Shannon Craig Straw is a communications strategist with more than a decade of experience at the intersection of faith and politics.
Shannon primarily works with foundations, faith-based nonprofits and advocacy organizations. Her clients improve the lives of children and families by expanding access to the social safety net, cultivating educational equity, ending gun violence, disrupting generational cycles of poverty, and dismantling systemic racism.
Currently, Shannon is a partner at West End Strategy Team, where she leads the Chicago team and oversees messaging development and strategic communications planning work. She is also one of WEST’s leading crisis communications experts, working closely with clients to navigate potentially challenging situations, including the pandemic.
Earlier in her career, Shannon served as press secretary at Public Religion Research Institute, boosting its name recognition by expanding its social media presence and cultivating reporter relationships.
Prior to that, Shannon was the chief researcher for AARP’s 2010 Voter Education campaign and a communications assistant on the public education team that led the “Divided We Fail” health care and Social Security campaigns. She also has significant campaign experience, having served on the 2008 Obama for America religious affairs team and worked on federal and state campaigns in Virginia and Michigan.
Shannon holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and history from Hope College in Holland, Michigan, and a certificate in brand strategy from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. Her own writing has appeared in Religion News Service, Religion and Politics, and Motherly. She lives outside Chicago with her husband, two children and their dog.
In late February, the United Methodist Church voted to keep its ban on same-sex marriage and the ordination of LGBT clergy while increasing penalties for those who break the rules. Since 1972, the church’s official guidelines, known as Book of Discipline, have stated that “homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching.” Church policies bar United Methodist clergy from officiating same-sex weddings, and they forbid the ordination of “self-avowed practicing homosexuals.” But for decades, there have been LGBT-affirming congregations and LGBT clergy despite these strictures. These tensions came to a head last month in St. Louis during General Conference, a gathering of the nearly 13-million-member global denomination, which is also the second largest Protestant denomination in the United States.
The headlines, alerts and tweets appeared on my screen — again. Another school shooting. The 30th U.S. mass shooting this year alone. And it’s only February.
Not long after the first alerts came the offerings of thoughts and prayers. And for too many people the offering of “thoughts and prayers” means little. It’s checking a box as though the offerer is absolved from further action or duty.
At some point, we become like the man turning down the help of those who came to his aid as the flood waters rose. If we’re honest with ourselves, we passed this point long before a gunman walked into a Florida high school, even before a gunman walked into an elementary school in Connecticut.
When I was pregnant, my husband and I chose not to find out the sex of our little one. There are a lot of reasons parents decide not to find out a baby’s sex, but a big one for us was not wanting to put our baby into a gendered corner before birth.
I wasn’t hoping for either sex in particular, and my guess about whether our baby was a boy or girl changed daily. But I think I was more prepared for a girl. I’d spent time thinking about how I’d raise a baby girl to be strong and to not feel forced into the pink, frilly box society might try to put her in. For every princess gift I have given to a little girl, I made sure to also give a science kit or sports equipment or a book about little girls becoming president (here’s my favorite). I’ve used the #LikeaGirl hashtag to celebrate the athletic prowess of women and thought seriously about whether one should #banbossy or reclaim it. And I found myself following A Mighty Girl and excitedly browsing science and math-themed dresses.
Our surprise baby turned out to be a boy baby.