider the perspective of our skeptical peers. We pray and read Scripture being open to what the Holy Spirit may tell us of ourselves, our colleagues and students, and our academic areas. Always we are students to our discipline and to the Holy Spirit.
To Do My Best
When I serve as an expert, I am highly motivated. I want to do a good job. I am motivated by my fear of looking foolish. And I am motivated to do my best to discern the truth and testify to it using the evidence I have been given.
As Christian professors, we need to work diligently with our faith and to be consistent in our daily testimony. We need to fear disgracing the Body of Christ. We need to discern the truth and testify to it with confidence.
There is some tension and real pressure in being an expert witness to the court. It is a sacred trust to be taken seriously.
As Christians, we have a sacred trust. We have a duty to testify to the truth.
Looking For Connections
I feel compelled to testify to my students concerning the hope that is within me. I feel it is my duty to find how my academic specialty of exercise physiology relates to Christianity. I look for connections between faith and physiology. And I have found:
• Human physiology testifies to the wonder of God’s creation.
• It explains the mechanism of crucifixion.
• Knowing that gives me opportunities to share with colleagues and students. It is a privilege to testify to what I believe.
• And, this is a very “lucrative” gig, very “lucrative” indeed. We can’t afford to miss the opportunity to give our expert testimony.
Care to comment? Have you found ways your academic specialty relates to Christianity?
© 2012 Phillip A. Bishop
© istockphoto
Dear Phil;
Thanks very much for your always helpful comments. I am an academic teaching law in Australia, and so I really appreciated your remarks about “expert testimony”. I thoroughly agree that, if we consider how we would prepare were we called on to give such testimony in a court-room about our discipline, we should consider how well-prepared we are to give the testimony that we will be called on to provide from time to time about why we believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour (see of course 1 Peter 3:15).
I should perhaps add that I have found a number of opportunities have arisen from a paper I presented to our local Christian staff fellowship analysing how the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus would be admissible in a court in Australia today under current evidence law: see the paper at http://works.bepress.com/neil_foster/23/.)
Thank you for your encouraging note about being prepared. I teach water and wastewater engineering, and I think it is important to connect the importance of physical drinking water and spiritual living water. I have traveled to Ecuador several times with my church to distribute water filtration systems, and I take the opportunity in class to highlight the importance of helping people spiritually and physically, as Jesus did in His three years of ministry.