The White House campaign to save the Iran nuclear deal is getting a boost from the God squad.

Faith-based groups, many of them increasingly nervous about the well-funded push by opponents of the deal, are intensifying their lobbying of lawmakers ahead of an important congressional vote on the agreement.


Over the weekend, the Rev. Al Sharpton called on black churches to mobilize in support of the nuclear deal. On Monday, a group of 340 rabbis from multiple strands of Judaism released a letter, urging lawmakers to vote for the agreement. And plans are in the works for a coordinated rollout of endorsements by a number of religious groups next week, an organizer said.

The campaign is led largely by Catholic and Quaker groups, such as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Friends Committee on National Legislation, and it reflects many of the organizations’ traditional anti-war stances. It also comes as themes of anti-Semitism and Islamism have risen in the debate.

Some of the undecided lawmakers being targeted, among them prominent Democrats, have Jewish constituents and donors who fear the agreement will empower Iran, whose Islamist leaders are avowedly anti-Israel and have even questioned the Holocaust. (Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson recently suggested in much-criticized remarks that President Barack Obama was anti-Semitic for pursuing negotiations with Iran.)

The campaign against the deal is being led by groups such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and the Republican Jewish Coalition, and as much as $40 million or more is believed will be spent by the opposition on ads and other efforts, including sponsoring town halls to confront wobbly lawmakers.

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat from New York, is feeling pressure from every side but particularly from his Jewish constituents. He has attended two town halls in the past week, the first hosted by AIPAC and other groups which local news reports described as tense. During the second gathering, hosted by Jeffries himself, a woman in the crowd compared a former State Department official who spoke in favor of the deal to supporters of Adolf Hitler.

Jeffries, who is African-American, is also on Sharpton’s radar. The longtime civil rights activist and MSNBC host said he wants lawmakers to remember that without a deal, the odds of military confrontation with Iran go up, and that, because African-Americans make up a disproportionate share of the armed forces, the black community will suffer.

Sharpton plans to hold a conference call with 300 ministers on Friday, speak about the deal at a church in North Carolina on Saturday and organize a prayer vigil on the steps of the U.S. Capitol in September when Congress returns from recess. “We intend to go to the mat on this,” he said. “This is a moral issue, and it is an issue of representatives having in mind their voting base. We don’t have the lobbyists and the money, but we do have the votes that elect you.”

The Rev. Dr. David Jefferson Sr. of the Metropolitan Baptist Church in Newark, N.J., supports the Sharpton-led effort and plans to have a conversation about the deal with one of his most prominent congregants: Democratic Sen. Cory Booker.

In an interview, Jefferson said the debate around the Iran deal reminded him of the anti-Vietnam War movement and how Martin Luther King Jr. spoke out against the conflict in a famous speech at Riverside Church in New York City. “I don’t think this is about Democrat or Republican,” Jefferson said. “I think this is about conscience and conviction.”

Jeffries’ office said he is still studying the agreement. Booker’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Sharpton and other faith-based leaders said they weren’t getting instructions from the Obama administration on what to do, but they have received information and encouragement from the White House. A senior administration official declined to detail conversations with the groups but said the White House has been “gratified to see faith groups of all different stripes become engaged as the stakes became clearer.”

Quaker and Catholic organizations are among the most vocal on the pro-deal side.

Kate Gould, a lobbyist with the Friends Committee, said there will be a coordinated rollout of faith groups endorsing the deal next week. She declined to give details on names and numbers, but the Friends Committee has been a prominent organizer of groups from multiple faith traditions. The group also has maintained a list of constituent meetings hosted by members of Congress to help direct activists.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has long supported the deal; the Vatican also has spoken favorably of the agreement, which was negotiated by the United States, Iran and five other countries. An official with the bishops’ conference said it wouldn’t be surprising if Pope Francis, who is scheduled to visit Washington in September just days after the congressional vote on the deal, will mention it during his speech on Capitol Hill.

Bob Cooke, a Catholic activist with Pax Christi International, is helping organize a letter in support of the deal to be sent this week to Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.). Some 50 Maryland Catholic leaders are expected to sign the missive to the Jewish senator, who is the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

“People do want to make sure that this issue isn’t driven by money and fear-mongering,” Cooke said.

Patrick Carolan, executive director of the Franciscan Action Network, said his group is targeting Catholic lawmakers in particular but also believes some members of Congress who have already come out against the deal could be persuaded to reconsider. (“We’re not even giving up on Sen. [Chuck] Schumer,” Carolan said of the prominent New York Democrat who opposes the deal.)

He acknowledged that “there’s huge amounts of dollars being spent on the other side,” but insisted that politicians “should have the moral conviction to do the right thing, not to vote based on whether they’re going to get money for their election campaign or whether they’re going to be reelected or not.”

Although much has been made of the divisions within the American Jewish community over the deal — illustrated by the rivalry between AIPAC and J Street, the left-leaning Jewish group — the U.S. Muslim community also has its own divisions on the agreement.

Sometimes those differences reflect the groups’ ancestral countries. Syrian Americans in particular have reservations about a deal with Iran, which has supported the regime of dictator Bashar Assad in the Syrian civil war. Iranian Americans have their own divisions, with some befuddled by the willingness of the Obama administration to engage with the theocratic leadership in Tehran.

Still, some Muslim groups have come out in favor of the deal. They include the Muslim Public Affairs Council, which is hoping to get some lawmakers to attend a town hall it is helping organize for September.

“We’re not a monolithic group, obviously — the most diverse Muslim population is within the United States,” said Saif Inam, MPAC policy analyst. “Generally, though, there’s an optimism toward the deal.”