What’s Next?

Midterm elections are here, with high stakes and potential shifts in power causing anxiety and raising hopes. Eligible voters in the United States will go to the polls to cast their votes almost halfway through the term of the 47th President of the United States. All 435 seats in the House of Representatives are contested, along with 35 Senate seats and 39 gubernatorial elections. There are also seats in state legislatures and multiple issues on the ballot. The decisions to be made at the polls will occur, hopefully with full participation of those who can vote. Voting is a priority and efforts like Our Faith, Our Vote have focused on getting out the vote and encouraging individuals to have a plan for voting and to vote with love.

While churches should not be telling members how to vote, the church should be encouraging members to vote. Churches have been active over the years in supporting voter registration, advocating for voter rights, and providing transportation to the polls, even ensuring the safety of individuals as they exercised their right to vote.

The midterms elections will come and go, leaving in its wake winners and losers, hopes and disappointments as the results are heard from each election. The pundits will weigh in, and the people will reflect on the effects the elections will have on their lives. And then what?

There is no perfect outcome to the midterm elections or any election that will make everyone happy. The desire to have a balanced government with the necessary checks and balances that was a hope in the design of the three branches of government is a hope for every election and has been elusive at times. Regardless of the outcome, “we the people” as the preamble of the United States Constitution identifies is where the authority of the government comes from and “we the people” holds the accountabilities for the branches of government. The Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches are empowered by the people: “we the people.”

There is nothing that says the people have to agree on every elected official. There is nothing that says the people have to vote the same way. However, the past years have seen growing intolerance for dissenting opinions. The lack of civil discourse has forced a halt to conversations across the political divide. The inclination is to stick with the people who think the same as one does, reinforcing the notion that the group one participates in or with is the right group for this right time and cannot be wrong in their choices or opinions.

The church is not monolithic in voice. Instead, while advocating for justice, loving neighbor and seeking the common good, the people who belong to the church are not of the same mindset. Opinions conflict in the pews. The answers to social issues are not the same. The inability to have conversations about the issues that concern our communities is problematic in holding accountabilities when the electorate is divided to the point of non- communication. The church is diverse in its unity, with no assumptions toward uniformity as a hope.

What happens beyond this election is a choice, like voting is a choice. The hope is that all who are eligible to vote will go to the polls and vote. And, when the voting is done and the votes are counted, the hope is that the conversations that are necessary to sustain communities and relationships will be fostered and nurtured. The hope beyond the election is that bridges will be built with families and communities bridging the partisan divide that precludes learning and growing together. The hope for beloved community is one that is held as a value for the spaces we live in, visit, and engage with.

Beloved Community, a term coined by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., describes a society built on economic and social inclusivity, a community in which everyone is cared for, absent of poverty, exploitation, and hate. It is not a utopian ideal, but both a destination and a way forward. Beloved Community is achieved through nonviolent movement building. The beloved community is possible

Post election there will be work to be done, holding the people we elected to accountability for the promises they made and the attention to a world where justice prevails for all. The common good will need to be addressed. Communities will need to care for their residents. Families will need to advocate for their loved ones.

Beyond the counting of the votes, the relationships needed for the journey will require having hard conversations with the people we care about. After the election “we the people” will be required to build relationships in the church, across the aisles that are themselves divisions among us today. The people united will never be defeated.

Unity does not require conformity to exist. How that is accomplished is the work of “we the people” doing no harm and receiving no harm and not getting bogged down in the fear of the unknown “other.”

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