What we found we could say together — and why Paths to Understanding joined Faith in America
On Sunday, November 1, we gathered online for the last of our Faith in America prayer events before Election Day. Around the table were Episcopalian, Lutheran, Muslim, Evangelical Christian, Jewish and Indigenous leaders. We prayed. We did not give speeches, and no one named a candidate.
The people on that call do not agree on everything. We differ about God, about scripture, about prayer itself — what it is, who hears it, whether it is addressed to anyone at all. Those differences are real, and none of us came to the call pretending otherwise. Some of us have spent our careers arguing about them.
And every one of us agreed on this: that elections should be free, fair and safe, and that the results should be honored. Not as a political preference. As an expression of what our traditions have taught us, and of the aspirational values written into our Constitution.
Why Paths to Understanding is part of this
PTU is a leadership partner in Faith in America, alongside other organizations working across wisdom traditions and in civic dialogue. We joined for a reason we can state plainly.
We believe in the dignity of every person. That belief does not stay put. It leads first to a social contract — a way of living with one another built on mutual respect and cooperation, which nearly every wisdom tradition teaches in its own language and by its own road. And it leads, in a country like ours, to a civil contract: the participation of every citizen in the governing of our common life. That participation has many forms, but it begins with the most vital right we hold. The vote.
Here is what we would add, because it is the part most often left out. Freedom of religion — the freedom to pray, and the freedom not to pray — does not protect itself. A promise written on paper holds only as long as the people who hold power can be replaced by the people who do not. That is what an election is. The right to vote is what keeps every other freedom from depending on the goodwill of whoever happens to be in office.
Which means the vote is finally about something larger than any ballot. It is freedom of thought. It is respect for the agency of every person — the conviction that each of us is capable of judging, and entitled to be counted. And it is respect for the wisdom of every tradition, including the ones we do not share and the ones that are new to our neighborhoods. A country that counts every lawful voice is a country that has decided, structurally, that no one’s conscience is a problem to be managed.
What we have written
As part of this partnership I have written four articles on these themes — on the two contracts, on what our traditions hold in common about dignity and participation, and on what it means to honor a result.
- Dignity, Democracy, and the Courage to Stay Engaged
- Holding the Lines That Protect Every Voter and Every Election
- Perfection can haunt democracy, so let elections improve instead
- Election fraud claims should meet the standard we’d demand in court
Our election resources for congregations and community groups are gathered in one folder, and we continue to add to it.
Free, fair, safe — and honored
Our hope for this election is simple and it has four words in it. Free: that every eligible voter could take part. Fair: that the rules were the rules, applied the same way to everyone. Safe: that no voter and no election worker was threatened for doing their part. And honored: that the result stands until it is lawfully changed.
That fourth word is the one fewest people are willing to say out loud, because it is easy to hold in a year your side wins and means something only in the other kind of year. We said it before we knew which kind this would be. We say it now.
What comes next
This partnership does not end when the ballots are counted. We will keep working with Faith in America, and with people across the wisdom traditions, on a longer question: how each of our communities can help strengthen both contracts — the social contract of respect and cooperation between neighbors, and the constitutional civil contract that gives that respect the force of law.
The challenges in front of us are not the kind any one sector can solve. Not government alone, not business alone, not the nonprofit world alone, and not religious communities alone. We need an all-of-society response, and that includes the active leadership and participation of every wisdom tradition — not as decoration at the opening of a meeting, but at the table where the work is planned.
Our communities have something specific to offer. We gather weekly, in person, in nearly every town in this country. We have practice at holding people together who disagree. And we have been asking for a very long time what human beings owe one another, which turns out to be the question underneath all the others.
If that is work you want to be part of, we would be glad to hear from you. There is more than enough to do, and we will not build the society we deserve by waiting to see who else does it.