Friday Night at the YearlyKos convention beloved DNC Chairman Howard Dean met a crowd made up of former Deaniacs or now supporters who welcomed him to a rousing ovation.
Dean's speech addressed some of the major issues to the blogging community such as Electronic Voting and the safety of the ballot as well as addressing the value of the YouTube debates and brining voters into the debate process for the 2008 Presidential candidates.
But one thing he addressed that did not receive a huge amount of applause and I'm sure turned a few heads was his admission that he has been meeting with and discussing issues with some of the major pastors of mega churches across the country.
Leading into his emphasis on young voters Gov. Dean said almost as an aside that he was in Dallas a few weeks ago meeting with Rev. Freddy Haynes who runs the Friendship-West Baptist Church. Dean said he wanted to meet with Rev. Haynes because he does a lot of social good works.
"Why do we reach out to evangelical Christians? Because there is a generational change going on in America. Not just in the country as a whole but in every single community. And the truth is that the Evangelical Movement is changing dramatically."
I've been talking a lot about the need for this and addressing the forward thinking of the good Chairman when he hired faith based outreach people in specific states that have ever increasing communities of Evangelicals.
"There is an Evangelical preacher in Los Angeles named Rick Warren who wrote a book called The Purpose Driven Life some of you may have read it. He doesn't have his Sunday services conducted by preaching hate and beating up on gay people and women. They talk about Darfur, they talk about the environment, they talk about poverty, things that are actually in the Bible. And that is our commonality with the Evangelical Movement particularly young people. That sounds like a Democratic message. I know there will be things that we disagree with our Evangelical brothers and sisters - but there will be some of the things that we do agree with...."
I am excited that Dean is doing this kind of outreach, but for him to go into a room full of mostly liberal bloggers and talk about this shows real initiative to communicating to our friends that fearing the church movement and opposing it simply because of past or existing oppositions we have does not create a lasting movement for the progressive issues where we all oppose conservatives. Having Dean, our friend to the liberal blogging movement, convey this kind of "no fear" message about potential progressives of faith is a new beginning that I am so excited to see develop.
Further, as a democrat of faith, I hope it encourages more people who left the church because of conservative republican indoctrination or political manipulation, to go back to church and embrace the social service agenda that so many faith based institutions are becoming.
This leads into a great section of his speech that Dean does on young voters. Finally acknowledging what the party has ignored for years. Young voters are the ticket to progressing the progressive movement in America. He rattles off statistics I've said to you all a million times.
Young people are the only ones who voted for Kerry in 2004. They got even more progressive in 2006 and each year they increase their numbers in the amount that are voting and that are voting more progressively. To not engage young people is strategically stupid. STUPID! Also reckless and will result in your own downfall. I hope beyond hope that the state parties wake up to this. And I'm eager to see how they plan to work on these advancements.
Either way - go watch the video because it's GREAT. And Dean is always himself - quite the crowd pleaser.
Peace be with you.
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