As tomorrow’s US presidential election approaches its conclusion, churches across America are offering guidance to help ease the tense atmosphere and prepare communities for any potential unrest with all polls indicating it’s going to be a cliffhanger and the result could be contested.
Episcopal bishops have issued statements encouraging peace and have organised prayer vigils for the final hours before polls close and the day after the election.
“We are approaching the end of a contentious presidential election in a time when the country remains deeply divided and polarised,” said Wisconsin Bishop Matthew Gunter.
“It is understandable that many of us feel anxious. Christians are to be people of prayer in all times, but particularly in times of heightened anxiety,” he added.
The United Methodist Church has prepared a series of hourly prayers to be observed throughout election day and is collaborating with Episcopalians on a Hate Divides, Love Unites poster campaign.
The Southern Baptist Convention is encouraging its members to “graciously” accept the election outcome and to respond to others with kindness, respect, and love, even in moments of disagreement.
Galen Carey of the National Association of Evangelicals emphasised the importance of patience as votes are counted, reminding people that delays do not imply fraud.
He urged respect for election officials, a commitment to understanding, and prayer for the nation’s leaders.
With research indicating around 32 million churchgoing Christians won’t even bother to vote, evangelical advocacy group the Faith & Freedom Coalition (FFC) is trying to motivate at least some of them to cast their ballot, because a significant Christian turnout could have a major impact on the final outcome.
FFC says its volunteers had knocked on a record eight million doors in battleground states Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
It expects to have spoken with 17 to 18 million potential voters in those states before the polls open, although an estimated 70 million have already voted in early polling.
“This election is effectively tied in every battleground state, and this kind of voter education and turnout operation could be the difference,” said FFC leader and founder Ralph Reed.
Researcher Craig Huey believes it’s too little, too late.
The author of The Christian Voter: How to Vote For, Not Against, Your Values to Transform Culture and Politics, told The Christian Post that “few Evangelicals are doing what’s necessary to mobilise the Church to vote for, not against, their values.”
But Ralph Reed remains optimistic, predicting that 75% to nearly 90% of self-identified Evangelical Christians would vote.
The conservative Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts declared that Vice President Kamala Harris, is the most “anti-faith” presidential candidate in history and that her administration would lead to Christians losing their freedom to worship.
He maintained that “People of faith who are worried about the choice they are making really need to understand what’s at stake.”
“We’re going to lose our ability to worship, we’re going to lose our religious liberty if the Harris-Walz campaign prevails,” he warned.
He cited the vice president’s suggestion to attendees who shouted phrases including “Christ is King” at one of her recent campaign events that they were at the wrong rally — as an example of her hostility to religion.
Mr Roberts attempted to reassure Christians with concerns that a Trump-Vance administration would not be much better.
He lamented that “people of faith are sitting on the sidelines because they have forgotten that we are electing a president, not a pastor.”
He contended that these Christians need to remember that “none of us is perfect,” including Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance.
On concerns over their stance on abortion, he said: “I’m cautiously optimistic that in a Trump-Vance administration, that the policy default of the president and vice president will still be solidly pro-life.”
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