Political ads are everywhere, so I want to do one, too. However, this advertisement won’t be for a particular party or candidate. When I say, “political,” I am referring to the root meaning of the word. Embedded in the word “political” is the word polis, which is the historical term referring to an ancient Greek city-state. Polis is the broader society in which we live. In this sense, we are all part of the polis, and so we are all engaged in the “political.”
As a Baptist minister, an important guidepost for me for political engagement is the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” In it, he articulates the tension within Christian circles of that day about engagement with societal issues. He writes, “In the midst of a mighty struggle to rid our nation of racial and economic injustice, I have heard many ministers say: ‘Those are social issues with which the gospel has no real concerns.’ And I have watched many churches commit themselves to a completely other-worldly religion which makes a strange, un-Biblical distinction between body and soul, between the sacred and the secular.”
What King and others teach about, and model, is the intersection of the spiritual and political realms. The spiritual is political and the political is spiritual. Again, this isn’t about political partisanship. It is about engaging in society in meaningful ways, rather than attempting to escape or ignore it.
As early voting has started for the November elections, it is important to remember those in the past, due to race or gender or other descriptors, who were not allowed to vote in this country. This means that voting is a privilege and shouldn’t be taken lightly. Your vote is your voice on a ballot. Duke Men’s Basketball coach Jon Scheyer says that in voting you “use your voice to shape the future that you want.”
In addition to being your metaphorical voice on a ballot, a vote is also a spiritual act. The word “vote” comes from the Latin votum, which means vow or wish or desire. It is something you want or hope for. Within religious settings, votive candles are short, thick candles that people light as part of a prayer offering for a particular person or situation. (There is a votive candle station in the side chapel within Duke Chapel.) In the Catholic Church, a votive Mass is a Mass offered for a special intention. A vote, therefore, is a votive act, a wish or desire. It is essentially a prayer. Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock, who is pastor of the “King family church” Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, has said, “A vote is a kind of prayer for the world we desire for ourselves and our children.”
If you track social media, it may seem as if this political season is anything but holy; even so, I encourage you to vote as an act of prayer and a gesture of hope for the future. Voting with this spiritual perspective in mind will remind us that it is a sacred moment, one in which polls can become altars for your votive prayer offered for the welfare of our fellow citizens.
My name is Luke Powery, and I approve this message.
The Rev. Dr. Luke A. Powery is Dean of Duke University Chapel. His column runs on alternate Mondays.
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