To Change the World
The “leadership deficit” is chronic. So, argues David Gergen, the Director of the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and former White House staffer for Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton. In a recent editorial for U.S. News and World Report, Gergen observes that the American crisis of confidence in leadership has been forty years in the making and that the problem is deeper than the quality of persons who come to power. He cites a telling observation of the late John W. Gardner, former Cabinet Secretary, President of the Carnegie Corporation, and founder of the prestigious White House Fellowship—At the founding of this country, dozens of world-class leaders developed from a population of little more than 3 million. By comparison today, we have difficulty generating one or two from a population 100 times as large. Strangely though, Gergen wants to put the blame on the “followers” a.k.a. the American people. Really?
The same magazine issue offers brief profiles of “America’s Best Leaders for 2009.” Only one prominent political conservative, Orin Hatch, and a single identified Christian philanthropist and former NBA player David Robinson, made the exclusive list of 25. To be sure, the list does include some people who have made significant contributions deserving recognition, but Christian conservative leadership is woefully absent. The panel of judges for this list were assembled by Harvard University and appear to be largely center-to-left academic, government, and big business elites who quite unsurprisingly nominated people like themselves as America’s best leaders. So I had to ask myself…Why would the leadership of conservative men and women of faith not make an impression on the selection committee?
I believe there are clear reasons for this. Before I elaborate, I encourage you to listen to the audio (or read the PDF version). The audio is a briefing on the dynamics of leadership and cultural change by Dr. James Davison Hunter, noted author and sociologist at the University of Virginia.
Dr. Hunter provides a compelling argument as to why and how Christians have lost cultural influence and what must be done in order to re-enter the playing field as leaders of principled, positive, and lasting change. Essentially, Dr. Hunter understands culture as a sort of “capital” that is created, concentrated, and leveraged by networks of leaders operating in geographical centers of national influence. This idea has significant strategic implications for how Christians ought to be thinking about and influencing their world for the better. It also suggests why so few Christian conservatives are influential in culture and politics today.
Leadership is not about being a “lucky” person of the right talent, in the right place, at the right time. Rather, leadership involves a natural giftedness, deliberate formation, and an intentional network of like-minded colleagues banded together to achieve monumental change. This is the story of America’s “founding brothers” at the genesis of the nation. While we know this story well, far too many conservatives seem to have forgotten its strategic implications for leadership development today. How can one not recognize and credit Barack Obama as one of the most intentionally placed leaders for the liberal progressive movement in modern times? His ascension to the Oval Office is a clear testimony to his natural abilities, deliberate formation, and the power of intentional networking among cultural elites.
Why wouldn’t conservatives of faith want to be as strategic and sophisticated as liberal progressives in developing future leadership? Why wouldn’t conservatives of faith support a para-academic effort committed to imparting constitutional principles to rising young leaders in religion, politics, and law? Why wouldn’t conservatives of faith want to attract exceptionally talented young people for their deliberate spiritual, intellectual, and professional formation and intentional networking among mentors and peers for future public service?
Of course, this is exactly the strategy and task of the John Jay Institute. It’s our calling as an institute to pursue this crucial task in order to change the landscape of leadership for the future. Despite the fact the John Jay Institute is facing the most financially challenging year in its organizational history, it has remained focused on it mission and continues to develop future leaders. Our residential fellowship program continues to attract the highest quality students and their placements in professional organizations and graduate and professionals schools are strategic. We are even fielding a new non-residential leadership program specifically designed for young working professionals aspiring to public service. All of these programs move forward because of the crucial demand for leaders. But to do so, we need your help. So I ask you to consider making the John Jay Institute part of your charitable giving this Christmas season. In candor this work will not move forward without the continuing generosity of people like you who have the eyes of faith to see that together ours can be a different future.
Yours for principled public leadership,
Alan R. Crippen II
Founder and President
