Zeroing in on faithful volunteers
A friend of mine just sent me this post about the Obama campaign’s volunteer recruitment among religious outreach and social service providers. The text of the appeal:
Dear Friend,
After college, I worked as an organizer on the streets of the South Side of Chicago with a range of faith communities and neighborhood organizations. I had the opportunity to meet extraordinary people of faith [sic]Â single mothers, students, pastors and parishioners. In that time, which was formative to my own Christian faith, I realized that everyone has a story to tell if others simply take the time to listen.
Through your work  in social ministry, education, and advocacy  you listen to these stories every day and take action, working for the common good. In the face of many of our greatest moral challenges, from unjust war, to growing economic inequality and the global scourge of disease, you live out that Gospel mandate that calls us to be our brother’s keeper and our sister’s keeper.
It is with an abiding respect for this work that I am writing to invite you and members of your community to join my campaign for a new kind of politics in America.
As friends have noted, this is rather innovative. I’d be curious to know exactly which groups received this. I’ve heard that it was aimed specifically at Catholics who work in social services, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it went out to a wider circle of service providers. Anyone out there received anything like this?
It’s great to see a heavy weight secular blog like TPM bird dogging this stuff. Nice!