Faith and Power -- The Presbyterian Outlook, March 31, 2008

"I don’t believe that change comes from the top down," Barack Obama has said throughout his presidential campaign. "It comes from the bottom up."

Voters are debating whether Obama has the experience necessary to be president, but he certainly has experience as a community organizer. In the mid-80s, he was hired by a small group of churches on the south side of Chicago to organize low-income people. He helped them to define their mutual interests, work together to change their communities, and improve their lives. He came to believe that real change comes "from the bottom up."

Presbyterian congregations are discovering this truth for themselves as they become involved in interfaith community organizing, but they face a big hurdle — getting comfortable with power. Many good-hearted people of faith, in my congregation and elsewhere, would rather provide charitable services than exercise influence on politicians. I rarely have trouble recruiting people to contribute canned goods to a food drive, or even volunteer to shelter the homeless in our church on cold winter nights. But inspiring people to join an interfaith "power organization?" That’s a tough sell.

I can certainly understand the resistance. Most people read the Bible and focus on commands to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, instead of the call of the prophets to seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow (Isaiah 1:17). The challenge to "seek justice" is less concrete than an invitation to serve a meal at a homeless shelter, and it sounds political — which raises the prospect of unpleasant divisions in the congregation.

But I’m discovering that interfaith community organizing can help people to expand their vision of religious action, and move beyond charity to justice. The process begins with building relationships across the lines of denomination, race, and economic level, and finding ways to speak with one voice about issues of common concern. When this is done successfully — as groups such as the Washington Interfaith Network (WIN) have done it — citizens stand up to politicians, clearly express their expectations, and then hold politicians accountable. There are now more than 170 of these congregation-based community organizations across the country, working on behalf the poor and the working poor, and all are helping people of faith to become comfortable with exercising power.

"There has been a false dichotomy between ‘spiritual power’ and ‘worldly power,’" says Janet Adair Hansen, pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church in Cortland, New York. "Once the faith community understands that expressing faith values in the public arena is a spiritual undertaking and not a ‘political’ one, there is a lot of energy unleashed."

Hansen is a member of a community organization called M.I.C.A.H. ("Moving in Congregations, Acting in Hope") that is working on issues such as healthcare for children, employment, and recreation programs for youth violence prevention. She likes that this involvement gets her out into the community with her church members, and appreciates the connections it creates with other congregations, saying, "We couldn’t begin to do this on our own as a small church in rural upstate New York."

Experienced community organizers tell me that strong relationships across congregational and denominational lines form the foundation of an effective power organization. Martin Trimble, the lead organizer of the Washington Interfaith Network, says, "You can only engage people if you understand their interests and values, and organize around their interests and values." As relationships deepen, people are able to talk about where they have a passion to work on issues affecting their families, their communities, and themselves.

In 2004, the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization began organizing around health care issues, based on concerns being raised by members of several Haitian Seventh Day Adventist congregations in Roxbury, and by members of Jewish synagogues in Newton and Brookline. A series of house meetings revealed that Haitian nursing home workers were frustrated by workplace conditions, and middle-aged Jews were equally frustrated by the quality of care that their parents in nursing homes were receiving. These diverse people of faith discovered shared interests in better care and better working conditions, and their organizing led to a nursing home "Resident and Care Worker Bill of Rights," as well as an "Advisory on the Rights of Immigrant Workers," sent by the state attorney general to the owners and administrators of every nursing home in Massachusetts. "Relational organizing creates a new kind of politics, one that does not view people stereotypically," says Trimble. "Instead, it engages their humanity."

Over the past four years, I have been working with an interfaith group to organize a religious network in Northern Virginia. In December 2007, representatives of several dozen congregations came together and chose a name for the organization: VOICE — "Virginians Organized for Interfaith Community Engagement." This multi-faith, multi-racial, non-partisan group made up of blacks, whites, Christians, Jews, Muslims, conservatives and moderates as well as liberals is determined to be a civic voice that can balance the political and business voices in the region. But its organizers have stressed the importance of developing personal relationships across racial and denominational barriers, and building a foundation of understanding and trust before we begin to identify the issues we need to address.

"For people to stay organized, they need a basis other than the issue du jour," observes Charles Uphaus, a retired Foreign Service development officer and member of Fairfax Church, who is active in this group. "That basis is established relationships. Without this, any movement is going to be ephemeral, and if it’s ephemeral, the political powers that be are not going to pay attention." Uphaus has seen effective organizing overseas, where poor communities have organized to get access to natural resources, and to acquire community services such as schools, drinking water, and police protection.

In Los Angeles, a congregation-based community organizing coalition called ONE-LA was founded on July 11, 2004, when more than 12,000 leaders from 100 institutions came together and committed themselves to an agenda of "Standing for Families." Since that founding convention, this organization has focused on building power, strengthening community, and celebrating public life, while members work together on issues such as education, neighborhood safety, health, housing, and immigration. In June 2006, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa addressed a ONE-LA gathering and pledged to push through his reform plans for Los Angeles schools. When 1,400 people gather at such an event, politicians are motivated to take action.

Congregations across the country are discovering that change happens only through the exercise of power, and that community organizing is a faithful way for religious people to push politicians to work for the common good. In addition, organizing has the side benefit of drawing together different faiths, since social justice goals can unite people in a way that theology cannot. Christians, Jews, and Muslims will never agree on doctrines such as the divinity of Jesus Christ, but they can — and do — work together to exercise power on behalf of the poor.

Today, the political situation in Virginia is so balanced between Democrats and Republicans, Northern Virginia and rest-of-Virginia, that an interfaith group can actually have an influence on the political process. When one group dominates the debate in Richmond, political leaders don’t have to listen to interfaith community organizations; but when there is balance between parties or regions, both sides pay attention to what community groups are saying. Civic voices have their greatest influence when the balance of power can be easily tipped.

Barack Obama has said, "When you’ve got a working majority behind you, you can’t be stopped." It remains to be seen if such a statement will galvanize the nation. But on the local and state levels, interfaith organizations are trying to assemble a working majority as they build relationships, organize around shared interests and values, exercise power, and work to change their communities for the better — from the bottom up.