Two Arms To Arms
Posted by Rebecca Teti in News on Friday, September 05, 2008 2:30 PM
The smallest apostolates can reap a big harvest. That’s the principle behind Project Mustard Seed, a pro-life apostolate begun in 1992 by David and Susan Arms. The idea is beautifully simple. The couple noticed that Life Decisions International published a “boycott list” of companies who contribute to Planned Parenthood. “What if those companies heard from us—a lot of us?” they thought.
Thus began a simple campaign. Each month, the Arms choose one company from the boycott list and invite individuals and groups to write the president or CEO a polite informative letter about what Planned Parenthood actually does and ask the company to finance worthier causes. The Arms assumed that targeting one company at a time would be more effective than a scattershot approach, and they also thought writing one letter or email per month wouldn’t overly tax most people.
It seems to be working. Although the Arms themselves keep no statistics, Life Decisions International reports 178 companies have stopped funding Planned Parenthood since the project started.
Here’s how Susan Arms described her work to me in an email interview.
Project Mustard Seed is actually [Dave’s] brainchild. He comes up with all the good ideas and I end up doing the work. Funny how that happens!
She also told me a little bit about how they got started and how the idea has evolved over time:
Originally, we targeted many churches and other pro-life groups with the idea that we could send them a postcard and they would distribute the information to their group. That is where the name Mustard Seed came to mind. We do still have some groups like that, but most of our participants are individuals.
Another thing that has changed is in the way we contact the other letter writers. When we started in 1992, the internet was not an option. We started by mailing out postcards to everyone. Once we were able to use the internet, we were able to transfer many of our mailings via email and save some money on postage. However, there are still almost 100 people who prefer to receive the postcard.
What I love about this idea is its simplicity. Susan was careful to point out to me that Life Decisions International is the group doing the heavy lifting of research and keeping statistics. She and her husband don’t have any official connection to LDI; they just found a way to multiply the effort and the effect.
If you’ve been looking for a way to help the pro-life movement from home (as we were discussing a few weeks ago), maybe a once a month letter is an option for you. To receive the monthly Project Mustard Seed mailing, just send an email asking to have your name added to the list.
(I’m going to give the email here, but doctor it in such a way that it doesn’t become a source of spam for the Arms family. Hopefully you’ll be able to discern. It’s Mseed4life AT a-o-l dot c-o-m.)
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