The Remarkable Leadership of Alan Sears at Alliance Defending Freedom
Where have the Christian lawyers been?
—Francis Schaeffer—
At last an organization capable of confronting the ACLU and winning the battles is on the field. We are very thrilled to have had a part in their formation.
—Dr. D. James Kennedy, speaking of the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), which later would become Alliance Defending Freedom—
Through prayer and God’s direct intervention, Alan Sears has developed one of the most effective and powerful Christian organizations in the nation.
—Dr. James Dobson, speaking of ADF—
On May 6, 1954, British medical student Roger Bannister (also go here) made world history by running the mile in less than four minutes. Prior to Bannister’s breaking this threshold, Sweden’s Gunder Hägg (the man winning the the race in the image below) had held the record. He held it for nine years; in 1945 he finished the mile in 4 minutes, 1.3 seconds. Was it even humanly possible to run a mile in less than four minutes? Many experts said no.
Thus, in breaking the “four-minute barrier,” Bannister proved that running the mile in under four-minutes indeed was possible. He finished in 3 minutes, 59.4 seconds. This was significant, not just physically, but also psychologically. The events that followed prove it:
John Landy, considered one of the great milers of that era, never had gotten closer than within 1.5 seconds of the 4-minute barrier before. Within 46 days of Bannister’s breakthrough, Landy surpassed the record with a 3:57.9 in Finland. Bannister and Landy raced later in the year in the “Mile of the Century” at Vancouver, a runoff to decide who was the faster miler. Bannister won in 3:58.8 to Landy’s 3:59.6, the first time two men in one race had broken 4 minutes.…[B]y the end of 1957, 16 runners had logged sub-4-minute miles.
Using a photo taken by Charlie Warner, artist Frank Crymble captures the climactic finish of this race. His print is titled “The Moment.”
In many ways, Roger Bannister’s breakthrough mile and the subsequent similar accomplishments of other runners remind us of the leadership of Alan Sears at Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).1 Before ADF was formed and in its very early days, many Americans expressed grave concern as they witnessed the unraveling of their freedoms and the takeover of secularism, especially in the American judiciary. They wondered if their liberties and values ever again could be effectively defended in court. Several Christian leaders, including Bill Bright, D. James Kennedy, and James Dobson, saw the urgent need for an organization that would uphold in the legal arena the principles on which America had been founded. In 1994 they established the Alliance Defense Fund (later renamed Alliance Defending Freedom) to do just that—and they enlisted Alan Sears to lead the organization.
The Right Experience
Sears’s resume was impressive! He had served as a federal prosecutor in western Kentucky, working in the U. S. Attorney’s office. During his time as a federal prosecutor in the 1980s, Sears became involved in the work of the Attorney General’s Commission on Pornography. His role as the commission’s staff executive director didn’t include voting privileges, but his contribution still was highly influential. He worked diligently at the commission to maintain and reinforce anti-obscenity laws. Also, under Interior Secretary Donald Hodel during the Reagan administration, Sears served as associate solicitor. After fulfilling these responsibilities in government, Sears’s career took him to Arizona, where he worked for several years in private practice at one of Arizona’s largest law firms. Thus, when they enlisted Alan Sears to lead ADF, the organization’s founders secured someone with a well versed background. Sears had had many years of both private and public legal experience, and his work had required expertise in both media and public relations.
The following ADF video was released in 2012 and is available on You Tube. At the time of this writing, You Tube indicates that it has attracted almost 340 views—far too few, considering the story it tells. It recounts the journey of Alan Sears, his passions, the early days of ADF, and ADF’s growth since its beginning. The video and a transcript of its contents are available on this page.
The Right Mission
In the above 7-minute movie, Alan Sears recalls this from his early conversations about the possibility of his leading the new organization:
I got to know several of the…people that were involved in forming the organization [ADF] through my work with the commission [on pornography]. When I was talking to the founders about leading the ministry, I asked them one key question—Are we serious about winning?—and they said yes.
How they said yes was even more significant.
“I asked them, ‘Are we here to win—not just to put a finger in the dike, but to win?'” Sears recalls. “And Bill Bright said, ‘Alan, I want you to keep the door open for the Gospel.’
“That’s when I began to get excited.”
Imagine God’s looking down from heaven, listening to this conversation, and taking note of Alan’s excitement over the goal of keeping the door open in the legal arena for the spread of the gospel. We aren’t very far off the mark to imagine that God sees and hears countless conversations every day and responds to them with various amounts of enthusiasm. We cannot doubt how pleased He was over this conversation, though! I say it seriously; I say it reverently. On that day, the level of divine excitement surely was off the charts! “Oh boy!” we can imagine God’s saying to Himself, “Now that’s something I’m absolutely interested in! I will be involved in it! Let’s get it on!”2
God did bless the efforts of ADF’s founders and the organization’s new leader. ADF was established on January 31, 1994. According to Sears,
The mission of the ADF from the outset was three things: strategy, training and funding, all to further litigation. As we were launched, we did not have any attorneys on the staff other than myself, and so we began to fund a number of cases as we raised money. There were two Supreme Court cases that came within our first year: The Rosenberger case and the Boston parade case, which is called Hurley.
Breakthrough Success
Here is the background of Hurley. A veterans’ organization in Boston would hold an annual parade in the city to recognize America’s freedom and values. Homosexual activists had come to the group prior to one of its parades and told members they wanted to be included in the event—and the group turned them down. Of course, it had a right to turn them down; this event was privately sponsored and operated. Obviously, participants marched on public streets, but the parade itself was private. The case went to court, and the veterans’ group lost at every level, including before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. The next stop was the US Supreme Court. Out of funds and relying on a volunteer attorney, the organization turned to ADF. ADF was able to assist, and it helped bring about a 9-0 win at the US Supreme Court! The results of this case later served as a precedent in a case involving the Boy Scouts when it came before the Court. That case was called Dale (mentioned here and here).
The second case that became pivotal in ADF’s early days was named for Ron Rosenberger, who, as a student at the University of Virginia, was publishing Wide Awake, a Christian newspaper. Eventually, Ron ran out of the money he had raised to get the paper out. He then applied for the same funds all other campus newspapers received, funds from a pool of money generated by the University’s student fees. The funding request was denied, Ron was told, because his viewpoint was religious. Recognizing this action was unconstitutional, Ron enlisted a volunteer lawyer and went to court. Unfortunately, he lost at multiple levels. ADF learned about the legal battle and offered funding and advice to the attorneys arguing the case. In this way, ADF helped pave the way for Ron to secure a 5-4 win at the US Supreme Court. Public universities cannot discriminate against a student’s viewpoint simply because it is religious. The Rosenberger case is mentioned in this Conservapedia article.
It is difficult to overstate the importance of these two successes. Because of the work of ADF under Alan Sears’s leadership, the equivalent of the four-minute barrier in the legal realm at last had been broken!
It is difficult to overstate the importance of these two successes. Because of the work of ADF under Alan Sears’s leadership, the equivalent of the four-minute barrier in the legal realm at last had been broken!
It wasn’t that no victories for America’s founding values ever had been secured at the nation’s highest court. Yet now, finally—even when religious liberty and biblical values were under increasing legal attack—significant, precedent-setting wins had been scored with the help of an organization that was working strategically and with determination to build on victories and to keep on winning!
The Right Perspective
Even so, the early days offered some very daunting challenges.
“We had very little money when we launched,” Sears says. “We struggled for every dime we had. It took a long time before that changed.”
Sears had to hit the road to raise money. And he was feeling the stress—especially the day he visited Focus on the Family and H.B. London, then Focus’ vice president of church and clergy outreach, asked him what theme verse he’d selected for the fledgling group.
“I looked at him,” Sears recalls, “and I said, ‘With respect, are you kidding? I’m just trying to find a dollar to keep this place open. I haven’t had time to think about it.’ And he said, gently, ‘You know, if you don’t have time to find a theme verse, you might have a lot of spare time to do other things soon.’”
Later, London suggested John 15:5: “I am the vine, you are the branches. Without Me, you can do nothing.” The words resonated with Sears—and everyone else involved.
“I presented it to the board of directors and it was unanimous,” he says. “There wasn’t even much discussion: It was so clear that what we were taking on was so impossible to do in our own strength. We wanted to acknowledge that it’s all Him. Without Him, we can do nothing. Anything we’ve accomplished is by His grace.”
Without Me, you can do nothing.
—Jesus Christ to His disciples in John 15:5—
The theme verse that Alan Sears and ADF’s board of directors embraced never has receded into the background. It has been and remains “front and center” of everything ADF says and does. Mark it down. An organization’s leader certainly can be commended for not caring who gets the credit for the successes it sees—but far too few Christian leaders are intentional about making sure God gets the credit for positive results. Alan Sears has been one of those all-too-rare leaders. In an article published in the April, 2016 issue of Focus on the Family’s Citizen Magazine and made available online, Sears declared, “We don’t pick and choose and just take the cases that are likely to get a favorable outcome. We’ve been blessed to win close to 80 percent of them.” Is it any wonder why God has blessed the work of ADF so richly?
To be clear, it isn’t that Alan has secured any of these victories by himself. He’d be the first to say that, like a turtle on a fence post, neither he nor ADF has arrived to this point alone. ADF always has been a team, a network, of people working together. Even so, organizations and strategies cannot be effective without effective leaders. Alan is that kind of leader.
Sadly, of course, numerous cases don’t go the way ADF desires. Sears hurts for the people involved in those legal conflicts: The cases “we lose and the people we’re unable to help—those bother me far more than the gratification I get out of the victories.”
Alan Sears was at ADF’s helm for more than 23 years. Throughout this time, the organization’s goals have remained, and they remain today, the same: “To keep the door open for the Gospel—to protect religious liberty and the rights of conscience” (also go here). Thankfully, and in no small way because of Sears’s leadership, Alliance Defending Freedom became, and remains, a major player in the legal arena. If you haven’t yet viewed the video showcased above, please watch it in its entirety, because it presents the story of ADF under Alan Sears’s leadership clearly, concisely, and powerfully.
A Tremendous Past; A Bright Future
In early 2017, Alan Sears stepped down from his responsibilities as president, general counsel, and CEO of ADF, and Michael Farris, formerly of the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), assumed them. Michael Farris’s goal, like Alan’s, is to win. You can see the video from which this audio clip was taken on this page.
As much as Alan’s leadership has accomplished, it now sets the stage for God to do even greater things through Alliance Defending Freedom in the future.
Accordingly, we can call Alan Sears “the Roger Bannister of religious liberty.”3
Alan Sears—the Roger Bannister of religious liberty
Thank you, Alan Sears, for your breakthrough service at the helm of Alliance Defending Freedom!
Copyright © 2017 by B. Nathaniel Sullivan. All rights reserved.
Notes:
1Roger Bannister and his athletic achievement are used for illustrative purposes only; no assumption or implication has been made or is intended regarding Bannister’s religious faith.
2adapted from an illustration in a sermon used by E. V. Hill
3Roger Bannister and his athletic achievement are used for illustrative purposes only; no assumption or implication has been made or is intended regarding Bannister’s religious faith.