Veritas Rex

Not a man but a movement. The ideas behind politics

Last week I posted a blog titled "The Next Ronald Reagan?  We're not ready yet?"  The premise of the article is that what is happening in the halls of government is a result of what is happening in the collective mind of the nation.  Abraham Lincoln put it this way: "the philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next."

My post talked about rebuilding the dike of intellectual thought in the Conservative Movement.  I made the point that before we can think about the next Ronald Reagan, we need to identify and support the next Milton Friedman, William F. Buckley, Whittaker Chambers, James Burnham, Thomas Sowell, and scores of others.

In a follow up comment, I mentioned the importance of F.A. Hayek and his leadership in transitioning from mere intellectual inquiry to activism.  The following article appeared in a 1997 issue of National Review.

The plan to end planning - the founding of the Mont Pelerin Society
National Review,  June 16, 1997  by Ralph Harris

IN the aftermath of World War II, when Friedrich Hayek assembled some three dozen like-minded American and European scholars on the slopes of Mont Pelerin above Lake Geneva, the outlook for freedom could hardly have been more bleak. Churchill had coined the phrase "Iron Curtain" to mark the apparently permanent division of Europe between East and West. Some of the German participants at this first Mont Pelerin Society meeting had difficulty getting travel passes to Switzerland. Marshall aid had yet to be launched for the reconstruction of shattered economies. In April 1947 the new Deutsche Mark was more than a year away, and cigarettes still served as the general medium of exchange. As a grim omen for the future, Hayek's new classic The Road to Serfdom (1944) was banned throughout Germany, not only in the Soviet zone, but also by the three Western powers of occupation.

Exactly 50 years later, some eighty of the now five hundred members of the society gathered at Mont Pelerin, a few hundred yards from the smaller hotel at which the first meeting was held, to mark the anniversary and review progress. On the face of it, the world around had been transformed in a direction that would have rejoiced our anxious founders. How far can we conclude, therefore, that the objectives of the Society are well on their way to being fulfilled?

An objective observer at that first gathering in 1947 must surely have marveled at Hayek's dream and mocked his tiny band of economists, philosophers, and historians cocooned in Switzerland, remote from the ugly realities throughout the rest of Europe. After all, their purpose was to launch an intellectual crusade aimed at reversing the rising tide of postwar collectivism already signaled by the swamping Labour majority that had swept Churchill aside in Britain -- Hayek's chosen home since he quit Vienna in 1931.

Read the rest here.

The Next Ronald Reagan? We're not ready yet.

On August 13, 1981, at his beloved ranch home outside of Santa Barbara, President Ronald Reagan signed into law the largest tax cut in American history. The Washington Post, hardly a mouthpiece of the Conservative Movement, called this event, “the greatest demonstration of presidential leadership in modern history.”

Twenty years later, the American taxpayer would get another tax cut, this time signed into law by President George W. Bush. But there was a world of difference between these two pieces of legislation. What was it?
What people often forget is that the Reagan tax cuts were passed through an overwhelming Democratic congress. Tip O'Neil, a throwback politician and then Speaker of the House, resided over a Congress that was controlled by Democrats nearly 2 to 1.

In contrast, the Bush tax cuts were passed with political muscle. The Republicans had the votes and got the legislation through. The problem with this approach, however, is that when you lose the muscle, which you inevitably will in the ebb and flow of American politics, you lose the result that muscle produced.
The Reagan tax cuts were not produced with political muscle, but rather, with a real change in the way the average American thought and felt about economic policy.

And, the Reagan tax cuts were possible because, in a sense, Reaganism preceded Reagan.

Is it even possible to imagine the Reagan tax cuts without Milton Friedman, Robert Bartley, and Art Laffer? Is it possible to imagine Reagan’s posture toward the Soviet Union without the work of Whittaker Chambers and James Burnham. Is it possible to imagine a conservative like Ronald Reagan even rising to the presidency without the reshaping of the American mind by the likes of Russell Kirk, Frank Meyer, and William F. Buckley?

It is time to rebuild the dike. It is time to once again grow the bank of conservative thought and to focus less on the outcome of the coming election and more on the way people think and feel about issues of utmost importance--the underlying values that determine the long-term fate of our country and world.

WIth mere political muscle, we may get lucky now and then. We may elect good candidates and pass good legislation, but this strategy can only yield short term results followed by long-term losses. We need to go about making the country more conservative again.

Before we can even think about who the next Ronald Reagan will be, we need to identify, support, and aid the advancement of the next Milton Friedman, Thomas Sowell, and William F. Buckley. This is the only strategy that can yield the long-term results we desire.

PyroMarketing: Ideas, Not Geography matters

I continue to blog today from the Christian Leadership Alliance National Conference in Dallas, Texas. As I referenced in a previous blog, I spent the better part of a day with Greg Stielstra, author of the book PyroMarketing. I love marketing because marketing is geared toward movement building. If you are into marketing you are already well beyond the stage where you’re focused merely on building your own organization. Marketing minds are thinking about packaging ideas and attracting followers. And, contrary to a cynics approach, good marketers are about loving the customer or market. It’s knowing what we have will bring added value and meaning and attempting to communicate that in a meaningful way.

For those of you following our progress on the Mere Christianity Project that we are working on with Dinesh D’Souza following the release of What’s So Great About Christianity, I can tell you that you’ll see much of what we’ve learned over the past few days implemented into this movement. The most significant “aha” moment could be this one. It is the realization that what we are doing today with the Mere Christianity Project is not a new movement. The movement has existed in different corners and nooks and crannies for quite some time. We are providing that movement a community and a common area that brings the movement together. And we know that many of the readers of Veritas Rex, and certainly the good people at Indiana Family Institute are a part of that movement.

As we move forward, look for the Mere Christianity Project to employ strategies to unite the broader Christian community. What we are talking about is mere Christianity. As Dinesh has written, the atheist have been flogging the carcass of fundamentalism without having to encounter the horse-kick of of vigorous, traditional Christianity.

As we put Christianity on offense you can expect to see us fully utilize what some call “non-traditional” means of communication. We trust that one reason the readers of Veritas Rex are turning to the blogosphere for news, information, and commentary is because “traditional” forms of media are less trustworthy. You may wonder if they are even relevant.

And can you even imagine writing a letter to the editor today and waiting and hoping beyond hope that maybe, just maybe they’ll publish it? Yeah right! If you’ve got something to say, blog it!

In days gone by, we were well connected to mass media and poorly connected to each other. This led to communities of convenience. But today, with 44 percent of US on-line Americans being content creators, meaning they post, blog, have personal sites, etc, we are now poorly connected to mass media and well connected to each other. We now organize by affinity and interest.

This is how I can, living in Santa Barbara and today writing to you from Dallas, can be a part of a community of Hoosiers. I was born a Hoosier and spent the first 20 years of my life there. And in today’s world there is no reason I cannot continue to be a Hoosier despite the fact that when I drive to work in the morning I drive with the top down smelling the salty air.

This is not a commentary on the current state of affairs internationally, but we cannot stamp out radical Islam with troops and with guns. Radical Islam may have a geographic center in one region of the world, but is no longer bound to geography. When we organize by proximity, geography is everything. But it is no longer about proximity.

And so the likes of Christopher Hitchens and Dan Dennett and Sam Harris should rest assured that Christianity is not warlike as some have suggested. We are merely attempting to give an answer to the reason for the hope that is within us.

I’m Clark Vandeventer, CEO of World Changers Inc. To learn more about how we are employing these strategies to effect real social change, go to www.worldchangers.us.com.

It will take more than your organization to change the world

Today I am blogging from Dallas, Texas where I am participating in the 31st Annual Christian Leadership Alliance National Conference. It is a busy week of exchanging ideas and forming partnerships to achieve shared goals. Ken Blanchard, Chuck Swindoll, Chip Ingram, and my good friend Mark Larson are just a few of the speakers featured here this week. Today, I have participated in a session led by Greg Stielstra, author of the book PyroMarketing and founder of PyroMarketing Inc.

At World Changers, our mission is to act upon big, bold dreams in a way that connects people to things bigger and more lasting than this world. While we don’t put it this way, others have defined our work as developing strategies to put Christianity on offense.

And that is what I love about a conference like the one I am attending now. The Christian Leadership Alliance is an organization of sorts, but it’s really a network. Literally hundreds of Christian ministries, churches, and businesses that serve this sector have convened for a week of talking shop.

It takes me back again to Leslie Crutchfield and Heather McLeod Grant and their book “Forces for Good.” I blogged on this book under the title “Mission to Movement” last week. You can go to the World Changers website at www.worldchangers.us.com to learn more and even get a free copy of the book.

When organizations partner together, you move from mission to movement. The people I have talked with this week are less interested in reaching a new plateau in their annual budgets next year than they are in establishing real social change. Crutchfield and McLeod Grant write that it’s not about focusing “exclusively on building their own empires and hoarding resources.” Rather, it is about building a movement. A force for good organization knows, as Goery Delacote said, “The future is not in large organizations: the future is in the network, and servicing other organizations.”

Now this is not to suggest you not grow your organization. But growing your organization will only almost certainly lead to incremental change. Movement builders create the opportunity for seismic shifts.

So here we are in Dallas. Hundreds of individuals and organizations in one room and then in breakout sessions. I turn to the guy next to me and ask him what he does. My next thought isn’t to look at him as a competitor but as a partner. How can we partner together to achieve a shared mission. What does World Changers do that could help his organization move from doing whatever he can to doing what he always dreamed?

Ronald Reagan lived by the mantra “there’s no limit to what we can accomplish if we don’t mind who gets the credit.” It feels good to be surrounded by people who share that belief.

Watch for additional commentary and nuggets from the Christian Leadership Alliance throughout the week.

What is a Christian Business?

I have written on the Veritas Rex blog about strategies to put Christianity on offense and moving from mission to movement. In light of this new, vehement breed of atheism that labels Christianity a threat to civilization itself, the church must be awakened to the reality that we can no longer be content in our own Christian subculture. The atheists and secular elites are no longer content with “peaceful coexistence.”

That is why I founded World Changers Inc. We’re proud to partner with Dinesh D’Souza who has become the chief spokesman in developing a new apologetics to answer the basic questions of our time. And that is why we are spending so much time helping various non-profit organizations move from mission to movement. An organization with a mission is a great thing. But movement builders are more interested in changed hearts and minds and social impact than the three b’s that most non-profits deal with (buildings, budgets, and baloney).

But perhaps the most revolutionary initiative we’re working on is the concept of Kingdom Building Businesses. I’m asked all the time: “What is a Kingdom Building Business?” In my mind, a Kingdom Building Business is purposeful in seeking to connect people to things bigger and more lasting than this world. Like me, you may have often heard people refer to a business as “a Christian business.” But I am not exactly sure what this means. Kingdom Building Businesses deliver a product or service and have core competency, but the real niche they fill is that they speak to people at a higher level.

Now I am not at all surprised if your head is spinning. To get at better idea of what I am talking about, I invite you to go to YouTube and search “Kingdom Building Businesses” to view some short statements of what a Kingdom Building Business actually is.

Here’s the gist of it. The modern marketplace thrives on the most carnal aspects of our humanity. It lives on the bottom two levels of what the psychotherapist turned business strategist Gary Morais calls the Structure of Survival. Walk down 5th Avenue in New York or State Street in Santa Barbara or through Circle Center Mall in Indy. What is being addressed? The sexual and environmental levels of survival.

But Kingdom Building Businesses acknowledge that there is a spirit and that all men and women long to be spoken to at a deeper level.

We intrinsically know that there is more to life than sex and designer jeans and the cars we drive and houses we live in.

At World Changers Inc., we’re convinced that our culture has to be shaped by being where people live their lives. And we know that we live a good part of our lives in business and in the marketplace.

These are big ideas to get your arms around. To read more and join a discussion of this topic, visit our website at www.worldchangers.us.com and click on the link for Kingdom Building Businesses.

From Mission to Movement

I have spent a great deal of time over the past few months contemplating the work of Leslie Crutchfield and Heather McLeod Grant which produced what I think is one of the most important books for the non profit sector in a generation. Their book, “Forces for Good: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits,” is about what I call “moving from mission to movement.”

“Forces for Good,” looks at twelve high impact non profits. These groups are as varied and diverse as the Heritage Foundation to the National Council of La Raza to Habitat for Humanity.

This book has in many ways provided the foundation for my work with Dinesh D’Souza in developing a strategy to put Christianity on offense against the secular elitists. Our assumption is that what we need today are not simply organizations that are more effective or efficient. Of course we seek to be effective and efficient, but our goal is far more audacious than simply to be better managers.

There is one characteristic of high-impact nonprofits that Crutchfield and McLeod Grant highlight that has intrigued me more than any other, and that is the ability to inspire what they call evangelists. The organization they highlight as being particularly effective in this regard is Habitat for Humanity.

Habitat for Humanity is well known for it’s work to provide affordable housing for low income families and those in need. But there are far more effective ways to build homes than getting guys like me with questionable construction know-how out on the job site. If they just wanted to build homes, they’d be far better off contracting with Ryland Homes or Drees Homes or one of the other housing developers.

But Habitat’s goal is far more audacious than building homes. They seek to make an unresolved housing problem to be unacceptable in the hearts and minds of individuals. Getting you and me to give our Saturday to swing a hammer and help build a home is a far more effective way to do that. They inspire evangelists, and evangelists build movements that change the world.

It is this shift from being mission driven to being movement driven that has so many organizations excited to be partnering with World Changers Inc. where I am now serving as the chief executive officer. After nearly a decade at the Reagan Ranch, most recently as deputy director, I saw what a difference it makes when an organization seeks to have a real impact--that is, build a movement--as opposed to sticking to the status quo. Robert Herbold calls this being “seduced by success.”

To learn more about going from mission to movement, visit our website at www.worldchangers.us.com. Visit the site now to learn how you can get a free copy of “Forces for Good.” You’ll be glad you did.

Is Christianity Warlike?

In a recent post on the website “The Bilerico Project: Daily Experiments in LGBTQ,” Bill Browning describes me as “a blogger for the fundamentalist hate group Indiana Family Institute, explaining why Christians need to start attacking progressives.”  This post is made under the heading “Because Christianity is warlike,” and quotes from my blog for Veritas Rex titled “Putting Christianity on Offense.”

Here is the quote that Browning sites:

"Christianity is now on offense... We're taking the battle to a new level, and the result will be either that Christians regain the authority to speak to all areas of life or that Christians lose the ability to speak at all. The stakes are high.”

From that, I draw the ire of The Bilerico Project?

If you read my entire blog you’ll see that nowhere do I suggest that Christians attack progressives.  You certainly do not see that in the quote Mr. Browning sited.

My sole contention is that Christianity is under a new kind of attack by the likes of Christopher Hitchens, Daniel Dennett, and Sam Harris. These individuals and their followers are not content to co-exist with Christianity.  They aim to destroy it.

These individuals assert that religion in general and Christianity in specific are a detriment to civilization itself.  They suggest religion is a form of child abuse.

I’m not making this stuff up.

Richard Dawkins wrote that “Faith is one of the world’s great evils, comparable to the small pox virus but harder to eradicate.”

Sam Harris believes religion is akin to slavery.  He writes: “I would be the first to admit that they prospects for eradicating religion in our time do not seem good.  Still the same could have been said about the efforts to abolish slavery at the end of the eighteenth century.”

These are quite inflammatory (and warlike) statements.  This is not a philosophy or worldview of “live and let live” as suggested by an individual identified as “Sportin’ Life” in a comment on The Bilerico Project’s website.

In light of this new, vehement, highly aggressive (and warlike) atheism, we’ve opted to put Christianity on offense.  This does not mean we are attacking progressives or that Christianity is warlike, as Browning suggests.  What it does mean is that we are seeking to answer the arguments of the New Atheism and that we are willing to do it on their terms and on their turf.

Warlike?  Hardly.  We’re simply, as one of the original disciples of Jesus wrote, attempting to give an answer to everyone who asks us to give a reason for why we believe.

As I said in my earlier post, the result of this current spiritual and intellectual battle will either be that Christians regain the ability to speak to all areas of life or Christians will lose the ability to speak at all.

I’m happy that Mr. Browning read my blog but I’m disappointed his post tends to promote a spirit of hate rather than a spirit of genuine discussion.  From his post I got the feeling he thinks I closely resemble Darth Vader.

If Mr. Browning is seriously interested in discussion of these issues and not mere posturing, I’d encourage him to pick up a copy of Dinesh D’Sozua’s latest book What’s So Great About Christianity. 

D’Souza writes in the preface:

“I think that if atheists are genuine rationalists they should welcome this book.  It is an effort to meet the atheist argument on its own terms.  Nowhere in this book do I take Christianity for granted.  My modus operandi is one of skepticism.”

There’s a difference between being warlike and being on offense.  To learn more about strategies to put Christianity on offense, go to www.worldchangers.us.com.  When you’re there, email us your thoughts.  We’d love to hear from you.

Will the New Atheism produce a new generation of Roaring Lambs?

Anyone who has graduated from Indiana Wesleyan University over the past decade has heard--no, take that back--has been inundated with the term “Roaring Lamb.”  The university’s mission is to develop “World Changers” and even has a society of Roaring Lambs that includes Bob Briner, author of the book “Roaring Lambs,” Dr. James Dobson, and, the most recent inductee, Coach Tony Dungy.

As I student at IWU I thought about the term.  For the past years as I have progressed in my career, I have not so much thought about the term as I have attempted to live it.  But now I am thinking about it again.  In fact, I quote from Bob Briner’s book extensively in a case statement I have written for a project we are calling the Mere Christianity Initiative.  This is just a working title of a program that involves Dinesh D’Souza and the development of a new apologetics.  It is an attempt to put Christianity on offense by answering the attacks of the new atheism on their terms and in the hallowed shrines of modern secularism.  It’s an attempt to be “roaring lambs.”

A roaring lamb is someone who represents Christ not so much to the church as to the world.  A roaring lamb is, as Teddy Roosevelt would put it, “in the arena.”

Sadly, this is not where the church has been for the past few decades, maybe more.

Disclaimer: I am making generalizations here.  I in no way wish to discredit or downplay the work of those Christians who are “in the arena” or those sincere Christians who have made their home within the church walls.

“Despite all the fancy buildings, sophisticated programs, and highly visible presence, it is my contention,” Bob Briner writes in Roaring Lambs, “that the church is almost a nonentity when it comes to shaping culture.”

This is a result of a treaty of sorts agreed to long ago by the Christian community and “the world.”  I am not talking about a low lit back room deal.  But I am talking about an agreement that was made, whether that decision was made consciously or not.

The agreement was this:  The church will speak to ethics and to values.  Science and experts and the world at large will speak to facts.

This was a comfortable scenario for the church.  The church collective is the single largest enterprise on earth.  It composes billions and billions of dollars.  I am not only speaking of the billions that are given in tithes and offerings each week, but what about the thousands of Christian charities, Christian radio, Christian recording labels, Christian publishers, and the list goes on.

“Instead of engaging the secular world,” D’Souza writes in his latest book What’s So Great About Christianity, “most Christians have taken the easy way out.  They have retreated into a Christian subculture...  They have instead sought a workable, comfortable modus vivendi in which they agree to leave the secular world alone if the secular world agrees to leave them alone.”

Mark Allan Noll, in his book Scandal of the Evangelical Mind sums up well the unwillingness of Christians to engage the secular world in culture and the intellectual community in particular.  He writes:

“The scandal of the evangelical mind is that there is not much of an evangelical mind.  An extraordinary range of virtues is found among the sprawling throngs of evangelical Protestants in North America... However, American evangelicals are not exemplary for their thinking, and they have not been for several generations.”

Like Briner, Noll is keenly aware that despite the apparent success of the church in North America, the church is virtually a “nonentity when it comes to shaping culture.”

With all we’ve got, who needs the world.

Well, this is a scenario the church should have never gotten backed into.  But isn’t it interesting how this is now playing out.  It’s not the church who is calling to an end to this treaty--it’s the secularists, and, in particular this new breed of atheism led by the likes of Christopher Hitches.  They say that Christianity can no longer speak to ethics and values.  In fact, they say that Christianity is a detriment to civilization itself.

In future posts, you’ll learn how we are taking the battle into enemy territory.  What we’re doing is not new--it’s just what Francis Shaeffer did a generation ago or C.S. Lewis did a few generations ago.  We are answering the basic questions of our time.  And we’re doing it in a way that puts Christianity on offense.  To learn more, go to www.worldchangers.us.com.  When you’re there, email us your thoughts and questions.

Putting Christianity on Offense

Thousands of words are being written and published on the internet alone every single day.  Then there’s the Wall Street Journal, Investors Business Daily, the New York Times, the LA Times. If you’re a Hoosier there’s the Indianapolis Star. For me, it’s the Santa Barbara News-Press beckoning to be read each morning.  National Review and dozens of other periodicals.  I suspect that you, like me, have a list of dozens of books on your “to-read” list.  And that list keeps getting longer and longer.

And now a new blogger.

Why read?

Read for perspective.  I promise to keep it short and to keep it fresh and to write about things that others are not writing on.  I’ll leave the political grind to those who are more entrenched (unless I think they are totally missing it) and I am not going to dissect a piece of legislation for you.

What I will do is share with you stories from many of the world-changing institutions I have an opportunity to work with through my role with World Changers, Inc.  You’ll read about men and women who are not seduced by success and instead look beyond the horizon at what could be done.  You'll read about "Kingdom Building Businesses" and a vision to take common things and making them sacred by using them to connect people to things bigger and more lasting than this world.

You’ll read about a strategy we are developing to put Christianity on offense.

In his latest book, What’s So Great About Christianity, Dinesh D’Souza writes, “They [the new wave of modern day atheists] have been flogging the carcass of fundamentalism without having to encounter the horse kick of a vigorous traditional Christianity.”

With the release of What’s So Great About Christianity, Dinesh D’Souza delivered that first horse kick.  Debates between D’Souza and leading atheists such as Christopher Hitchens, Daniel Dennett, and others have put Christianity and this New Atheism toe to toe.

Christianity is now on offense.  But What’s So Great About Christianity was just the call to arms.  We’re taking the battle to a new level, and the result will be either that Christians regain the authority to speak to all areas of life or that Christians lose the ability to speak at all.  The stakes are high.
So keep coming back to learn more and visit us at www.worldchangers.us.com.