November 24, 2009 | Religious leaders must have the courage to witness to social problems while remaining faithful to our common humanity, says the Rev. Dr. Alton B. Pollard III, dean of Howard University’s School of Divinity.  "There is no prophetic witness without confrontation." As dean, Pollard says he is willing to take the heat from religious colleagues and school administrators for engaging in social and political issues, in order to stand authentically before God.

Before becoming dean at Howard in 2007, Pollard served in both religious and educational institutions. As an ordained Baptist minister, he was pastor of John Street Baptist Church in Massachusetts, New Red Mountain Baptist Church in North Carolina and AME churches in Tennessee. He also has directed the Program of Black Church Studies at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University and held faculty appointments at St. Olaf College and Wake Forest University.

Pollard earned a B.A. in religion & philosophy and business management from Fisk University, an M.Div. from Harvard Divinity School and a Ph.D. from Duke University’s Department of Religion.

He spoke with Faith & Leadership while at Duke Divinity School to deliver the annual Gardner C. Taylor Lecture.

Q: Howard is known for liberation theology; what role does that play in leadership, particularly in the 21st century black church?

When we're talking about the black church community at large in the early 21st century, I think there's not much question that the church’s leadership would not have liberation theology as a first or second priority. For them, the focus on salvation remains preeminent, but that perspective is much more about the individual life in the here and now. The liberation perspective is much more about the communal life in the here and now, and therein lies a tremendous difference between the two.

So for me, when you consider ecclesial leaders who have pronounced impact in their ministries and communities via television, radio, movies and other media these days, we're hard-pressed to say that liberation is a significant motif.

But then, many of our churches don’t have a strong relationship with graduate theological education. They are more interested in a focus on the pragmatics, the how-to, the nuts and bolts. But in graduate theological education we're committed to a preparation that is critical and analytical that will enable students, whether conservative, moderate, liberal, progressive, etc., to think large when they leave here and make the applications in their specific context, rather than to have a kind of one-size-fits-all model.

Q: How do you navigate the divide between your institution’s prophetic tradition and the pragmatic world critique?

The African-American cultural context provides for recognition that there’s not a disjuncture between our scholarship and our practice. We live in the uneasy tension of needing to address both the prevailing ecclesial norms and the theological possibilities that the liberation perspective offers; that makes for some interesting programming. Interesting because liberation ideas are grounded in a tradition that is very biblically consistent and they are also grounded in the history of foremothers and forefathers. There is a willingness to engage with that [in our churches]. If you don't have exposure [to liberation theology] you can't wrestle with it, and for those students who do have the opportunity [to learn about liberation theology], and go on to become pastors, they can make a difference. It's the Martin Luther Kings and those types of persons who are still upheld as exemplars, as the icons that the rest of us aspire to but never quite reach.

Q: Do you have any examples of where you've had to navigate the conflict between the prophetic role and your role as an institutional leader?

There is no prophetic witness without the possibility of confrontation, but if there is a consistency about your witness then there's also a confidence about the long-term possibilities for human community that will come out of it. One constantly weighs the long-term projection against the short-term fallout. The immediate response can be anger, hostility or getting called on the carpet; I'm accustomed to that.

During the last election a son of our university became quite infamous in the media. The beloved Jeremiah Wright. When we brought him to the divinity school in the midst of the maelstrom there was considerable consternation that this was going to be injurious to the school. There was a lot of negative response, but hide your gifts under a bushel basket and that's where they will remain. We try to practice transparency as much as we can. We try to be authentic. Genuineness within and without, a consistency of life, no matter the tensions that are created. At the end of the day the tension that you have to reconcile most is: Can I live with myself?