Moving Forward with Faith
Yes we can? The last two years have been a disappointment for many in the progressive community as numerous policy setbacks were followed by a hard election. But despite setbacks, a few victories stand out--passage of the new START treaty, repeal of DADT and the passage of healthcare reform. One thing these successes have in common is that progressives worked to integrate faith and values messaging and outreach into their overall strategy. A clear lesson to from our recent history is that faith and values communities are increasingly proving to be critical to successful progressive advocacy. In this panel, we'll look at lessons learned in the past two years, share opportunities to expand relationships with online faith communities and discuss how to create campaigns that incorporate faith and values messaging into long-term progressive strategies.
Eric Sapp has spent much of his career focused on the intersection of faith and politics. He is a founding partner of the Eleison Group, the primary political consulting firm working with Democrats and the progressive faith community on outreach and communication to faith and values voters. Eleison was one of the lead consultants on the DCCC's '08 "Red to Blue" program and has received numerous awards for its work on a number of successful Democratic and progressive campaigns.
Eric also serves as Executive Director of the American Values Network, a faith and values based non-profit that has received significant recognition the last few years for its successful media campaigns targeting faith, veteran, and independent voters on climate, national security, and economic justice issues.
Prior to founding Eleison, Eric was Senior Partner at Common Good Strategies (CGS), a firm that rose to national prominence following the success in ’06 of its new approach to faith outreach and messaging for the DSCC, US Senators Casey and Brown, Governors Strickland, Granholm, and Sebelius, Rep. Shuler, and the Michigan, Kansas, and Oregon state Democratic Parties.
Before joining CGS, Eric worked as a legislative aid for Representative David Price and Senator Edward Kennedy on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.
Eric is a regular speaker on faith and politics on television and radio shows, most often providing a Democratic perspective on conservative broadcast programs.
He was born in Durham, NC and grew up in south Florida. He graduated with honors from Davidson College and received a Master of Divinity and a Master of Public Policy from Duke University. Eric has served for five years in the parish as a youth pastor and director of Christian Education. He lives in northern VA with his wife and high school sweetheart, Julie.
Beth is the Online Strategy coordinator at Faith in Public Life, a strategy center for the progressive faith community.
Beth has the privilege of leading Faithful America, an online community of progressive faith activists taking on issues like torture, the environment and healthcare, standing up to the religious right, and lifting up a vision of justice and the common good.
Elizabeth Denlinger Reaves is the Director of Campaigns at Sojourners,one of the largest networks of progressive Christians in the nation. Elizabeth leads the design and implementation of new issue campaigns, helps craft organization messaging and talking points, and oversees online advocacy for the organization.
Right now she is working on ending the war in Afghanistan, reminding Congress that the Budget is a Moral Document, and passing just immigration reform. She also managed the 2009 Mobilization to End Poverty in the first spring of the Obama administration to advocate for national goals to reduce poverty.
Before coming to Sojourners, Elizabeth served as assistant policy director at the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance, a patient advocacy organization for raising awareness and research funding for the disease. She lives with her husband Scott in Washington, D.C. where she attends Washington Community Fellowship, a multi-denominational, evangelical Mennonite church. She spends her free time at the farmers market, cooking or clogging.
Burns Strider, a native of Grenada County, Mississippi, served in an array of positions, prior to founding Eleison and The American Values Network, including Senior Advisor and Director of Faith Outreach to the Honorable Hillary Rodham Clinton and her campaign for President, Director of Policy for the U. S. House Democratic Caucus, Advisor to Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) , Director of the U. S. House Democratic Faith Working Group and Rural Working Group and regional Communications Director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
Strider is one of the 12 most influential Democrats in the nation on faith and values politics and issues according to Religion News Service.
In the mid-90’s he spent two years in Hong Kong as youth minister at International Baptist Church.
Strider has worked on more than 100 campaigns, managing or general consulting 15 of them. He has developed communications plans used in over 150 congressional and statewide races as well as a teaching tool for the National Democratic Institute in their work with progressive political parties in foreign countries.
He has been a commentator for National Public Radio and has taught and lectured at various universities and workshops around the nation including Princeton, Harvard, Trinity College, University of Virginia, Georgetown, Delta State University and Camp Wellstone. He is a contributing blogger on Huffington Post and Business Insider.
Strider and his wife, Karen, live in Washington, DC. They raise two nearly perfect boys, Will (9) and Pete (7).
Connect with Burns on Twitter at http://twitter.com/BStrider, Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/BurnsStrider or Huffington Post at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/burns-strider. Find more about Eleison at www.eleisongroup.com and The American Values Network at www.americanvaluesnetwork.org.
