John Jay Institute In South Korea
Crippen Chaplain of Conference
Pohang, S. Korea - Last month JJI President Alan Crippen traveled to Pohang, S. Korea at the invitation of Handong Global University. Abraham Lee, a business professor there as well as a former student of Crippen's when a Witherspoon Fellow in Washington, D.C. 13 years ago, invited him to participate in the Global Entrepreneurship Training 2011 or GET 11 as the Conference Chaplain.
Attended by over 100 aspiring entrepreneurs of 38 different nationalities, the conference was designed and organized by Handong Global University under the sponsorship of UNESCO to encourage sustainable economic growth through job creation and commerce, particularly in developing nations. As Chaplain, Crippen spoke on the general theme of "Christ, Culture and Commerce" in a series of three devotional talks tailored for morning worship services. In his series Crippen argued that a Christ-centered vision for business and entrepreneurship is part of the American story and in his country's "spiritual DNA" from its earliest beginnings. Crippen pointed out that "adventurers" or what we now call entrepreneurs and venture capitalists originally colonized America and were animated and motivated by Christianity in doing so. This, he said, was true of the Jamestown, Virginia and Massachusetts Bay colonies. His point was that religiously motivated entrepreneurship infuses business with transcendent meaning and purpose and provides an ethical framework for restraining greed and encouraging altruism. Christianity and business ought to have a mutually positive relationship.
Handong Global University is a Christian university with an enrollment of 3,700 students. Founded in 1995, it specializes in preparing students in the fields of international relations, business and economics, biotechnology and food science, electronics and computer science. Italso hosts Handong International Law School.
