Through the Chapters

I call West Doss "Captain" because when we are together I'm reminded of Lewis and Clark and their great adventure--the Corp of Discovery. Life for West is an adventure and I always have a fun time as we do life together. He is the type of friend that would do anything for you. God's Word describes him this way: "Greater love hath no man than this that he lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13)

West and I have shared many great adventures together. Watching him walk the corridors of Congress with the same quiet confidence he brings to everything reminds me that great character is not situational. It goes wherever you go.

Fritz Steiger

America's story has always been tied to a sense of divine purpose. From the Pilgrims to the Founders, there is a thread running through our history that is not an accident. It is an invitation.

Fritz Steiger

My formative years were spent in Wyoming. I was a little cowboy from the beginning of my life and am still very proud of my early years on horseback rounding up cattle, 4-H competition, and driving around the JH Ranch with my Dad in his Dodge Power Wagon opening gates and feeding hay bales to the cattle when the snow was piled high every winter. I was also trained to be helpful in the kitchen. My older brother, Carl, became my best friend and remains very close today.

Fritz Steiger

My love for the United States of America was first instilled in me from a young age by my father, Donald C. Steiger. Dad was a great patriot who took a stand for God, country, and family. I remember him lecturing his children around the dinner table when I was a youngster. After turning down an opportunity to run for Congress from Wyoming to focus on his family and the JH Ranch, he later moved to Arkansas and was one of the early Republican pioneers in the 1970s to help establish the Republican Party.

One of Dad's close friends in Wyoming would become a hero and friend of mine as I got older. JW Nuckolls was a rancher who shared many things in common with my Dad, including raising Corriedale sheep. My first 4-H project was a ewe and lamb that I bought from JW in 1968 when I first started raising sheep. Later, he would always welcome my sons and me back to his ranch overlooking Devil's Tower where we hunted White Tail Deer.

In my latter years, I was blessed to get to know Michael Martin Murphey. Through my Dad's love of Western literature, my brothers and I donated a good part of Dad's western novels to the Murphey Western Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving Western culture and the values it represents.

Fritz Steiger

My great-great-grandfather, Jakob Gsteiger, immigrated to America in 1858. The name Steiger is derived from the German word meaning "to climb" or "a narrow, steep path." My grandfather, Carl E. Steiger, bought the JH Ranch in 1940 while returning from the Pitchfork Dude Ranch near Cody, Wyoming with his family. For the first 13 years of my life, I gazed at Devil's Tower from the ranch just 10 miles away dreaming of one day climbing it. When I turned 65, two of my children climbed it with me. It was the most challenging thing I had ever taken on mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually, but we made it up in 6 hours and rappelled down in just 2. A bucket list accomplishment, indeed!

Fritz Steiger

My faith journey began in Sundance, Wyoming at the Church of the Good Shepherd. My parents were married on July 4, 1954, and built our family on a foundation of faith from the very beginning. In 1975 I enrolled at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma as a freshman. During those early days I spent many hours at the Prayer Tower on campus, where I first encountered Jesus in a very personal way and began my relationship with Him as a disciple and servant. Years later, both of my sons would graduate from ORU as well, which is one of the great joys of my life.

Not long after joining the First Presbyterian Church of Bentonville, Helen Walton asked me to become an elder. After telling her I was too young at age 23, she said, "You'll do just fine!" In 2024 I had the privilege of visiting Rwanda, a country that has experienced remarkable transformation through faith after one of history's darkest tragedies. Visiting Israel in 2023 was one of the best things I have ever done. Nothing compares with walking in the steps of Jesus in the Holy Land. I had the privilege of being baptized in the Jordan River, the same place Jesus was baptized.

Fritz Steiger

My uncle, Congressman Bill Steiger, was elected to the United States Congress in 1966 at age 27. He and George H.W. Bush were elected the same year and became best friends. My uncle hired Dick Cheney in 1968 as a Congressional Fellow. The Vice President once told me that Bill Steiger was the reason he made a career in politics, as he so admired his love for the legislative process. I also had the privilege of working for Congressman Ed Bethune and building friendships with President Reagan, Mike Huckabee, and Vivek Ramaswamy along the way.

Fritz Steiger

At 25, I became Walmart's corporate affairs director, where I handled media, government, political, and everything else that wasn't merchandise or operations, per Mr. Walton's instructions. One of my assignments was to coordinate a professional photo of Sam and Bud Walton. Just as we were finishing the shoot, Sam hollered at me to "get in here, Fritz, and have your picture made with us!" No cell phone cameras back then. When Mr. Walton pursued me in 1979 to help launch the Walmart Foundation, my Dad, brothers, and I had just started Steigerland Dairy. Even though we gave it our best effort, it wasn't meant to be.

Fritz Steiger

Jim Leininger and I co-founded four nonprofits together, starting in 1989 with the Texas Public Policy Foundation. In 1992 we launched the Children's Educational Opportunity Foundation of San Antonio, giving low-income parents the power to choose the best school for their children. Knowing we would have to litigate school choice, we started a public interest law firm called The Justice Foundation in 1993. Then in 1994, with a $2M grant from John Walton and the Walton Family Foundation, we spun off a new national organization called Children First America, which helped launch over 80 private programs in the next 7 years representing over $350M of charitable giving.

Fritz Steiger

Over the course of my career I have had the opportunity to be an entrepreneur in a number of ventures. One of the first was MCLAS Technologies, a medical diagnostic company my friend Steve Stephens started. Another Texas-based startup was a smoked meats sandwich shop called the Sunday Smokehaus that Dr. Leininger and I partnered on in Fredericksburg, Texas. Becoming a real estate developer proved to be quite successful initially, and then led to near bankruptcy as a result of the 2008 recession. My company, Deltox, Inc., has provided me with the ability to connect people with opportunities and resources. As I like to say, the language of the kingdom is connection.

Fritz Steiger

My introduction to Donald Trump came through our shared commitment to American renewal. Over the years I have come to understand that he is one of the most consequential disruptors in American political history. In this chapter I explore how God sometimes uses unconventional instruments to accomplish His purposes, and how believers should think faithfully about the intersection of faith and political power in a divided nation.

Fritz Steiger

The Seven Mountains Mandate is not a political program. It is a call to believers to occupy the heights of cultural influence: religion, family, education, government, media, arts, and business. In this chapter I map the summit ahead and offer a vision for how the American Restoration Initiative can help equip the next generation of leaders to climb them. The best days of America are ahead, if we are willing to ascend.

Fritz Steiger

Fritz S. Steiger is a Christian business leader, philanthropist, and policy pioneer. As founding executive of the Wal-Mart Foundation, co-founder of Children First America and the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and founder of the Deltox Foundation, he has spent five decades working at the intersection of faith, enterprise, and public life. He lives in Bentonville, Arkansas.

Fritz Steiger