As the presidential election year gets under way, the UCC will launch the 2024 Our Faith Our Vote Campaign. It offers resources for congregations and individuals throughout the year to encourage voter registration and empowerment.
Politics is often taken to be a dirty word, but political processes are simply the way communities organize their common life. For people of faith, public policy is never merely politics. It is a way of living out the commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves. It is fitting for local congregations and church structures across the country to develop nonpartisan programs to help the faith community reflect upon the political order.
We are in the midst of ongoing climate and environmental justice crises. And with the moral weight of millions, it is incumbent on every person to take action. Around the world, countless activists, academics, religious leaders, and ordinary people are fighting to help ensure a livable and just world. We need to elect climate justice leaders. On election day, we have the chance to decide whether those in power will kick the can down the road or lead the way for climate justice. As people of faith, we must vote our values.
“In this critical election season, many key policy challenges loom on the horizon for the U.S. and the world,” said Sandy Sorensen, director of the UCC’s Office of Public Policy & Advocacy in Washington, D.C. “At the same time, we are challenged to counter multiple threats to the democratic process itself. We need well-informed, engaged, robust voter participation in November at a time when the electoral process itself is in peril.
“In addition to a wave of state measures to restrict voting access and participation, disinformation about the outcome of the 2020 elections has led to threats of violence against poll workers and election officials, and threats to intimidate voters seeking to register and cast their ballot in November. A less visible but no less harmful threat to the democratic process is the aging, outdated election infrastructure which continues to be neglected.”
Sorensen and the rest of the D.C. office team are partnering with national nonpartisan organizations to promote voting rights and participation. Those include volunteer opportunities, information and resources, and advocacy and awareness campaigns.