Defending Our Sacred Right to Vote
October 4, 2022
(RNS) — One of the more frustrating aspects of our democracy is that progress is not always accomplished in a straight line. We make progress and then the pendulum swings, and progress is lost and must be reclaimed.
That’s the position in which communities of color, poor people and young people all find themselves in 2022 as we head toward November’s midterm elections.
Thanks to the civil rights movement, many of us felt we had slain the Goliath of voting rights denials when Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Sadly, in one of its worst voting rights decisions, the U.S. Supreme Court, in its decision in Shelby County vs. Holder in 2013, removed much of the enforcement power of the act.
Fellow Americans, our democratic house is on fire. We are in a state of emergency and cannot afford to sit on this. The late John Lewis said it best: “A vote is the most powerful non-violent tool we have — almost sacred.” Our democracy is imperiled, and everything is at stake with our democracy under unprecedented attack.
Faiths United to Save Democracy is a diverse group of non-partisan leaders of several faiths, races and generations representing churches, synagogues, temples, mosques, chapels and meeting houses from across the country. We are concerned about the protection of American democracy and our vote. We are concerned about the disinformation, flat-out lies and voter intimidation that threaten to compromise the integrity of our elections.
Highly organized partisan groups are targeting voters of color and other vulnerable citizens — the elderly, the poor of every race, the disabled and people with language barriers — in an escalating attempt to dissuade them from going to the polls. The failure of the Senate to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act leaves voters more vulnerable than ever.
Demonstrators stop at the John Lewis Mural during a march for voting rights, marking the 58th anniversary of the March on Washington, Aug. 28, 2021, in Atlanta. Voting rights advocates have rallied across the country to call for sweeping protections against a further erosion of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
Join the Conversation
The Vote is Sacred: Expanding and Securing Access to the Ballot
Join Interfaith America for a moderated conversation on the barriers to voting and civic participation experienced by BIPOC folks and formally incarcerated folks.
Any law that restricts the sacred right to vote is unjust because it denies people their agency, their vote, and their voice.
