Faith and Obama’s embrace of the service-based approach to politics

Bumped. --Mike

There was an interesting story in the The Washington Post today that profiled young evangelicals who have been noticing where the high ground really is. The story noted that the Obama campaign has been doing significant outreach to young Christians and tomorrow, in concert with Senator Obama’s visit to Rick Warren’s church, the campaign will launch Believers for Barack, which will provide a place to blog about their experiences and find opportunities to help out their communities through service.

That’s right, we’re proud to report that the Democrats Work service model is getting the Obama treatment with a touch of religion.

On Saturday, volunteers mobilized by Believers for Barack are following their moral compass to community service projects in a bunch of different cities: Albuquerque, NM; Anchorage, AK; Atlanta, GA; Charlotte, NC; Denver, CO; Des Monies, IA; Detroit, MI; Green Bay, WI; Kansas City, MO; Madison, WI; Philadelphia, PA. If you are interested in joining them, you should get in touch with Ashley Brown, who is working on the Obama campaign for the summer: ashley [dot] brown1908 [at] gmail [dot] com.

And, you should join us on September 6th when Democrats across the country will get together for a National Day of Service to improve our communities, change our country one neighborhood at a time, and show our support for Senator Obama and Democrats up and down the ticket. It is a project that is being launched by Democrats Work and our friends who formed the grassroots group, Obama Works.

You don't have to be religious to be driven by faith, and people of all faiths and creeds are invited to host projects wherever the spirit of compassion needs to be brought to their neighborhoods. If you would like to spend an afternoon working a food bank, cleaning a forest trail, helping collect recyclables, or work in any other way in your community, please visit the website and make it happen.

And, just because it makes sense, here’s a snapshot of the reporting in the Washington Post story:

But in the past year, as the presidential campaign has focused on the country's problems, Merritt has begun to question the party of his father. There was his recent revelation that "God is green," a mission trip to orphanages in Brazil that caused him to worry about global poverty, an encounter with a growing strain of politically liberal evangelicalism that has taken off online, and a nagging sense that Bush's unpopularity has been an embarrassment to the evangelicals who overwhelmingly voted for him.

"When you look at the political party that has traditionally championed poverty, social justice and care for the least of these, it's not been the Republican Party," said Merritt, who now considers himself an "independent conservative" and is unsure whom he will vote for in November. "We are to honor the least of these above even ourselves. It's very difficult to reconcile totally."

Indeed.