“We are the ones we’ve been waiting for to write a new American story, to find a way to build fierce love in the world…We must connect across our differences and build strategies for a better tomorrow for the children we are called to love.” — Jacqui Lewis, Fierce Love
I know some of us are thinking about sitting this election out. The 24/7 barrage of sound bites about the candidates is part of the reason why. So much election coverage is reduced to 8-second video clips, referendums on the candidates’ personalities, “gotcha moments,” and color commentary. Listen, I’m not saying these details aren’t relevant—that it’s not illuminating when J.D. Vance refers to women without children as “weird cat ladies”; that we don’t learn something about Tim Walz by how he lovingly parents his disabled son; I love watching Vice President Harris dance, and giggle when Mr. Trump does. But elections are about much more than the individual personalities involved. They’re also about the policy platforms each party brings, the implications for how those laws would affect our lives.
What one faith lens demands
For those who claim to be Christian, which the four candidates do, the Bible explicitly instructs us that we should judge rulers by their actions, particularly how their laws affect the poorest and most vulnerable people. “Those who oppress the poor insult their maker,” the book of Proverbs notes. “Those who are kind to the needy honor God.”
Jesus puts the situation even more plainly. In Matthew 25, he tells the disciples that when we feed the hungry, heal the sick, and clothe the naked. Those actions (or their absence) are how we treat Jesus himself. Scripture is filled with verses that echo Jesus’s focus: instructions in Leviticus to welcome and treat migrants in the same way we embrace citizens, Isaiah’s condemnation of “those who make unjust laws,” Amos’s fiery words about rulers who “sell the poor for silver.” The Bible is deeply concerned with rulers’ actions because, to quote Proverbs again, “When the righteous are in power, the people rejoice. But when the wicked rule, the people suffer.”
To be crystal-clear, these verses also need to inform our foreign policy. They shape my deep grief and anger about the year-long horrific violence and unbelievable death toll in Gaza; about the hostages—Palestinian and Israeli—who remain in captivity, and the escalating war in the Middle East. It must end: the war, the occupation, the injustice, the rising antisemitism and anti-Islamic sentiment. There must be peace and freedom for Palestine and Israel, and we need to elect a candidate who will work to make it be so.
Coming back to domestic policy: While there are differences between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris’s personalities, the chasm that separates their policies is even wider. Harris is promising to fight corporate greed that’s driving up food prices and to lower taxes on working families, Trump wants more tax cuts for rich folks like himself. Harris wants to build millions of new homes to address the housing crisis, while Trump scapegoats immigrants for a problem they didn’t create. Vice President Harris is promising to codify abortion access as national law, while the former president orchestrated stealing millions of people’s bodily autonomy. Harris has a comprehensive plan to address climate change, Trump wrongly claims that climate science is a hoax. Harris understands what it’s like to grow up in an immigrant family and the challenges Black women face every damn day—and offers tangible support. Even though he also comes from an immigrant family, Trump calls immigrants “animals” who should not find sanctuary in our nation, and repeats lies that Haitian migrants eat pets.
We are the ones we’ve been waiting for
In my book Fierce Love, I talk about our collective responsibility to birth the country we deserve. “Each of us has the power to change the world around us, to build a more just society, to be the change we seek,” I write. “How we behave with friends and families, the stories shared in social media, conversations in the marketplace, how we vote and where we take a stand—these all testify to the values we have.” We all live in systems that determine what kind of choices are available—laws that can either help bring justice closer or push it further away.
For the next two months, my challenge to all of us is: How do we bring these staggering policy differences into the cultural conversation?
Instead of talking with a friend about the latest thing a candidate said, tell them about a policy proposal that excites you. When you spend time with family, describe how proposed policies would affect your lives. Volunteer to knock on doors and, when you do, ask what issues are affecting your neighbors—then discuss laws that could make a difference. Let’s help each other fully understand what’s at stake this November.
We aren’t just voting for ourselves. The African philosophy of Ubuntu love demands we understand that we are inextricably bound to our neighbor—but also to every generation that comes next. God gave humans agency so we can build a beloved community together. Active participation to shape who governs us is an essential part of that work.
When I think about that responsibility, I think about my great-uncle George Jordan working with Fannie Lou Hamer to register voters in Ruleville, Mississippi—a decade before the Civil Rights Act. They risked their lives to nurture true democracy because they knew that legislation matters, that how we engage our politics is an expression of our faith. We don’t have to risk our lives to knock on doors, but make no mistake: The consequences of this election are life-and-death.
Let’s choose love and abundant life this election. And let’s vote.
Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis is senior minister and public theologian at Middle Church in New York. Celebrated internationally for her dynamic preaching and commitment to building a just society with fierce love, Lewis champions racial, economic, and gender/sexuality justice.
