From Jonathan Bradford
Born in 1936, Steve Monsma belonged to the silent generation. Steve may not have often been gifted with a golden tongue; few would call Steve a spell-binding orator. Just as well, even fewer would call him a good representative of the silent generation. Steve Monsma silent, no; but his mild and peaceful voice was strong and clear enough for all to hear. In his patient but persistent intellectual probing and his provocative and perseverant service and advocacy he spoke so loudly for public justice that he will still be heard decades from now.
It is an honor to share with you three different peeks into the Steve Monsma that I knew.
Steve the Consummate Public Policy Professional
When Steve was a Michigan State Senator and I was a graduate student at the University of Michigan, Steve welcomed me as a policy analysis intern. He was the chair of the Michigan State Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Social Services and I was studying housing policy. With Steve’s guidance I spent many hours first learning, then evaluating the public assistance policies of the Michigan Department of Social Services as they pertained to housing assistance. These were difficult times in the national and state economy and, with interest rates in the 17 or 18% range, Steve was deeply troubled that Michigan was most inadequately assisting low income families with their housing needs. You see, he had this most peculiar idea that government and its policies, to be successful, had to serve all its citizens, even those without clout or money.
While working with Steve in Lansing, I watched as he took up the cause of people facing extreme illness and pain and their desire to use marijuana to manage that pain. Against a committee chairman who had lost his son to a drug overdose, Steve Monsma was able to get the Public Health committee to hold public hearings on the proposal and eventually a bill was passed and became law. You see, he had this daring notion that government and its policies should actually serve the public good.
Upon finishing my degree in May 1980, Steve offered me a job -- but it wasn’t in Lansing. He was going to run for Congress, to be the Representative of what was then the Fifth Congressional District and Steve asked me to be the finance director of his campaign. That meant fund raising and writing letters, making phone calls and attending countless meetings. It also meant one very special trip.
Steve was not well known in national political circles. Even though he had to first survive a primary, we all agreed that national level endorsements would be good and funding from the National Democratic Party would be very helpful. So Steve and I drove to Washington. Among several meetings with the party and labor union political action committees, we had an appointment at the US Capitol. Soon we were on the floor of the House of Representatives and then shortly ushered to the Speaker’s ante room behind the chambers for a meeting with the Democratic majority leader of the House, Texas Congressman Jim Wright, the second most powerful member of Congress. Whether Congressman Wright, who 10 years later had to resign as Speaker of the House because of ethics violations, really heard it I don’t know. But Steve spoke convincingly about his deep calling, about longing to help government serve its citizens.
Later that summer the numbers were in. We had failed to convince enough voters in the Fifth district that Steve was the right man for the job. While my time with Steve in the political arena was short, I came to know a humble man of God. For Steve there was no question that every person was created in God’s image and as such was entitled to justice, fairness and opportunity. Steve was also convinced that societal structures were created by God to protect the individual, regardless of her religious beliefs.
Steve, the Reformed Christian Advocate
Soon Steve’s time in organized politics was over, but his leadership and advocacy was just starting. Whether through college teaching or research and writing, Steve set course for developing a new and stronger case for religious freedom. But it never stopped at the individual level. He became a devoted advocate for faith-based organizations, both for their role in helping people like us here today to express our faith and as a means to serve the needs of the nation and its citizens. Steve often spoke and wrote advocating that government had to be guided by principled or civic pluralism, said his friend and colleague Stanley Carlton-Thies. Stanley goes on to say that Steve felt strongly “that government must not impose just one view when citizens have diverse convictions but instead must protect the ability of different private organizations to manifest those different convictions.”
Steve was keenly interested in my own work as the CEO of a faith-based housing ministry. There is no counting the conversations we had about how to do community development with a Christian motivation and foundation using government and private funding together. When he asked how we at ICCF were doing at working that out, I reminded him that he helped me hone the position that government was ordained by God to help assure the welfare of all. And when residents come together with a common conviction and vision, they are as entitled, if not more entitled, to public resources than Lockheed Martin or McDonald-Douglas were for the making of war material.
Before I conclude with that third glimpse, let us just quickly celebrate Steve for the source of his convictions and motivation. Those of us who worked with him could see Steve as a guy with a gentle heart for Jesus and a brilliant mind for the world. Steeped in personal and social ethics from the Bible, Steve could envision and formulate how God’s love and justice applied practically to the forming of good and workable governance, in both the public and private sector. Steve’s former assistant in Lansing, Dick Klaver observed that Steve was so humble that he barely knew his special gift of being able to honor the less scholarly thoughts of others. He saw all people as treasures of God.
Steve’s most profound motivation was his love for God as the Creator and Lord of the Universe. He knew God as the sustainer of the entire universe. Steve knew Jesus as his Savior and friend and that Jesus Christ calls us to engage his world with his love and justice. He sensed the implications of that for God’s creation and God’s special care for those less fortunate.
Steve, the Cancer Patient
I worked for Steve, I learned from Steve, and Steve Monsma encouraged and affirmed me more times than I can remember. At about the same time we also walked the cancer road together. Just before I learned that I had Non-Hodgkins lymphoma, Steve and Mary learned that he had been inflicted with pancreatic cancer. His concerns were always about me long before he would comment on his situation. Whether it was here in this sanctuary at Church of the Servant or in the lobby of the Cancer and Hematology Center downtown, even though my prognosis was looking better than his, when he saw me he would in no time flash that wide smile and ask how I was doing. Stronger than any virulent cancer cell, every fiber of our friend Steve was defined by concern for others. For every time he asked about my health there were also thousands of times when he had acted on his dedication to the Lordship of Christ over all areas of human endeavor, especially in the public square.
Valiant in his work, valiant in his effort to beat the cancer, Steve was first and foremost a child of God. He worked faithfully to extend the reconciling, “making all things new”, love of Jesus Christ. In God’s time his call to leadership and advocacy has now been given to others. In our own lives of service may we honor the gift that we all had in Steve.
Requiescat in pace, Steven V. Monsma. Grant to him eternal rest, O Lord, and let the perpetual light shine upon him. May his soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.
From Dick Klaver
In fall, 1974, I transferred from UCLA to Calvin for my junior year. I was eager to study political science with Professors committed to Christ. At Calvin, I met Professor Stephen Monsma.
Here is what I found. A man with a gentle heart for Jesus and a brilliant mind for the world. Steeped in personal and social ethical perspectives from Scripture, wise to the complexities of political theory and practice, Steve could envision and formulate how God’s love and justice applied to forming good and workable governance....for national, state and local governments, labor unions and companies, nonprofits, to all sorts of agencies and communities, including the Church.
Steve was so humble, he barely knew his special gifts, and he honored our less scholarly thoughts. He saw all people as treasures of God. Steve was so brilliant, I valued watching his furrowed brow as he pulled back into his mind to shape complex issues into workable policies. Steve helped Michigan create better laws.
When Steve asked me to be his campaign manager for State Senate, I was thrilled. Steve did not really need a dictating manager, he just needed someone with whom to bounce off ideas, to drive around town putting up lawn signs and delivering literature, and to make sure he remembered to eat and sleep.
Steve, Mary, my wife Kriste, and I spent endless hours knocking on doors, organizing mail stuffing parties, and attending fund raisers. When we won, he blessed me to be his AA.
What motivated Steve? His love for God as Creator. More, he knew Jesus as Personal Savior but also as Lord of the Universe. Steve believed in an Ultimate Truth - that Christ calls us to engage His World, seeking to instill love and justice. He sensed the implications of that for God’s creation and God’s special care for those less fortunate. When a State Senator, the Senate looked to Steve for guidance particularly for environmental and social services policies and programs, a unique and diverse combination.
I still have campaign posters and buttons. And I will always treasure Steve
Gov. Rick Snyder lowers flags in honor of former state legislator Stephen Monsma
Wednesday, March 1, 2017
LANSING, Mich. – Gov. Rick Snyder has ordered U.S. and Michigan flags to be lowered to half-staff within the state Capitol complex on Friday, March 3, in honor of former state legislator Stephen Monsma, who died Saturday, Feb. 18.
“Stephen was a devoted public servant and educator who will be remembered for his tireless service to our state and for dedicating himself to the education of students at Calvin College,” Snyder said. “I send my heartfelt thoughts and prayers to his family, friends and community as they mourn his loss.”
Monsma began his career as a political science professor at Calvin College before being elected to the Michigan House of Representatives and later the Michigan Senate. In 1985, Monsma left politics to again pursue a career in academia, making a stop at Pepperdine before becoming a senior fellow at Calvin College’s Henry Institute.
A service in his honor will take place at 11 a.m. on Saturday, March 4, at the Church of the Servant located at 3835 Burton Street SE in Grand Rapids.
This flag order is in accordance with Executive Order 2013-10. Michigan residents, businesses, schools, local governments and other organizations are encouraged to display the flag at half-staff. Flags should be returned to full staff on Saturday, March 4.
When flown at half-staff or half-mast, the U.S. flag should be hoisted first to the peak for an instant and then lowered to the half-staff or half-mast position. The flag should again be raised to the peak before it is lowered for the day.