Today FaithfulAmerica.org began flooding the Mississippi airwaves with radio ads demanding accountability and honesty from the candidates at Friday’s presidential debate because, as the ad states, “the Ninth Commandment wasn’t just a suggestion.”

“In Mississippi, we teach our kids to let their 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and their 'No' be 'No,'” it begins, echoing the Sermon on the Mount. “Unfortunately, politicians are often more interested in scoring political points and attacking each other than in telling us the whole truth about how they’re going to lead our nation.”

Listen to the ad here.

It encourage voters to contact debate moderator Jim Lehrer to request that he “hold both candidates accountable when they bear false witness about themselves or their opponent.” Faithful America members nationwide are joining in this call to action as well. You can join the effort too at faithfulamerica.org.

The ads are running on Christian and Country radio stations throughout Northern Mississippi and Western Tennessee. Click here to give it a listen.

Posted by Dan at 12:03 PM | Link | del.icio.us | Digg | Comments (0)

The first presidential debate will take place this Friday at the University of Mississippi, and there's more at stake than the presidency. The race is crossing threshold after threshold of sleaze: character attacks, innuendo, outright lies. A key enabling factor of this debasement is the media's hesitancy to call a lie a lie and a smear a smear. We need truth-telling, and for better or worse we need the media's to help make it happen.

To this end, during the run-up to Friday night's presidential debate, Faithful America is placing ads on Mississippi Christian radio urging listeners to contact debate moderator Jim Lehrer and tell him to hold the candidates accountable if they bear false witness about themselves or each other. Listen to the ad here.

When there's no accountability, commandments get treated like suggestions and integrity becomes a liability. That's not the political culture we need. To help us fund this ad demanding accountability and honesty from the presidential candidates, click here. Thanks!

Posted by Dan at 10:34 AM | Link | del.icio.us | Digg | Comments (1)

Faithful America recently purchased advertisements in the St. Paul Pioneer-Press and Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel thanking community organizers for all they do to advance justice and improve their communities. The ads were funded by contributions from hundreds of Faithful America members who, in response to derisive comments about community organizers, responded to an action alert calling for an expression of gratitude to these humble servants.

Click here to view a PDF of the ad.

If you're not a member of Fatihful America, click here to join the online community of tens of thousands of activists dedicated to the common good.

Posted by Dan at 04:22 PM | Link | del.icio.us | Digg | Comments (2)

It's a big day at Faith In Public Life, where we're relaunching Faithful America, an online community of people of faith dedicated to promoting the common good and reclaiming the values debate. We'll be sending out email alerts at critical moments calling for action that'll really make a difference on issues that matter to people of faith.

Today we launched our first campaign, a petition to the media pollsters asking them to stop pigeonholing people of faith in the presidential primary exit polls. The response so far has been impressive. It's only been live for a few hours and we're already aproaching 3,000 signatures!

In the weeks and months ahead we'll be launching campaigns on issues such as poverty, the environment and human rights. If you're not a member of Faithful America and want to join, click here to sign up. Hope you'll join us!

Posted by Dan at 02:09 PM | Link | del.icio.us | Digg | Comments (1)