AS WE MOVE CLOSER TO ELECTION DAY 2024 . . .
Our election cycle has been long and, perhaps for many, concerning and tiring. Let us pause for a moment and consider the inspiring words from leaders of some of our most beloved faith organizations as they address our public life together.
The Rev. Eugene Cho, President/CEO, Bread for the World
Citing a recent poll, Rev. Cho noted “that 41 million Christians, 32 million who regularly attend church, plan to sit out this election. When asked why, 68 percent say that they are not interested in politics. These are shocking numbers.” Rev. Cho went on to say this:
As Christians, we are meant to be engaged citizens. One of the ways we do that is to exercise the right and privilege to vote. . . . . [W]e can use our prayerful discernment, theology, and our convictions in the divinity and humanity of Jesus Christ to inform our views.
As a non-partisan organization, neither Bread nor I will recommend which candidates you choose, but we did create a guide to help you choose at www.bread.org/vote.
Voting is important. It’s also only the beginning of how Christians can work toward God’s Kingdom through community with each other. I invite you to take 3 minutes to read more on our blog. [In the blog, Rev. Cho references the food-insecure children in the U.S. (14 million) and globally (45 million who are seriously malnourished).]
However you vote on November 5, I hope you keep at the forefront of your mind the two greatest commandments: to love God and to love each other.
Quoted from an emailed message from Rev. Eugene Cho and Bread for the World, sent October 23, 2024.
Kurt Rager, Director, Lutheran Advocacy Ministry-NM (LAM-NM)
As our ELCA Advocacy shares, "This church understands government as a means through which God works to preserve creation and build a more peaceful and just social order in a broken world. Our “civic participation is not simply voluntary, idealistic, or altruistic. The ELCA holds to the biblical idea that God calls God’s people to be active citizens and to ensure that everyone benefits from the good of government (Jeremiah 29:7, Romans 13:1-7).”
LAM-NM has vigorously maintained a non-partisan stance in its work, choosing instead to make change through influencing policy through our advocacy and congregational organizing. We do not and cannot endorse candidates in elections. Yet, significant change can occur in policy through elections. . . . With each candidate seeking your vote, ask about their positions as they relate to our key areas of focus: hunger, poverty, the affordable housing crisis, and turning the tide on the growing population of those with no place to call home. . . . The list is long, but you get the idea. More simply put and spot-on, The Most Rev. Michael Curry, former presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, and a long partner in advocacy efforts with the ELCA, shares, "The principle on which Christians must vote is the principle: Does this look like love of neighbor?"
Adapted from the August 2024 Newsletter of Lutheran Advocacy Ministry-NM.
Elizabeth Eaton, Presiding Bishop, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)
Dear church, our citizenship is ultimately in heaven. But we are also citizens of this country. . . . In U.S. political history, people have yearned and given their lives for what they had hoped for—democratic life for the sake of the flourishing of all. One of the ways we serve our neighbor is to participate in civic life. Can we see Election Day as a unifying event when the whole country goes to the polls? Vote.
Quoted from We are also citizens - Living Lutheran
See also Bishop Eaton’s message on voting: https://youtu.be/0LmTciij4ZI?si=aamJN-Bb181QFmLs
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Messages compiled by Lutheran Advocacy Ministry-NM