Culturally Intelligent Leadership for the Current Age

Introduction

I’m going to tell you in a little bit what I mean by “Culturally Intelligent Leadership for the Current Age,” in little bit. First I want to tell you a story and connect that to the origins of our discontents.

You likely don’t need me to convince you that humanity is still experiencing divisions, polarizations, and hostilities between people groups in this world. In her 2020 book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, Isabel Wilkerson makes a compelling case that America throughout history and today has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings. She explores eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations, looking particularly at India, Nazi Germany, and the United States. One particular story in the book actually gave me chills when I read it.

Neither my wife nor I are swimmers. I can swim, but that doesn’t mean I’m a swimmer. But swimming was the primary sport we chose for our children as they were growing up. We were that swim team family. Always at the pool during the week. Swim meets at home and in various states on weekends. Swimming is not the most popular sport in the African American community. When our oldest child, who is now 29, was in high school he thought about quitting swimming to play football. All of those hours in the pool had carved for him a physique that made him look like a linebacker or tight end. And his friends were pressuring him to give up swimming to play football. During his sophomore year he took a research methods class that had the students choose a subject and do a qualitative and quantitative research project. He chose to research the history of African Americans and swimming from the period of the Atlantic Slave Trade to the current day. He discovered through the records of enslavers how well the Africans who lived close to the coast could swim. And how swimming was outlawed for enslaved Africans in the United States. Then, how this prohibition was reinforced by pseudo-science that black people were poorer swimmers than whites because they had thicker bone density. And that you had to keep pools segregated because hyper sexual black men would not be able to control themselves in the presence of white women and would actually ejaculate in the pool. And my son reported on the devastating contemporary impact of the attitude among African Americans that “black people don’t swim.” The rate of black children who drown is exponentially higher than their white counterparts. He interviewed elementary school students and found that the swimming discrepancy between black and white children was still evident and being expressed at that young age. He titled his research project, “Just Don’t Touch the Water: The History of Blacks in Swimming.”

Isabel Wilkerson tells the story of the 1951 Little League baseball team in Youngstown, Ohio who won the city championship. The coaches decided to take the team to the municipal pool to celebrate with a team picnic. Al Bright, the only black player on the team was met at the gate by the lifeguard who would not allow him to enter in spite of the pleading of his coaches and some of the parents. The pool officials allows them to set up a blanket in the grass outside of the fence while his other teammates played in the pool. People would bring him food as he sat alone outside. After an hour or so a team official was able to convince the lifeguard that they should at least allow the child into the pool for a few minutes. The lifeguard agreed, imposing the following conditions. Everyone had to get out of the pool and Al had to follow the rules set for him. After the pool was emptied, Al was led to the water and placed on a small rubber raft. A lifeguard got into the water and took Al for one turn around the pool as 100 or so onlookers watched from the sidelines. The lifeguard warned him over and over again of one important thing. “Just don’t touch the water,” the lifeguard said, as he pushed the rubber float. “Whatever you do, don’t touch the water.”

I stopped reading the book immediately and called my son. “Jelani, when you wrote your paper did you know about this 1951 story from Youngstown, OH?” It seemed too much of a coincidence that the the lifeguard’s words were the title of my son’s paper. Jelani said, “No, never heard of it. But I’m not surprised. The title of my paper just reflects the attitude that has existed from the period of enslavement onward.”

I think that we have been mostly disabused of the naïve notion that steady advancements in technology, medicine and other areas of human progress will inevitably lead to the experience of greater peace among humanity. It seems as though with every new technology that improves our ability to communicate, connect, and engage across lines of difference also provides ample opportunity to deepen the fissures that exist between people groups.

The Origins of Our Discontents

The origins of our discontents in the biblical narrative goes back to Genesis 11, and the Tower of Babel. Following Babel, sin rears its head not just in hostilities between individuals, but between whole groups of people.

Genesis 11:1–9 ESV

1 Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. 2 And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3 And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” 5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. 6 And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” 8 So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.

Genesis 43:31–33 ESV

31 Then he washed his face and came out. And controlling himself he said, “Serve the food.” 32 They served him by himself, and them by themselves, and the Egyptians who ate with him by themselves, because the Egyptians could not eat with the Hebrews, for that is an abomination to the Egyptians. 33 And they sat before him, the firstborn according to his birthright and the youngest according to his youth. And the men looked at one another in amazement.

Exodus 1:9–10 ESV

9 And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. 10 Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.”

God’s Solution to Our Discontents

Genesis 12:1–3 ESV

1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

God has covenanted to undo the effects of his judgment at Babel and reunite humanity under the Lordship of Abram’s seed, Jesus Christ.

And so, when Jesus prays in John 17:20-23

John 17:20–23 ESV

20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

And Paul exhorts the Ephesians in Ephesians 4.1-6

Ephesians 4:1–6 ESV

1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

The expectation is that God’s people will be active agents in the kingdom agenda of the reunion of humanity under Jesus Christ.

Culturally Intelligent Leadership

And here’s point of me telling you all of that. A component of that pursuit today is Christian leaders who are committed to grow in their cultural intelligence. Cultural Intelligence is the capability to function effectively in situations characterized by cultural diversity. This includes situations that are diverse in national, ethnic, and organizational culture. It also includes diversity in race, gender, age, academics, economics, and abilities. One way to define a leader is someone who exhibits the capacity to know and do the right thing in spite of pressure to do something else as they influence, enable, and motivate others to do the same.

So, Culturally Intelligent Christian leadership is more than competence. It is the capability to effectively influence, enable, and motivate others toward neighbor love across lines of difference. Culturally intelligent leaders understand that humanity is always committed to an “us vs. them” default way of life. And that this sinful commitment must be resisted and can only be overcome by the power of the gospel as the fruit of the Spirit flows out of God’s people.

Galatians 5:22 ESV

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

Ephesians 4:29–32 ESV

29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Colossians 3:12–14 ESV

12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

A Practical Application

Culturally Intelligent Christian leaders in the Reformed tradition apply the wisdom of our confessional commitments to the polarizing issues of the day. Practically, then, when we face the issues that divide us along the lines of our differences in society and the church culturally intelligent leaders ask questions like, “What aspect of the truth that we are image bearers is at the root of this issue?” Then they look to bring the resources of Scripture and those confessional commitments to bear.

For example, instead of getting wrapped around the axle about the perceived threat of CRT and the topic of social justice, we ask the question, “What is at the heart of the concern that has people calling out for justice and attempting to right the injustices of the past?”

Then we say, how should we engage in an understanding way? We recognize that the Scriptures have a lot to say about justice. The psalmist declares in Psalm 89.14

Psalm 89:14 ESV

14 Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; steadfast love and faithfulness go before you.

We realize that the Westminster Standards deal with vertical and horizontal justice. That is our position before God and need for the redeeming blood of Christ to satisfy divine justice, and our just dealings with one another. This idea of horizontal justice is found primarily in the Larger Catechism (WLC) questions and answers regarding the second table of the Decalogue, identified by the Standards as the moral law. Indeed, the moral law is “the declaration of the will of God to mankind, directing and binding everyone to personal, perfect, and perpetual conformity and obedience thereunto…” (WLC Q93). The moral law of God binds everybody – believer and unbeliever – alike for all time. So, if we want to ask what it looks like to engage our duties as the people of God to our neighbors, this is the place to go.

undue silence in a just cause, (Lev. 5:1, Deut. 13:8, Acts 5:3,8–9, 2 Tim. 4:16) and holding our peace when iniquity calleth for either a reproof from ourselves,