“A lot of nitty-gritty legislative work is notoriously difficult and time-consuming,” said Sharon Benzoni, host of “At the Moment.” “Do your members start to get fatigued when you’re up against big organizations with lots of people and money they can just throw at these problems? Is that really frustrating? How do people respond to how long this takes and how long it is?”
“Well, they’re people of faith,” said Matt McDermott (pictured). “At times it feels like a long road or it feels like a difficult fight against strong odds, but then you have these moments when you come across and you’ve delivered a $66 million victory. It feels pretty darn good and important. So there are moments of fatigue but moments of great excitement. And there are seasons to this work.”
Matt McDermott is executive director of CONECT (Congregations Organized for a New Connecticut), a multi-faith organization composed of 28 member congregations across southern Connecticut. CONECT seeks to harness the power of its 15,000 members to effect social change in New Haven and Fairfield counties. (Read previous coverage of the group here.
The conversation between McDermott and Benzoni ranged from immigration, health care, and policing to dealing with the hurdles of passing legislation and creating good dialogue across faiths. Check out the full conversation by clicking on the above audio file.
