Coalition criticizes UA Law Professor Susan Hamill Christian group objects to tax reformer's abortion stance 03/14/03 GREG GARRISON News staff writer A University of Alabama law professor rallying churches to support tax reform has been defending herself against an effort by the Christian Coalition to highlight her stance on abortion. "To call on the president to appoint pro-Roe vs. Wade justices goes contrary to baseline evangelical thinking all across this country," said John W. Giles, president of the Christian Coalition of Alabama. Giles has distributed e-mails saying Susan Pace Hamill signed a petition from law professors in 2000 asking then-presidential candidate George W. Bush to appoint justices who would uphold Roe vs. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion. "The abortion issue is totally irrelevant to tax reform," said Hamill, a graduate of Samford University's Beeson Divinity School. "He has no good arguments against my tax reform position. I am not about abortion. I am about tax reform." Hamill wrote to Beeson Divinity School faculty for support, saying the criticism has no bearing on her tax reform arguments and that it amounts to a personal attack. "This is bullying," she said. Beeson Divinity School faculty responded this week by passing a resolution supporting Hamill's theological arguments for tax reform, which she first made in her master's thesis. "Her arguments for tax reform are biblically sound and we want to support those," said Beeson Divinity Professor Frank Thielman, one of her advisers on her thesis. "We feel the Alabama tax code is weighted against the poor. On this particular issue, she's got her biblical argument right." The divinity faculty resolution did not address Hamill's stance on abortion. "The issue of justice for the poor is a completely separate issue," Thielman said. "The faculty of Beeson Divinity School is pro-life." Hamill's thesis was expanded into an article in the fall 2002 Alabama Law Review attacking the state's tax system on theological grounds. Since then, Hamill has spoken to more than a dozen churches and many civic groups, making the case that Christian morality cries out for tax reform. Samford University has backed Hamill's tax reform case by printing 15,000 copies of a brochure summarizing her argument and helping to distribute them to churches. "If you could boil her thesis down to one statement, it would be we need to give tax relief to the poor, and we concur with that," Giles said. "Where we feel like her claims are a stretch is when she calls on Christians and pastors saying we are in sin if we don't agree with a tax increase." Hamill said she intends to continue speaking at churches about tax reform and didn't think her stance on abortion would necessarily deter churches from inviting her. She said Giles had distorted her views. "As a Christian, I am sensitive to the moral issue of abortion," Hamill said. "The Christian Coalition has portrayed me as insensitive. There are a lot of abortions I would find immoral under any circumstances. This is an issue where there is room for disagreement. The law is not the place to work out this moral dilemma. Before Roe vs. Wade, the rich went to New York and the poor died in back alleys. At least if it's legal, you can get the moral issue out in the open." She said before Giles publicized the connection, she had never heard of the National Abortion Rights Action League, now NARAL Pro-Choice America, which posted the petition of law professors on its web site. Giles said he did an Internet search with Hamill's name and accidentally turned up the site. "It was brought to me as a law professors' petition," Hamill said. "If NARAL was involved, it was hidden from me. If I ever thought it would be used by that group, I wouldn't have signed that petition." Copyright 2003 al.com. All Rights Reserved.