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Adam Russell Taylor Before the 2020 election, faith leaders and activists around the country sounded the alarm about how decades of voting rights rollbacks could result in enough suppressed votes to steal a presidential election. Barbara Williams-Skinner and I outlined exactly how voter disinformation and intimidation, closed polling sites, voter purges, and more were creating a democratic crisis. Thanks to massive local organizing, this dangerous scenario didn’t play out in November. Still, former President Donald Trump and his allies attempted to distract from legitimate concerns with baseless proclamations of widespread voter fraud, which culminated in the Big Lie of a stolen election, and ultimately, the Jan. 6 insurrection. We continue to see Republican blowback to the election results: GOP-controlled statehouses around the country are doubling down on voter suppression bills that, in a worst-case scenario, would enable legislatures to more easily overturn election results. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, as of May 14, state legislators have introduced 389 bills with restrictive voting provisions in 48 states; 22 have already been enacted and 61 bills are currently moving through legislatures. This wave of bills — along with Republicans’ continued complicity in the Big Lie — means the GOP is increasingly seeking to narrow the electorate rather than appeal to a broader base of voters, particularly voters of color. With the changing demographics in this nation, this strategy will ultimately lead our nation down the destructive path of white minority rule and autocracy. Our entire democratic system is in jeopardy when politics focuses on fights over access rather than on policies to advance the common good. Because of the increasing spate of voting restrictions, what we feared could happen in the last election is now an even greater threat as we look forward to 2022 and 2024. The most effective antidote to the forces currently poisoning our democracy involves a procedural rule that has increasingly been used as a bludgeon to block progress: the filibuster.
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Our Latest Churches Should Help Normalize Mental Health for Asian Americans (by Prasanta Verma) Asian Americans have been experiencing increased racial trauma. Mental health services provide the path to healing. In Defiance of Vatican, Catholic Leaders Bless LGBTQ Community (by Lexi McMenamin) DignityUSA offered a series of blessings for LGBTQ Catholics to celebrate the beginning of Pride Month. Indigenous Leaders Criticize Pope's Response to Kamloops Graves (by Anna Mehler Paperny, Reuters) The Canadian school system forcibly separated about 150,000 Indigenous children from their homes, with many subjected to abuse, rape, and malnutrition. Wins and Losses: What Our Editors Are Reading (by Josiah R. Daniels) The Lakers are out, and critical race theory is in. |
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From the Magazine Is the Two-State Solution Obsolete? (by Jonathan Kuttab) Israeli settlements have made a viable Palestinian state impossible. Finding a new path to peace in the Middle East. |
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The Rebuilding Democracy Project: Polarization, Faith, and The Common Good When a Virginia synagogue set out to see if religion can help heal democracy and combat rising polarization, they discovered surprising results. Learn more and see what this means for your faith community with a new case study from the Inclusive America Project! The Alliance of Baptists is hiring a Co-Director! The Alliance of Baptists, a group of progressive Baptists and Christians, is seeking a Co-Director to guide the organization in the implementation of recommendations for dismantling systemic racism within the Alliance and its congregational and ministry partners as well as continuing the growth of the Alliance’s ministry. |
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