A Call to be Trusted Messengers in this Election Season
Dear church,
In an interview after I was elected, I reflected on my experience as a mission developer, saying, “It is not about what you think you’re bringing into the community. It’s who you are in the community. The minute we showed that we cared is really when the community adopted us. People don’t care about what you know till they know that you care, and that was the biggest learning for me.”
Faithful. Informed. Engaged. This refrain captures a vision for Lutheran Christians living out their baptismal calling in the election season and beyond. Faith grounds us in God’s promises, and Christ sends us forth to love our neighbors and serve the world. Being informed equips us to address complex issues with wisdom, discernment and integrity. Being engaged reminds us that our participation in civic life is a key way we love and serve our neighbors. Our public witness is rooted in faith, guided by honesty and expressed through active citizenship.
ELCA ministries and leaders already play vital roles during election seasons. You register voters, provide rides to the polls, open your buildings as polling places and advocate for voting rights. Thank you! This year, I invite you to embrace an additional role to help strengthen our democracy: serving as trusted messengers in your communities.
Our church can be “all together in one place” as a powerful witness for truth, love of neighbor and honesty. False information remains a persistent challenge during elections. It can spread rapidly, undermining confidence in the electoral process and discouraging participation. Grounded in the commandment not to bear false witness, our churches and faith leaders are uniquely positioned to help address this challenge by seeking out and sharing accurate information and correcting misinformation when it arises. In a time when trust is often in short supply, serving as trusted sources of wisdom and guidance is a meaningful form of Christian witness. By helping our neighbors access accurate information and engage confidently in the democratic process, we live out our faith through responsible civic engagement and service to the common good.
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“Healthy civic engagement depends on clear distinctions between fact and all forms of falsehood, ranging from partial misstatements to intentional disinformation to outright lies. … Our church, then, encourages us all to ask, in every personal interaction and on social media, whether our words or those we repeat represent the best possible understanding of our neighbor.”
— ELCA social statement Faith and Civic Life: Seeking the Well-being of All (p. 62)
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The ELCA offers a variety of resources to help congregations and individuals be trusted messengers.
The new “ELCA Election Engagement Toolkit” provides guidance on topics that include serving as trusted messengers, engaging in election protection and modeling love of neighbor in polarized communities. (A tool kit launch webinar on Thursday, Sept. 3, at 12:30 p.m. Central time will provide an introduction to action steps and themes grounded in our Lutheran tradition.)
Through the “ELCA Civic Engagement Guide,” you can access materials on voter education, voter registration, candidate forums, legal guidelines for congregations, voting rights and ways to encourage participation in local communities.
I invite you to take faithful steps this election year:
• Register to vote if you have not already done so and check your registration to make sure it is up-to-date. Use the “Prepared to Vote Checklist” to think through local voting requirements.
• Learn about the issues, ballot measures and candidates that will shape your community. Participate in respectful conversations.
• Check sources of information before sharing it in conversations or online.
• Pray for those who serve in public office, for election workers and for all who will exercise the privilege of voting. Create spaces for faithful, open conversation with voters, candidates or neighbors in your community.
• Encourage your family members, friends and neighbors to take part in the democratic process.
Be faithful, informed and engaged as disciples of Jesus seeking the well-being of our neighbors and the common good of the communities God has entrusted to our care. Every act of informed participation, every conversation marked by grace and every vote cast with prayerful discernment is an opportunity to bear witness to God’s love in the world.
In Christ,
The Rev. Yehiel Curry
Presiding Bishop
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
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About the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America:
The ELCA is one of the largest Christian denominations in the United States, with 2.7 million members in more than 8,300 worshiping communities across the 50 states and in the Caribbean. Known as the church of “God’s work. Our hands.,” the ELCA emphasizes the saving grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ, unity among Christians and service in the world. The ELCA’s roots are in the writings of the German church reformer Martin Luther.
For information contact:
Candice Hill Buchbinder
Public Relations Manager
Candice.HillBuchbinder@ELCA.org
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