Well-know Des Moines Lawyer Jonathan Wilson will speak on the topic, “The Mantra of the Radical, the Terrorist, and the Lynch Mob: The Ends Justify the Means” on July 28, in the fourth of a four-part forum on “Justice and the Common Good.” The series, organized by Faith in Iowa, has been exploring the political, legal, and religious ramifications of the 2010 ouster of three Iowa Supreme Court justices. The lectures series will finish at 7 p.m. this Thursday at Christ Episcopal Church, 220 40th Street NE in Cedar Rapids. It is free and open to the public.
The forum sponsor, Faith in Iowa, is an interfaith coalition whose purpose is to promote judicial independence and religious freedom in Iowa.
Wilson will analyze the reaction to the Varnum decision in a larger intellectual, moral, and philosophical context. He will attempt to gauge the reaction when measured against well-recognized Iowa values. He will discuss the mistake we make when we justify “collateral damage” from our military and covert operations, but condemn such damage as terrorism when it’s caused by acts of our antagonists. He will draw some disquieting parallels; identify in the reaction to the Varnum decision a corollary to a flawed philosophy that the ends justify the means; and analyze the implications the reaction represents as theocratic assault on democratic principles.
Jonathan Wilson was born in Iowa, educated in Iowa public schools, and graduated magna cum laude from Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa, where he served as Student Body President. He completed law school at the University of Iowa College of Law as an editor of the Iowa Law Review and member of the Order of Coif. He worked as a clerk for the federal circuit court serving Iowa, taught at Drake University, and has practiced law with the DavisBrown Law Firm since 1974 in Des Moines. For twelve years he served on the Des Moines, Iowa school board and since 1996 has been president of the First Friday Breakfast Club, an association of gay men and the largest breakfast club in the state of Iowa. He owns a small Iowa farm. He has invested his life in Iowa. If you are from Iowa, you and he probably have a lot in common.
