From the Pastor’s Desk

Sometimes you’ll hear November called the “gratitude month”. This November I will be grateful for November 4, bringing the end to political advertisements and texts (for at least a few months.) Even as I look forward to this, I also believe that the election is important. So, when you vote, please bring your faith along. Not as a bludgeon to impose on others. But as a guide for your choices as you vote.

We profess we know a God who is love. That out of that love, even now God is at work establishing more fully a reign that is filled with compassion, mercy, and justice. So as followers of Jesus, we are to do the same as Jesus told his followers: to love their neighbors, love their enemies, to care for the least among us, and then live out those commands for all to see.

I feel voting is one of the ways we love our neighbors, serve others, and care for the least among us. So what might that look like? I ask myself: how is God/Jesus is asking me to live, both as a Christian, and as a human being among other human beings? And does my support of a candidate, vote on this referendum, best reflect that?

We are a diverse congregation, with various political leanings as well as understandings and struggles with our faith. So, my educated guess is that even if Sunday worship time were set aside to discuss this, we wouldn’t always (if ever) be in unanimous agreement. Then there are the times we will find each candidate does hold positions that can be seen as loving your neighbor, but on different issues.

However, I feel that more important than who you vote for is how you make those decisions. Is it based on the loudest voices, declaring: “we have to look out for ourselves.” On those shouting “those (fill in the label of your choice) are a threat to our way of life/safety/country that must be defeated.” Or “this will help my financial bottom line the most, no matter what it affects others”? Or is your understanding of how you are called to live out your faith one of the foundations for your vote?

If our votes are based on the latter, even when we disagree, we can still reflect the attempt to love our neighbor. For when we reflect on the best way we can live out the call to love others when we vote, we are still acknowledging each person is God’s beloved, worthy of the same dignity, care, and compassion we would hope for ourselves.

Whatever the results on November 3, our call as Christians remains the same no matter who wins. We are to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and love our neighbor as ourselves.


God's grace and peace.
Pastor Deb Kunkel