The Margin of Victory Project
Goal: provide the margin of victory for the Maryland Dream Act on November 6, by shifting 2% of the electorate from apparently reliable anti-immigrant vote to solid pro-immigrant vote
schedule:
July - August: recruit like mad, aiming for 300 college students across the state
August: 100 teams of three each get training
September: Each team reaches 100 conservative Christian students
October: Each student carries idea home to family and to parents’ church
November 6: Election Day
Simple message: Scripture does not use the word “immigrant” but does have abundant teaching about the idea. The word stranger (GER in Hebrew in the Old Testament, XENOS in Greek in the New Testament) can be translated accurately as immigrant. Before you vote in the referendum on immigration on November 6, make sure you know what Scripture and the Church teach about immigrants. Info and insight available at www.Marylandsdreamact.blogspot.com.
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I believe that there are 60,000 serious Christians in the state who are currently planning to vote like good conservatives, and so they will vote against immigrants unless they are challenged to think about this issue. They are not going to listen to standard political argument; they are already fed up with lies from both sides. But they will listen to a non-standard approach to immigration, an quick and simple argument based on Scripture. (The simple argument: when Jesus said we should welcome “strangers,” that meant immigrants. Check it out yourself before you vote on November 6.) As soon as they see that there is a lot of teaching about immigration in the Bible, they are ready to move away from the standard conservative line. The problem is, how do we find them?
What I intend to do is put the ideas in front of 10,000 conservative Christian students at colleges across the state, and ask them to take the message home to their churches, and to talk to as many people as they can in their churches. If the pastor helps, great. If not, that’s okay -- but explain the idea to at least ten people. That will blanket the state with the simple message.
Okay, I can’t get to every church in the state, so I want 10,000 college students. That’s still daunting. So I want 100 teams of three each, planning to get to 80 colleges across the state. Each team is responsible for reaching 100 conservative Christians. That might take a single evening, going to a meeting of Campus Crusade or some other Christian group. More likely, it will require several visits to several groups. But it is a manageable task.
Okay, so now I just need 300 people. 160 might be enough: one team of two per college. But I prefer to have some leeway. So I’m looking for 300 people who can get a couple of hours of training and then work on a campus to locate Christian conservatives and challenge them.
Think it over. If you can’t do it yourself, help me find some people who can do it. Please.
John Cavanaugh-O’Keefe
