We Believe Ohio: Reclaiming Religious Values
What happened?
We Believe Ohio started when senior minister, the Rev. Tim Ahrens, of First Congregational Church, UCC in Columbus, Ohio, crafted a simple question and e-mailed it to his colleagues in early November of 2005: “Is what you are seeing in the public square reflective of the Christian faith you have known and lived? Across Central Ohio, the answer came back “No!
A few weeks later, 50 local pastors from Roman Catholic, Pentecostal, and Protestant traditions gathered to ask what, if anything, they should do about this. After hours of singing, prayer, and discussion, the Holy Spirit-led gathering of conservative, moderate, and liberal pastors and priests from urban, suburban, and rural areas became convinced that they must act. They promised to meet regularly and expand the conversation to include clergy outside the Christian Church.
As the continued to meet, We Believe Ohio grew more diverse, including clergy from Roman Catholicism, two traditions of Judaism, and more than fifteen Protestant denominations. They also developed concrete actions steps: informing and engaging members in the electoral process, with a goal of clergy reaching 80% of members through voter turn-out and absentee ballot initiatives; preaching from the pulpit about God's call to work toward social justice for all; and promoting We Believe and its social justice mission by establishing a Web site and hosting public events.
In March of 2006, We Believe Ohio launched publicly with a kick-off rally and press conference with more than 300 people in attendance, including nearly 100 clergy. News coverage of the event appeared in more than 50 media outlets. The success of We Believe Ohio in Columbus sparked statewide interest and spawned We Believe Cleveland, which launched in May with 116 clergy members -- including pastors, rabbis, cantors, imams and Sikhs -- in attendance and a standing-room-only crowd of more than 200 supporters. Similar positive media attention followed the Cleveland launch.
We Believe Ohio continues to grow statewide, with interest in the movement beginning to develop into action in Akron and Cincinnati.
What methods did faith leaders use?
We Believe Ohio benefited from lifelong relationships developed by its leadership that were fostered in part by faith based community organizing networks. Through their involvement in BREAD (Building Responsibility, Equality and Dignity), We Believe Ohio built trusting relationships with many faith leaders over years of addressing pressing community needs. Where relationships needed strengthening, Columbus and Cleveland leaders met one on one with colleagues to develop relationships and a shared agenda.
To challenge the monologue of religious right rhetoric in Ohio, We Believe focused on strengthening its public presence by establishing a partnership with Faith in Public Life, which provided media training and other communications resources. We Believe Ohio had the leadership and vision, and benefited greatly from gaining the communications expertise needed to amplify their voice in the media.
What was their message?
We Believe Ohio focuses on social justice issues that unite people of faith, rather than divide. By inserting justice-centered values into the public debate, the organization’s message is positive and proactive, rather than negative and defensive. The group's mission statement proclaims "yes to justice for all" and "no to prosperity for a few," and "yes to the voice of religious traditions informing public policy" but "no to crossing the lines that separate the institutions of religion and government."
What challenges were faced?
One of the greatest challenges that We Believe Ohio faced was building a diverse coalition. It was, and continues to be, tremendously important to We Believe for the make-up of their group to reflect the strong value they place on diversity. We Believe leaders reached out to conservative, moderate, and liberal clergy from urban, suburban, and rural areas from diverse faith traditions on an ongoing one-on-one basis -- building new relationships and finding common ground.
We Believe Ohio also understood that they needed to amplify their message through the media, but lacked communications expertise or resources. Faith in Public Life helped We Believe leaders refine their message and prepare to confidently take their message into the public square.
How can you use this example?
We Believe Ohio succeeded because its leadership recognized the importance of building a large and diverse coalition; developing concrete action steps; and amplifying its voice through the media. We Believe Ohio rallied supporters by establishing partnerships that gave them the numbers needed to get their voices heard. Now with more than 300 clergy and lay leaders involved in the movement, We Believe Ohio has attracted national media attention. The powerful unifying message of We Believe Ohio is being heard.
Key Links
We Believe Ohio
The Northeast Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ)
