Oliver “Buzz” Thomas” is the featured speaker for the 2008 Dr. Roy S. Nicks Distinguished Leture Series. His lecture will be held March 27, at 7 p.m. in the D.P. Culp University Center’s Ballroom.
The lecture title is, “Battleground or Common Ground: Church and State on the Cusp of the New Millennium.”
The Rev. Oliver S. Thomas, Esq., is Executive Director of the Niswonger Foundation and one of the nation’s leading experts on religious liberty and the separation of church and state.
Mr. Thomas is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Tennessee where he graduated first in his class. He earned a Master of Divinity from the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary where he also graduated first in his class and was chosen as the school’s outstanding divinity student.
Mr. Thomas received his Doctor of Jurisprudence from the University of Tennessee College of Law.
While Thomas has represented many Evangelicals and lectured at Pat Robertson’s Regent University, he also co-authored “The Right to Religious Liberty,” the A.C.L.U. handbook on the law of church and state.
In addition, he co-authored “Finding Common Ground,” the First Amendment handbook endorsed by the Department of Education and used in many of the nation’s public schools.
Thomas’s articles have appeared in a variety of national publications, and he has been a guest commentator on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, C-Span, and National Public Radio.
He is a regular contributor to USA Today and author of “10 Things Your Minister Wants to Tell You (But Can’t Because He Needs the Job).”
For more information or for special assistance for those with disabilities, contact the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis at 439-4430.

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