Gideon Strauss

On October 1 of this year I will be joining the Center for Public Justice as its new president, following in the footsteps of the founding president, Jim Skillen. I am very excited about the prospects of the Center. From my conversations with friends all over America, there is a need for a fresh kind of political engagement on the part of evangelical Christians. The legacy of the Center offers rich resources for such a fresh engagement.

One reason why I am joining the Center is because I owe it a great debt of gratitude. In the early 1990s I was working on my PhD dissertation. The question I asked in my research was “What are the responsibilities of the state with regard to the alleviation of poverty?” I asked that question in a particular context — that of South Africa in transition from apartheid to a post-apartheid democratic constitutional order. And I asked that question from a particular perspective — that of an evangelical Christian who had been involved for all of my (young) adult life in anti-apartheid activism (albeit on a small and humble scale).

Finding Christian resources on the question was difficult, and it was through the publications of the Center for Public Justice that I first connected with the Protestant and Catholic traditions of Christian social thought that addressed that question. I still remember vividly, and with deep gratitude, my first awestruck reading of Abraham Kuyper’s 1891 speech on the question in an English-language edition introduced by Jim Skillen and published by the Center as The Problem of Poverty. Imagine my delight when I discovered that the Center was itself at that time engaged in a study of contemporary welfare policy!

I still have much to learn about the contemporary political possibilities of American evangelicals, and about the historical legacy of Christian social thought of which the Center for Public Justice is one steward. Those of you who have received email correspondence from me in recent years may have noticed the personal vocational mantra included in my email signature: “Asking big questions, enabling whole-hearted work, advising world-changing organizations.” In this new position it is clear that I will have to continue to ask big questions.

I hope that I will find ways in the next few years in which to help people make the connections between civic responsibility and whole-hearted work. I was reminded of these connections again a week ago when I read Richard Mouw’s “Reflections on a formative friendship,” in which he recalls a phone call he received in 1975 from Mark Gibbs, who told Richard that “what you have written about the need for evangelical Christians to be actively involved in politics in service to Christ is really all about the ministry of the laity in the world.”  I think there is something to that claim.

My responsibilities at the Center will not, however, be advisory. I hope, indeed, that the Center will in a humble and collaborative way be world-changing (a word I now use with some trepidation, having read Andy Crouch’s Culture making and finding myself in agreement with Andy’s critique of overweening claims for the potential effects of our cultural efforts — including our political efforts). But as far as my new organizational home is concerned, I will no longer be in a position to write memos or appear before committees or sitting down for coffee and conversation with executives … only to retreat to the safety of my study. Instead, I will myself be up to my elbows in the gritty, sweaty, scary work of building an institution.

I am grateful that I will not be doing this work on my own, or out of nothing! CPJ is built on rock, and has a rich legacy, a reliable constituency of partners and supporters, and a fabulous board (my best interview experience ever — and I have had some really great interview experiences!). In addition, Jim and Doreen Skillen are not abandoning ship but are instead remaining on board for the foreseeable future, to my great relief and delight. And in the deepest sense, none of us at the Center are doing this work of equiping citizens, developing leaders, and shaping policy on our own, because we know that we are not our own, but belong to our faithful saviour, Jesus Christ.

What questions do you think I should be asking as I prepare to take on this exciting new challenge? You can leave suggestions in the comments to this blog entry, or you can email me at gideonstrauss.cpj@gmail.com.