Bringing Religion into Advocacy

January 1, 2007

Leslie Woods works as the Associate for Domestic Poverty and Environmental Issues for the Washington Office of the Presbyterian Church (USA), a denomination which has 2.3 million members and is one out of only five religious groups whose membership includes over forty Presbyterian members of Congress. Leslie Woods emphasizes that faith is the major reason the PC(USA) and other faith-based groups are involved in advocacy in the first place. She states “there is a very clear Biblical mandate for the Church to be involved in public policy.” She goes on to explain, “Because a sovereign God is at work in all the world, the church and Christian citizens should be concerned about public policy.” Woods points out that Christian advocacy groups have the advantage of creating policy positions grounded in a strong Biblical foundation: “We bring a desire for a positive world order because it’s the way things started off, because we are justice driven; God intended this world to be a place where people have bread. While faith-based public policy advocacy groups are a small community and so cannot have as much influence on legislation as many would desire, Leslie Woods argues that they have been effective at changing the debate. For example, religious members of Congress might come to faith-based advocacy groups such as the PC (USA) in order to gain a better understanding of the religious basis for a certain issue. They also might approach religious advocacy groups to receive advice on how to communicate an issue using language that resonates with their faith. In this way Woods feels that PC (USA) and other faith-based advocacy groups have a unique role among advocates on the hilltop.

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