Meditation on Voter Election Laws
Over the next few weeks, 43 states will consider legislation on voting rights. The issues related to voting directly impact all people but most especially Persons of Color: African Americans, Latinx, Asian, and Indigenous people. Last Thursday the state of Georgia signed one of the most restrictive voting bills into law. The bill is unjust and clearly attempts to make voting an arduous process. For many, this is another attempt at voter suppression. Voting one’s conscience is at the heart of our democracy. It is a right of citizenship. It is how we as Presbyterians make decisions big and small within our Church. How can we in the church stand silent and let this right be suppressed or taken away?
Within the PC(USA) many have become Matthew 25 churches, presbyteries, and synods. Matthew 25 “calls us to actively engage in the world around us and to be a living translation of Jesus Christ . . . We recognize Christ’s urgent call to be a church of action, where God’s love, justice, and mercy shine forth and are contagious.” Attempting to make it more difficult for people to vote based on race or ethnicity is part of structural racism that we are called to dismantle. When power is used to put in place laws that limit people’s rights and that silence groups of people this is structural racism promulgated by White supremacy. As the Church is called to advocate on the side of the oppressed, we must consider our response to Matthew 25:42, “for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty, and you gave me nothing to drink.” In Georgia’s new voting rights law, giving a drink of water or food to a person standing in line to vote is now illegal. Such a law is an assault on human dignity. Let us not remain silent while many of us are working to create a beloved community that binds us in love and justice to each other, God, and all aspects of creation.
On Palm Sunday we read the text of the crowds who laid down their cloaks and palms before Jesus during his triumphal entry into Jerusalem. They shouted “Hosanna” translated as “Save Us.” “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!” This crowd was willing to take a major risk to proclaim its king while surrounded by Roman soldiers – to stand against the Empire and stand for Jesus. This Holy Week, let us shout, “Hosanna” – Save Us! Let us stand with Jesus and against structural racism. Let us stand for the love and justice that Jesus taught us and call out Empire laws that demean and suppress our siblings in Christ. This week let us remember that every step Jesus took toward Jerusalem was a step toward healing the wounds of an unjust world. Jesus sided with the oppressed. May God give us the grace to do the same.
Rev. Nancy Talbot Rev. Dr. SanDawna Gaulman Ashley
Stated Clerk Transitional Synod Leader