Religion: Nursing home trial lawyer is coauthor of new Christian book

June 18, 2004

Enterprise-Journal
By Ernest Herndon

During a trial against a nursing home that ended this week, one of the lead plaintiff’s attorneys had to leave a day early - to sign copies of his new book at the Southern Baptist Convention in Indianapolis.

Ken Connor of Leesburg, Va., represented a woman in her lawsuit against a nursing home corporation for the death of her aunt. The civil trial lasted more than a week in Pike County Circuit Court before the two sides settled.

Connor is coauthor, along with John Revell, of “Sinful Silence: When Christians Neglect Their Civic Duty” (Ginosko Publishing Inc.). The book makes the case for Christians to be involved in social issues. Connor says Christians err when they value evangelism to the exclusion of civic involvement.

“My view is that we’re called to do both, not one at the expense of another,” he said in an interview Wednesday in McComb before returning to Virginia.

“We as Christians shouldn’t just retreat from into prayer closets and separate ourselves from the world. We’re called to be salt and light.”

The book cites the nation of Judah in the Old Testament, which earned God’s wrath when it sanctioned such evils as bribery and child sacrifice - evils that Connor compares to corporate corruption and abortion.

“We can’t just ignore the fact that the Scriptures speak to the need for justice and a just society,” said Connor, who said his book spares neither Republicans nor Democrats.

Connor, 57, was born in Marianna, Fla., and received his legal degree from the Florida State University law school. He experienced the thrill of trial law as a moot court participant.

“I didn’t want to do anything but be a trial lawyer. I like the advocacy part. It’s very competitive. It’s an acceptable form of one-on-one for adults,” he said with a grin.

The books “Whatever Happened to the Human Race” by C. Everett Koop and Francis Schaeffer, and Schaeffer’s “Christian Manifesto,” opened his eyes to the impact of abortion, infanticide, euthanasia - anything that devalued human life.

“I was really convicted as a Christian. I had been morally ambiguous about the whole area, hadn’t really thought about it,” Connor said.

He channeled his concern for the downtrodden into his law practice, then based in Tallahassee, Fla. He was a litigant in what he believes was Florida’s first trial against a nursing home, and his side won a record-setting $2.5 million verdict in Bartow.

A society that places no value on the unborn is also likely to abuse other vulnerable groups, such as the elderly, the poor and prisoners, Connor maintains.

Connor knows his opposition to tort reform places him at odds with many conservatives. He was present at a speech by George H.W. Bush in 1992 when the president “railed against trial lawyers in their tasseled loafers,” recalled Connor, who was wearing such shoes then and now.

But Connor counters with Matthew 25:31-46 and other passages stressing the importance of protecting the needy. “He (God) identifies himself uniquely with the poor and the downtrodden,” said Connor.

Connor ran for governor of Florida in 1994, but Jeb Bush won the Republican nomination, then lost to Lawton Chiles. Jeb Bush went on to win later and endorsed Connor’s book on the cover, as did various evangelical leaders such as Charles Colson.

In 2000, Connor moved to Virginia to take a job with the Family Research Council, speaking, lobbying and fund-raising. Last year he came down with a severe case of pancreatitis and resigned at his doctor’s recommendation, returning to law practice.

Lifeway Books has exclusive right to distribute “Sinful Silence” until mid-July, when it will appear in bookstores and other outlets.

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