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The Faith and Values of Sarah Palin: What She Believes and What it Means for America
Stephen Mansfield is a New York Times bestselling author and a popular speaker who is becoming one of the nation’s most respected voices on religion and American culture.
Stephen was born in 1958 and grew up largely in Europe due to his father’s career as an officer in the United States Army. After a youth filled with sports, travel, and mischief, Stephen was recruited to play college football but turned down the opportunity when a Christian conversion moved him to attend a leading Christian college.
He earned a Bachelor’s degree in history and philosophy and then moved to Texas where he pastored a church, completed two Master’s degrees, hosted a radio show and began acquiring a reputation as a popular speaker of both depth and humor. He moved to Tennessee in 1991 where he again pastored a church, did relief work among the Kurds in Northern Iraq, served as a political consultant, and completed a doctorate.
It was during this time that he also launched the writing career for which he has become internationally known. His first book on Winston Churchill was a Gold Medallion Award Finalist. He also wrote widely-acclaimed biographies of Booker T. Washington and George Whitefield as well as a number of other books on history and leadership. In 1997, the Governor of Tennessee commissioned Mansfield to write the official history of religion in Tennessee for that state’s bicentennial.
In 2002, Stephen left the pastorate after twenty fruitful years to write and lecture full-time. Not long afterward, he wrote The Faith of George W. Bush, which spent many weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and was credited with shaping the national dialogue about religion in American politics.
Mansfield followed this successful venture with The Faith of the American Soldier. To research this story of religion on the modern battlefield, Stephen was embedded with U.S. troops in Iraq at the beginning of 2005. His experience at the frontlines and his research on faith among soldiers forms the core of this important book which has been used in military academies around the world.
Stephen has also written a widely-praised book on the Pope entitled Benedict XVI: His Life and Mission. Mansfield is a Protestant with deep respect for the legacy of John Paul II and he sought to explore how Joseph Ratzinger might fulfill his predecessor’s legacy. Publishers Weekly has called the book “an inviting study of a new world leader.”
Mansfield is also widely known for his book, The Faith of Barack Obama, which he intended as an objective look at Obama’s religious life and the controversies that have surrounded it. Stephen believes that just as the archetypical American story of faith five years ago belonged to George W. Bush, now it is Obama’s religious journey that captures many of the religious trends shaping American culture. The book reflects Mansfield’s ability to compassionately describe theological and political views that are not necessarily his own, an ability he movingly demonstrated in his book on the life and views of Pope Benedict XVI.
Stephen’s most recent book is The Search for God and Guinness. Though he is intrigued with the history of brewing, Mansfield wrote this book primarily to explore how Guinness the family and the company used wealth to relieve social ills and ended up creating one of the world’s great brands and most beloved products. Since Stephen has worked in the United States and abroad on issues of poverty and social justice, he gratefully found in the topic of Guinness a means of addressing crises both in modern corporate culture and in contemporary Christian thinking.
Beyond his writing career, Stephen heads The Mansfield Group, a successful consulting and communications firm, as well as Chartwell Literary Group, a firm that creates and manages literary projects. Together with his wife, Beverly, Mansfield has founded The Global Leadership Development Fund to support leadership training and consulting efforts around the world. In recent years, Stephen has also become a widely-popular speaker, known for his rowdy humor, his deep faith and his ability to inspire audiences with tales from great lives of the past.
He lives primarily in Nashville, Tennessee, with his beloved wife, Beverly, who is a successful songwriter and producer, as well as the executive director of Chartwell Literary Group.
LATEST MEDIA APPEARANCES:
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Newsweek Magazine Online
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On Entertainment Tonight:
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For more information on Stephen, visit his website:
http://www.mansfieldgroup.com/
STEPHEN MANSFIELD RECEIVES RAVE REVIEW
“I don’t know if I can even find the words – WOW! He is just the most amazing guy. I would recommend him a zillion times over to anyone needing a speaker…for anything. Thank you so much for putting him in your list of suggested names. I plan on sending out an email to the other Christian schools in the area to let them know who they need to get for their next banquet!…We ended up serving only 367 people (normally around 550 or so) and yet after Stephen’s speech and financial appeal, we ended up not only meeting but exceeding our financial goals! Talk about God’s faithfulness!!! On top of that, it was such an uplifting and encouraging message that we all left feeling renewed and refreshed. You really picked a winner with Stephen!”
Riverside Christian School
East Grand Forks, MN
“The audience was captivated with Steven's message. He inspired each individual to get involved focusing on heroism, which the men in particular could connect with his passion to serve God. Steven's sense of humor, humility and love of life was heartwarming! We doubled our income that evening!”
- Pregnancy Center Resource Center of South Hills