The Morning After, the Election

Here is a commentary by my friend James Howell on the election-- written well before Election Day. See what you think. BW3
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The election is over. For the Oval Office, one winner, one loser. But neither is a loser. Both are people who offered themselves for public service, and have lived under a microscope, under intense scrutiny, with a schedule that would exhaust the most energetic of us.

Winning voters are tempted to strut, to gloat; losing voters are tempted to sigh, to rage, to shudder with disgust. This is fine, and serves as an index into the fact that we care, we are invested as citizens, we hold deep beliefs. We have excellent cause to rejoice over high voter turnout, and intensity of feeling on both sides; what greater sign of hope could there be?

But the election is over, and we have a new President, and a coterie of other public servants. Do we remain stuck in our giddy delight? Or in our exasperated disappointment? Not as the people of God, not for those who believe we might in some way be “one nation under God.”

It is time to be one nation, one people, to throw all our support and hopes behind the democratically elected officials who will lead. The alternative is forever to oppose, to subvert, to grouse… but is the Spirit in us when we do? Partisan politics is our great gift, and yet the ruin of the country. A good idea is trashed, just because the other guy had it.

Gloating and disgust are tabled. Only prayer is in order. The Episcopal Book of Common Prayer prescribes daily prayer for the President, by name, and the Governor, and other elected officials. Imagine if all the people in America who claim to believe in God actually prayed for their leaders? Or spent one-tenth as much time in seeking the heart of God as they do in griping?

If you believe that the election of Candidate X will be catastrophic, if you think Candidate Y’s policies are faulty, then you would be wise to begin to pray, today, that you turn out to be wrong. The morning after an election – and every morning for the believer, prayer is in order.

And citizenship. We have these “celebrity” elections nowadays, and a foolish belief that just one person can change everything. We thought if we just got rid of one person – the Ayatollah Khomeini, or Saddam Hussein, or Osama bin Laden – then all would be well in the world. But these individuals are mere symptoms of much larger problems that require far more thorough, diligent, long-term attention.

In America, leadership really matters. But leadership requires active following, not passive spectatorship. If there has been energy and passion around this year’s election, it will have been wasted unless we translate that into consistent citizenship, involvement, each person doing his or her part to work at the problems and hopes before us, every organization – and especially the Church (our Church!) – getting engaged with what’s going on with compassion, justice, an optimistic spirit, a dogged zeal that says “Life matters, life can be extraordinarily good, and just as my vote matters, my involvement matters.”

So let us conclude by recalling the immortal words of Lincoln, trying to lead a divided nation, and make them our hope, our prayer, our marching orders: “The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes… With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds.”

Dr. James Howell
Myers Park UMC
Charlotte N.C.