Faith leaders share advice they're giving to congregation members on voting in 2024
As the 2024 Election inches closer, some people are turning to their faith leaders for guidance when determining who to vote for.
Even though it is illegal for a church to engage in political campaigning activity, people oftentimes look to clergy to help give them a frame of reference and context when deciding who to vote for, said Rabbi Hillel Skolnik of Congregation Tifereth Israel of Columbus.
“It makes sense that your religious beliefs would inform the way that you act at the ballot box,” he said.
The Ohio Capital Journal talked to three Columbus faith leaders about advice they give to members of their congregations who come to them for help when deciding which candidate to vote for in this year’s presidential election between Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump.
“God is not beholden to a political party,” said Jed Dearing, the rector at Trinity Episcopal Church in downtown Columbus.
“Vote your conscience”
Tim Ahrens, senior minister of the First Congregational Church of the United Church of Christ in downtown Columbus, encourages people to vote.
“Don’t just go in and do nothing because you haven’t done any of your homework and research,” Ahrens said. “Vote your conscience and vote what you believe.”
To help counsel people looking for voting advice, he asks them what they believe.
“I explore with people what values they hold at the center of their being,” Ahrens said. “Who holds the values that you hold, and as close as you can, believe can represent who you are.”
Trinity Episcopal Church
People in Dearing’s congregation often come to him with questions.
“How do I love my neighbor despite the hateful language that’s been used?” he said. “How do I pray for a candidate who I don’t like? How do we pray without being judgmental?”
A lot of people that come to him are angry — especially women and members of the LGBTQ community.
“So there’s that question of — with people who are speaking so hatefully and seeking to remove rights and take away things that have been established — how do I hold a love and care and respect for them in my heart, especially when they use dehumanizing language?” he said. “How do I not just stay angry?”
He said this reminds him of Moses and the burning bush from the Book of Exodus from the Bible.
“At this point, the Hebrew people are enslaved by the Egyptians and that bush is burning, but it doesn’t consume itself and burn up and it also doesn’t burn Moses,” he said. “Instead it calls to him … (and) ends up reorienting his life to go work for freedom for the people enslaved. For me, as Christians, the real challenge and the cause is to figure out how do we cultivate a fire that burns for justice, freedom, for equitable opportunity for all without being consumed and angry?”
When choosing a candidate to vote for, Dearing said he thinks of the verse Micah 6:8 — “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
“Are they committed to justice? To mercy? Do they have humility? Are they going to be someone in office who will continue to learn and grow just as, hopefully, we’re continuing to learn and grow?” Dearing said.
Jewish context
Skolnik tries to address certain issues by giving Jewish background and context.
For example, he said, Judaism supports a women’s right to choose to abort a pregnancy.
“That is not saying vote for a particular candidate, but it is putting into a Jewish context an important issue which might affect the choice that you make at the ballot box,” Skolnik said.
He tries to help people using three principles: study, worship and the act of loving kindness.
“Our Jewish lives are meant to be a balance of those three,” Skolnik said. “… The people who they choose to be their leader is who is aligning with you in the way that you would choose to try to have a life that includes learning, worship and act of loving kindness.”
Israel-Hamas War
The Israel-Hamas war is something Jewish voters can’t ignore, Skolnik said.
More than 39,900 people have been killed, more than 92,200 people have been injured and more than 10,000 people are missing in Gaza since the Israeli invasion after a Hamas-led attack in October that killed nearly 1,200 people in Israel, according to Al Jazeera.
“It is certainly a giant issue of feeling like a candidate that you would support would, at the very least, support Israel’s right to defend itself,” Skolnik said. “The idea of Israel’s right to defend itself doesn’t mean agreeing with every decision that Israel makes every moment of every day, but that is certainly a thing that comes in giant, big, bold letters of context.”
For Dearing, he said it has been hard for some people in his congregation to see the United States continue to fund Israel throughout the Israel-Hamas War. President Joe Biden signed into law $14.1 billion for funding to support Israel back in April.
“There’s that question of, in general, the values that I hold tend to lean closer to the Democratic Party, and right now that party is the one in control, continuing to make the choice to fund this war,” Dearing said. “Do I vote for president a party that is continuing to fund this war that seems to have gone past justice or defense?”
Christian Nationalism
Ahrens recently gave a sermon criticizing Christian Nationalism.
“Legislating morality never works,” he said in his sermon. “Just read your Bible and you’ll see how it fails time and time again. Additionally, Christian nationalism is an ideology held overwhelmingly by white Christian Americans, and thus it tends to exacerbate racial and ethnic cleavages.”
Christians should be politically engaged, he said in his sermon.
“But I also believe that we can and should do this without becoming Christian nationalists, because Christian nationalism is neither Christian nor patriotic,” Ahrens said in his sermon. “Christian nationalism tends to treat other Americans as second class citizens, including, but not excluding others, including women, and children, and immigrants. They also tend to treat science and scientists and scientific education with disdain.”
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