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Editor's note: Sign up now for the Truth and Action Round-up, a short-term, daily email with reliable information and opportunities for action in the days after the election, no matter how it unfolds. Adam Russell Taylor, Jim Wallis Nearly 100 million Americans have already cast their ballots. It’s a staggering and hopeful number that makes this Election Day unlike any other. Today, the nation decides whether it will follow the path to a more inclusive, multiracial democracy — or spiral further into the violent abyss of white supremacy. Today we decide what kind of nation we want to become. For many in this election season, both COVID-19 and rampant police violence have revealed the racist systems that have haunted this country since its founding. To uphold those systems, the people who most benefit from them are engaging in the most direct and deliberate efforts at voter suppression and intimidation we have seen since before the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. So across the country, people of faith are calling for vigilance to ensure a free, fair, and safe election. Chaplains are filling polling sites where conflict is possible, especially in battleground states, along with legal experts. Through efforts like Lawyers & Collars/Turnout Sunday and Souls to the Polls, faith communities are watching, waiting, caring, preparing, protecting, and standing ready to be peacemakers for as long as needed, following Jesus who calls peacemakers the children of God. Vigilance means being attentive to whether votes are fully and fairly counted, which will determine in part whether this election will be judged as legitimate. Vigilance means demanding that all votes are counted, including all mail-in and absentee ballots. Vigilance means maintaining a calm and measured approach as those votes are counted and denouncing any reckless or premature victory declarations. And if pervasive and decisive voter suppression subverts the popular will, vigilance means we are prepared to engage in resistance and even civil disobedience to protect our democracy and exercise our Christian witness.
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Our Latest Why Should We Fix the Electoral College? It's Racist, Experts Say (by Stephanie Rev. Dr. William Barber II calls the Electoral College “one of the last vestiges of the politics of a slave nation.” The People Ensuring Your Ballot Is Counted (by Mitchell Atencio) “Curing ballots feels like the Christian thing to do, to help people exercise their voice,” Heather Bixler said. More Than 800 Faith Leaders Are Ready to De-Escalate Election Tension (by Mitchell Atencio) Three-quarters of Americans worry there won't be a peaceful transition of power after the election. But community leaders and clergy are determined to prevent violence. Growing Numbers of Catholics Back Away from Single-Issue Voting — and Trump (by Gina Ciliberto) Being “pro-life,” they argue, behooves voters to consider issues like health care, housing, education, racism, climate justice, migration, and criminal justice reform. |
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From the Magazine In Civil Unrest, How Do We Keep Each Other Safe? (by Betsy Shirley) Nonviolent Peaceforce speaks to Sojourners about learning from past election crises. |
Are you or someone you know passionate about social justice and currently job searching? Sojourners has positions open for an Assistant Editor and a Director of Advancement Operations that might be a great fit. See our listings for more details. Tell Congress: Families need pandemic relief As Congress is debating the next stimulus and recovery bill, we need you to contact your members of Congress today to make sure that money gets to the families that need it most. |
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