Last week, a genuine leader in Maine – a troubled state – spoke with grace on faith, was spoken of by two governors and a sitting US Senator with unbridled admiration. An earnest, unassuming man of prayer, he embodies the kind of old-world humility, effectiveness, strength with compassion, we all need more of. In 15 years, he rebuilt Maine’s Christian Civic League. His name is Carroll Conley.
What makes this man and his example, as well as Maine’s Christian Civic League – Christians from countless churches – important is hard to miss, but vital to see.
First trait, courage. In a time of jarring disharmony, when churches – and synagogues – are under attack from the lawlessness, moral relativism, atheism, anarchy, and those who promote faithlessness, Carroll and Maine’s Christian Civic league encourage prayer and model exactly what they teach, making us stronger.
The marvel of good leadership and of prayer is that when you enlist God’s help, He is there, ready to guide and reinforce what you know is right, just as surely as he restored the blind man’s sight.
Put differently, when we have no need for courage, we think we have it. Only when we are tested do we learn if we do. Faith is like that, too. We learn under fire.
Carroll showed us what that process looks like, how to teach by example – having seen adversity and loss close up himself. He reminds us how to pray with confidence and how to await the response, listen for it, and follow it.
When he first arrived on the scene, encouraged to lead this Christian group, it was fraying. Today, it is strong, Maine itself fraying. His leadership prepared us.
Like St. Paul and Christians of yore, including Founders like George Washington who leaned on his faith minute-by-minute, Carroll never broke stride. He offered firmness with olive branches, counsel, caring, and prayers. In a word, he led.
Second trait, stamina. What Carroll’s leadership reminds us is the power in stamina, holding on, keeping the compass, not giving up when others think you must.
I am reminded of Rudyard Kipling’s poem, If. Kipling lost a brother, just as Carroll did, yet kept his faith and wrote. “If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew, to serve your turn long after they are gone, and so hold on when there is nothing in you, except the will which says to them: ‘Hold on’…” then “you will be a man, my son.” Kipling understood loss, faith, and manhood. We need to recall all three now.
But there is more to stamina. This leader possesses a belief that he can reach others, that God will work through him if he shows patience. To borrow from the 25th Psalm, he “waits on God.”
Carroll walks into political lion’s dens, no fear, sure God is with him, that he can reach hearts turned cold, renew them, restore them to childlike glory. He reminds the powerful that they are mortal, but forgiven, that Christ died – and rose – for them.
In an era when society defaults to selfishness and judgment, he does not judge yet speaks Biblical truths. In an era when hate is replacing love, he defangs it with the other weapon. From St. Paul to the Corinthians, “Faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love.” How hard to recall, harder to act on, yet how true.
As a matter of habit, Carroll lets others say their piece, vent their spleen, then prays with them and reminds them Christ is here, to take it all from them. “My yoke is easy, my burden is light.” In a time when epidemic unhearing, he listens.
What else? Maybe what most washed over me, as civic leaders of all political stripes rose to thank him for helping Maine, including Governors LePage and Mills and Senator Collins, was this leader’s other-regarding nature, his humility, letting God shine through him, no sense that he was shining. Yet his example does shine.
America and Maine have potentially harmonious futures if the same spirit that works through leaders like Carroll can work through us all. He showed us how.
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, attorney, and naval intelligence officer (USNR). He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (2018), and is National Spokesman for AMAC. Robert Charles has also just released an uplifting new book, “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024).
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