Heritage Foundation Leadership for America

Location: The Heritage Foundation's Lehrman Auditorium

Dr. Howard has written a powerful and highly readable series of reflections on the role Christianity has played in the history of the United States.  The book is crowded with fascinating information and illustrated by many apt quotations.  The argument is sinewy and the conclusions fresh and stimulating.  This is a book those who love America will cherish and learn from.        – Paul Johnson

The thesis of John Howard’s book, Christianity: Lifeblood of America’s Free Society, is that Christianity was the dominant influence in the development of the American nation and the American society.  His extensive documentation and numerous quotations aptly support his thesis. 

After service in the First Infantry Division in World War II, Dr. Howard returned with two silver stars, two purple hearts, and a commitment to use his career to sustain and strengthen America’s religious ideals, for which many of his friends had fought and died.  In the Eisenhower Administration, he headed the first program using government contracts to open jobs for qualified minority applicants.  He was also a member of the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse.  Dr. Howard served as President of Rockford College for seventeen years and as the National President of the American Association of Presidents of Independent Colleges and Universities for three years.  Currently, he is a Senior Fellow at The Howard Center on Family, Religion, and Society.  In the 2007 national contest for speechwriters sponsored by Vital Speeches and The Executive Speaker, John Howard’s “Liberty Revisited” received the Grand Award as the best speech submitted in any of the twenty-seven categories.