Followers Of The Cross

A new book provides a fascinating insight into the world of former President Obama’s outreach to faith-based communities.Michael Wear is an evangelical Christian who served in Obama’s Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships in the White House during the president’s first term. Wear directed faith outreach during the 2012 re-election as well.Wear also is founder of Public Square Strategies LLC, a consulting firm aiming to build bridges between secular and religious institutions with shared goals.The story of how a young college student became a White House staffer is told in “Reclaiming Hope,” published by Nelson Books/Thomas Nelson. The subtitle is “Lessons Learned in the Obama White House About the Future of Faith in America.”Wear writes about how through a series of coincidences he basically walked up to then-Sen. Obama in a hotel and asked for a job with the future presidential campaign. Wear, a college student at the time, persistently stayed in touch with Obama’s staff throughout the 2008 cam