• About Us
    • Mission & Vision
    • Impact
    • Eboo Patel
    • Team
    • Board of Directors
    • Careers
    • Reports & Financials
  • Sectors
    • Higher Education
    • Racial Equity
    • Emerging Leaders
    • Faith & Health
    • Religion in the Workplace
    • Religious Diversity & Bridgebuilding
    • Policy
    • Faith & Civic Life
    • Tech & Interfaith
  • What We Do
    • Courses, Curricula, and Tools
    • Events
    • Grants & Leadership Awards
    • Research
    • Consulting
    • Speaking
  • Magazine
    • Interfaith America Magazine
    • Interfaith America with Eboo Patel
  • Get Involved
    • Subscribe
    • Contact Us
    • Support Us
    • Our Supporters
Menu
  • About Us
    • Mission & Vision
    • Impact
    • Eboo Patel
    • Team
    • Board of Directors
    • Careers
    • Reports & Financials
  • Sectors
    • Higher Education
    • Racial Equity
    • Emerging Leaders
    • Faith & Health
    • Religion in the Workplace
    • Religious Diversity & Bridgebuilding
    • Policy
    • Faith & Civic Life
    • Tech & Interfaith
  • What We Do
    • Courses, Curricula, and Tools
    • Events
    • Grants & Leadership Awards
    • Research
    • Consulting
    • Speaking
  • Magazine
    • Interfaith America Magazine
    • Interfaith America with Eboo Patel
  • Get Involved
    • Subscribe
    • Contact Us
    • Support Us
    • Our Supporters
Subscribe
Support Us
American Civic Life

1,000-plus Faith Leaders Call for ‘Free and Fair Election’

By
Elana Schor

October 27, 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 1,000 clergy members, religious scholars, and other faith-based advocates have signed onto a unique statement that supports a comprehensive path to “a free and fair election” and urges leaders to heed the verdict of “legitimate election results” regardless of who wins in November.

Signatories of the statement, shared in advance with The Associated Press, include senior officials at the National Association of Evangelicals and prominent progressive pastor the Rev. William Barber, as well as two past faith advisers to former President George W. Bush. The statement’s wide swath of endorsements illustrates the extent to which the unprecedented nature of a mid-pandemic election has pushed organized religion to showcase its civic power.

After listing four basic principles, including the importance of leaders sharing “timely, accurate information about the election results” rather than misinformation, the statement goes on to state that those ideas “are central to a functioning and healthy republic and they are supported by the vast majority of Americans, yet they are being challenged in unprecedented ways in the 2020 election.”

Subscribe now

“America is only as strong as its people’s commitment to our democracy and the freedoms and rights it ensures,” the joint statement adds.

Galen Carey, vice president of government relations at the evangelicals association, contrasted the current political climate with the contentious 2000 presidential election, when vote counting in the swing state of Florida was halted and Bush declared the winner following a Supreme Court ruling.

“Twenty years later, we’re not in that place where we can just assume that once the outcome is announced and decided, everyone can just go on with their lives and wish the new leaders well,” Carey, who signed the joint statement alongside NAE President Walter Kim, said in an interview.

Other faith leaders signing the statement include John Dilulio, the first director of the White House faith-based initiative office during Bush’s administration, and Stanley Carlson-Thies, who also served in Bush’s faith-based office and later advised the Obama administration on faith matters while founding the nonprofit Institutional Religious Freedom Alliance.

President Donald Trump has sparked criticism for declining to fully commit to supporting a peaceful transition of power if Democratic opponent Joe Biden prevails in the battle for the White House next week. While the statement mentions neither presidential candidate by name, its signatories include several prominent Christian leaders who have backed Biden, such as retired megachurch pastor the Rev. Joel Hunter and Ron Sider, founder and president emeritus of Christians for Social Action.

Share

Related Articles

  • American Civic Life

    Why Voting is Sacred

  • Interfaith America Interview

    Adam Taylor and Eboo Patel on Why Diverse Democracy is Holy

  • American Civic Life

    Vote, Pray, Wait

Latest Articles

December 9, 2022; Junior Shaker Erbini (left) majoring in in neuroscience and behavior leads the Friday prayer service in the Prayer Room at Jenkins Nanovic Halls. (Photo by Barbara Johnston/University of Notre Dame)
  • Higher Education

‘A Plurality of Voices’: Building Multi-faith Engagement at Notre Dame

Jan 26, 2023
A group of school children eagerly listening to their teacher read a storybook. (FatCamera/Getty)
  • Emerging Leaders

Interfaith Reading Club Helps Kids Find the “True, Good, and Beautiful” in Stories

Jan 26, 2023
Group of university students working online. (hobo_018/Getty)
  • Tech & Interfaith

The Threat of Online Hate to Religious Freedom is Too Great to Ignore 

Jan 25, 2023
Scientist Elaine Krebs at the South Pole Station in Antarctica, January 2023.
  • Emerging Leaders

Dispatch from Antarctica: Science and Faith, Part 1

Jan 25, 2023
End of content
No more articles to load
Interfaith America, 141 W. Jackson Blvd, Suite 3200, Chicago, IL 60604, US

© 2022 Interfaith America

Instagram Youtube Facebook Twitter
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use