I am voting this way because I have read the prophets
There was no red America, no blue America—there was only us in a 26-foot U-Haul on a desolate stretch of Wyoming.
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Here’s how it went last time. We tried to make it fun, a sort of in-door “picnic for dinner.” Hot dogs and chips, stuff we don’t normally eat in our Seattle kale selves. We hung a blue and red balloon drop and started watching East Coast states get called early for Biden. We felt optimistic, and then we felt nervous. Board games, card games, checking in on results, texting friends. The anxiety set around 10 pm Seattle time. We would go to bed after midnight without knowing the outcome. Election night 2020 could not have been more different than election night 2008.
We first heard Barack Obama’s voice as we were driving across Wyoming in 2004 in his famous DNC convention speech. There was no red America, no blue America, there was only us in a 26-foot U-Haul on a desolate stretch of Wyoming. We were moving to Seattle, the country was moving ahead, we were optimistic along with a sense that the electorate was, too.
After Obama announced his candidacy for president in February of 2007, Drew and I drove to a campaign office in Pioneer Square and signed up. We went to rallies. At one event, I was interviewed by a local radio reporter and ID’s as a “young optimistic voter.” We began to organize for Obama, hosting a fundraiser at a local restaurant and gathering friends in our apartment to watch videos and talk about Obama’s policies. We still have a box of swag in the attic. We put on a bake sale fundraiser, setting up a folding table outside a bar one Saturday night and accepting donations for homemade O-shaped logo cookies with icing in patriotic colors.
Election night 2008 was an elation. We were at a watch party downtown with my sister-in-law Lori, then on a bus with everyone clapping and smiling, looking at strangers in the eye for a change. We were at a restaurant in Capitol Hill when McCain conceded, then on the street in a make-shift parade back downtown. Someone was banging a marching band snare as we walked. Drew started knocking on the windows of cars in snarled parade traffic and high-fiving drivers. We got to the iconic glowing Pike Place Market sign and a CNN camera crew was hovering overhead in a helicopter filming the crowd. Drew and Lori were captured jumping up and down. We got back to our place just before my home state of Indiana was called for Obama.
The run-up to the 2008 election was the first time I was seriously politically engaged. I was thirty years old. I was a Christian, and I voted for Obama with joy.
I sometimes wonder if any folks I interact with in my personal life or online assume that in the last few years I have slid down a slippery slope of progressivism that has diluted my faith because of some budding progressive political views.
In reality, I have remained consistent and clear. I have voted with the same ethical framework for 16 years, and I have loved and centered Jesus in my life in those years. I have voted this way because I have read the prophets. Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; when you see the naked, that you cover him, and not hide yourself from your own flesh?1
The Abortion Question
There is only one thing that has changed about how I think about politics as a Christian: abortion.
I know many Christians who would like to vote for Harris, but because of abortion do not feel like that choice is available to them. This feeling is old and engrained. Kids who grew up evangelical were told it is the job of the Christian to stand up for the voices of the unborn.
I heard these messages in my family and at church. I went to a Lutheran high school and protested outside of an abortion clinic one morning before first period, standing in an awkward row of other silent classmates. Just one friend stood on the side of the clinic, making safe passage for the few women who entered that morning.
Thinking back on it, what did we think would happen? Would a young woman rushing into the clinic be convicted at that moment, turn to the praying crowd and let us embrace her in a trust fall? Or did she intuit the shame she felt from us was not just because we judged her choice, but because she sensed we valued her unborn child more than we cared about her?
In 2008, 2012, and 2016, I put abortion at the back of my mind when voting. Four years later, I have turned the issue over. I am voting for Harris and I am not setting the abortion issue to the side. I understand and can articulate why I am a Christian, and I am pro-all-of-life, and I am voting for Harris with a full and clean conscious.2
A Christian can vote for Harris with full ethical freedom because a vote for Harris is a vote pro-a lot of life. Pro: eldercare, childcare, healthcare. Care for workers, for the environment, for democracy. Being president of the most powerful country in the world, there are a lot more qualifications to consider in your candidate than one issue. I don’t know why it took me so long to see it.
Tuesday
We’d thought about driving to the ocean this Tuesday, getting a cabin and staying offline. Anything to avoid an emotional hangover. We thought about inviting friends over as results roll in, or going to a watch party. We’re not going anywhere. No hot dogs and balloon drops, no doom posting on Threads. We are going to be quiet, at home, taking it slow.
I wrote a book about anxiety in our body, in politics, and in the church, coming out next year. In it, I talk about spiritual practices for anxious times, like fidelity, stability and holy indifference. There will be plenty of time to put these postures into practice.
But what if the worst happens? What if there is a positive outcome, then all hell breaks loose? Riots, violence, oppression, acts of injustice and evil.
A co-worker expressed how, if Trump wins, she will remain in relative safety. There are freedoms to consider, there are policies that will work against her. But she is not undocumented, and not immediately vulnerable. She is not labeled an “enemy from within” like some journalists and public servants. She owns a home and enjoys stable employment. I am just like her. I am in the same place, and many of us are, and there’s no reason to pretend any emotional pain in the coming months will not begin from a place of privilege. One where we can choose when to engage or withhold from the news.
Drew is on staff at our church Grace, and he’s compiled and sent a list of what we can do to prepare for this week and what’s ahead. He shared the following with our congregation, and I think it is broadly helpful for our community:
Control what you can control. You have one vote. Beyond that, each of us can bear the peace of Jesus among our friends, co-workers, and neighbors in this uncertain time. We can affirm the dignity of others (regardless of how they vote), and lead with kindness, compassion, and civility.
Pray. Pray for our country. Pray for our people. Pray about the election. God is in control. In prayer, Jesus brings us more in line with his rhythms and perspectives and offers us the comfort of knowing just how much he is with us and for us in all circumstances.
Care for each other. Make an effort to show up for others in our community. Reach out with notes, emails, texts of encouragement. Show up for each other, go out for walks, grab a beer, share hospitality. We will get through this together!
Practice news and social media hygiene. This is a major influence on our sense of anxiety. We have decided to spend a quiet family night together on the 5th and just check in with NPR or the internet for updates a couple of times that evening.Participate in things that are calming and restorative together.
Serve. It’s an illusion for us as individuals to think that we have much influence on anything on a national or international scale. But we do make a difference locally. Depending on how the election goes, we can channel any frustration or sadness into renewed motivation to show up in our community and care for those who are most vulnerable — for they are the most likely to suffer outsized impacts of the future direction of our country.
Drop in. We’re hosting an open house at our place on November 6th from 4 to 8 PM here in Seattle. We will have warm bread and a big pot of vegetarian chili. You are welcome to join us for refuge, community, and compassion. Seriously! Readers, if you’re around Seattle and would like to join us, comment and I’ll send you details.
Solidarity & Hope
If you’re further afield and it’s helpful, think of a couple of strangers you sort of know online. Think of me and Drew, bearing hope in uncertainty. We are here, and we will believe goodness triumphs until the end. Not because we are without anxiety and fear, but because we choose hope and to model being non-anxious presences in the midst of it.
Because when God said all tears will be wiped from all eyes in the end, on that day of light and life, we believe it. Whatever happens in the weeks ahead, whatever befalls, I can tell you this: God’s nearness, goodness, and faithfulness will not end.
Election Eve Prayer Hour with The After Party
I’m participating in an hour of prayer with The After Party alongside David French, Curtis Chang, Tish Harrison Warren, and Russell Moore at 9 a.m. PST/noon EST on Mon, Nov 4. I’d love for you to join: You can register here.
Isaiah 58:7. I could have easily quoted the whole passage.
I’ve written a lot of thoughts about abortion and I haven’t had the time or capacity to organize them coherently; if you’re interested in more thinking here, there’s a chapter in Orphaned Believers that talks in depth about abortion and the evangelical vote.
As a Canadian, we are praying too.
❤️❤️❤️