With a new television ad out today and a national conference call featuring President Obama scheduled for next week, religious progressives advocating universal healthcare coverage are flexing their organizing muscle in a way not seen since the movement was jolted into action by the 2004 election.
“This is the most organized we’ve been around a legislative goal,” says Katie Paris, program and communications director for Faith in Public Life, a progressive beltway group that got off the ground after the ’04 election and is coordinating faith-based efforts to push Democratic plans for healthcare reform.
This morning, a coalition of progressive faith groups that includes Faith in Public Life, Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, and Faithful America—none of which existed before the 2004 election—unveiled a pro-healthcare reform ad that will air nationally on cable television and announced the president’s participation in the conference call, scheduled for next Wednesday.
“I can’t remember any president doing anything like this,” says John Green, an expert in religion and politics at the University of Akron. “Presidents have tried to reach out to religious groups, but typically it’s done beneath the radar.”
Organizers hope the call will attract tens of thousands of religious Americans who favor Obama’s backing of a government-controlled healthcare plan. One of the groups involved said that it alone is aiming to sign up 15,000 participants for the call.
“This is a fundamental moral issue,” says Jim Wallis, an evangelical activist who leads a group called Sojourners, which helped sponsor the ad and organize the call. “The healthcare system is broken. It’s leaving too many sick people by the side of the road, and too many Samaritans are taking care of them.”