The Big Lie suffered a Big Defeat, but the battle for the soul of our democracy is far from over
High turnout and energy was reported by poll chaplains, particularly among young people, who showed up in big ways for this election.
Our Election Day “command center” for the Faiths United to Save Democracy poll chaplain campaign was inside the National Council of Negro Women’s building on Pennsylvania Avenue, which was both significant and symbolic. Dr. Barbara Williams-Skinner and I coordinated calls throughout the day with our clergy leaders in ten battleground states, who reported what they were seeing and experiencing at the most critical and vulnerable polling places in their communities.
What we heard was how much people appreciated the presence of more than 700 clergy and other faith leaders wearing their collars and red badges that read “Poll Chaplains.” Chaplains had a calming, informing, serving and protecting presence, which brought trusted authority to places where intimidation, conflict, and chaos were feared. Some poll workers asked poll chaplains to pray with them. High turnout and energy was reported by our poll chaplains, particularly among young people who showed up in big ways at this election, after many expected them not to.
To read more about Faiths United poll chaplain campaign, the Washington Post wrote an excellent article after visiting our command center on Tuesday.
As Fred Kunkle of the Washington Post writes:
As tensions mounted on Election Day, often over who would be allowed to monitor the vote during one of the more hotly contested and consequential midterms in years, at least one group went to the polls hoping to keep the peace: chaplains.
Like their counterparts in the military, these trained volunteers — whether ordained clergy or lay people driven by religious faith — were on hand to offer spiritual guidance, calm and bipartisan assistance to voters at precincts in Arizona, Georgia, Ohio, Pennsylvania and six other battleground states. If need be, the poll chaplains, dispatched by D.C.-based Faiths United to Save Democracy, were also ready to connect people with legal aid to ensure their vote would be counted.
“Lawyers and collars, we called it,” said the Rev. Jim Wallis, the founder and former head of Sojourners, a Christian community that emphasized transforming Jesus Christ’s teachings in the Gospels into action-seeking social justice.
Wallis, who monitored the poll chaplains’ activities from a command center inside the National Council of Negro Women’s headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue NW, said the organization built on a long tradition stretching back to the early civil rights era to unite religious faith and political action to ensure all people’s voting rights. Some had deployed as poll chaplains in 2018, while the United Church of Christ also trained precinct chaplains during the 2020 election. Politics and religion mix insofar as many religious leaders view voting as sacred, he said.
“This is Jewish, this is Muslim, this is Christian, this is Quakers. This is young, old, Black, White, Asian, Latino, Native American,” said the Rev. Barbara Williams-Skinner, who partnered with Wallis to establish Faiths United to Save Democracy in 2021. She said religious leaders around the country felt that it was necessary to redouble their efforts to protect the vote following the 2020 election, when election laws were passed in several states that many viewed as unfairly restrictive.
“We needed to broaden our focus,” she said.
On our calls throughout the day with poll chaplains, they told stories about voters helping each other, the young assisting the elderly, and with people ready to stand against any threats, including the kind of armed men in body armor who stationed themselves near ballot boxes in Arizona. The old spiritual “We Shall Not Be Moved” seemed to be on the minds and hearts of people determinedly waiting in line to vote. Most of our clergy leaders reported that things at the polls where they had deployed chaplains went smoothly and without major incidents. We learned again that preparation for conflict is one way to help prevent it.
The Rev. Donta McGilvery described how voters were harassed in Arizona by a self-proclaimed Christian demanding to know whether voters had voted in line with their faith (according to him), and whether they used the King James Bible! McGilvery happened to be wearing a T-shirt with the words “Justice” and “Jesus” forming an intersecting cross. In another state, another white evangelical pastor in a parking lot challenged voters and their credentials before they went in to vote; one of our poll chaplains was there to monitor him and protect voters.
The day before the election, I heard an evangelical pastor in Georgia (whose name is not worth mentioning) say this from the pulpit:
“I pray in the name of Jesus, God, that Christians turn out all over the state of Georgia, all over the United States and that we vote our conscience and vote for the person that is the most like you, Lord,” Berry preached. “And I believe that is Herschel in the great state of Georgia.”
After reports like this, and watching MAGA/MEGA church Evangelicals and Pentecostals, carrying on their partisan “revivals” around the country, I worried that Jesus might be the real loser of this election. But all our poll chaplains in their serving, protecting and nonpartisan role helped to prevent that from happening.
While it is still too early to know the final results of the midterm elections, there are some things we already know.
First, many “election deniers” across the country lost their own elections. Their victories would have been a real blow to democracy and could have undermined free and fair elections for years to come. In other words, THE BIG LIE suffered a big defeat on Tuesday, as Americans came out to show their support for a constitutional democracy, with all its imperfections and failings. Most voters seem to prefer arguing about our differences peacefully and civilly, instead of having the nation’s future determined by lies and political violence. Many of the candidates who won yesterday, Democrat and Republican, accepted the results of the 2020 election victory of Joe Biden and the defeat of Donald Trump, and most of those who didn’t were handed a loss yesterday. But, again, final results are yet to come.
Democracy was truly on the line in these elections, despite what the pollsters kept insisting about inflation and the economy. Young people who spoke with our poll chaplains named democracy as the issue that brought them out to vote.
I continue to believe that we are in a battle for democracy, which will be a moral and political test for the country, and a spiritual and theological test for the integrity of the church's witness. A false white gospel is being put forward by some in the face of substantial demographic changes in America. The rise of the ideology called White Christian Nationalism is the greatest threat to democracy in our country.
The midterm elections didn’t resolve all that but provided a hopeful sign. The outcomes, thus far, have defied the usual mid-term election logic of the party in power and in the White House losing many seats in the Congress. Enough people had deeper issues on their mind when they showed up to vote.
Trump once told the journalist Bob Woodward that nobody understands him. Tuesday’s election results show that many Americans do – and they don’t like him, his fascism or his influence over the Republican party. Trump will announce his plans for the 2024 election soon; even if he doesn’t run, his power over the Republican Party remains very strong and Trumpism will outlast Trump. Because of that, we have many battles ahead.
Showing up for a national election and rejecting dangerous attempts to undermine our democracy is very important, but not enough. Speaking and acting at the local level of school boards, city councils, community events, congregational conversations and family dinner tables at Thanksgiving and Christmas will all be more and more important now.
Treating each other as neighbors and not enemies is crucial to a healthy democracy, and that goes back to what our faiths have to say. The anger and fear preached by too many white Christian leaders is a threat to our souls and the soul of the nation. But the practice and politics of loving our neighbors, and even our enemies, is our best message going forward.
The battle for democracy did not end with yesterday's elections; it continues, as will the work and witness of Faiths United to Save Democracy and our poll chaplains, for whose work I am so grateful today.
