In anticipation of Texas Impact’s Houston Faith Votes Kick-off Events, which start this weekend, Sunday, August 20th, 8/26, and 8/27 (register here), I am speaking with several faith leaders across Houston. Through these dialogues, faith leaders explore why voting is vital for their community, and why it’s a matter of faith.
Each week I’ll share how different leaders understand the connection between their faith and participation in democracy and why they feel called to mobilize their communities to engage in civic processes. This week I spoke with Rev. Dr. Ginny Brown Daniel, an Ordained Minister in the United Church of Christ and a long-time Houstonian. Rev. Dr. Brown Daniel shared about the evolution of her perspective on how her faith and civic engagement are intertwined.
Kyle Riley: How do you express your beliefs through voting?
Rev. Dr. Ginny Brown Daniel: For me, voting is an extended expression of my faith through action. When I was growing up, voting was crucial in my family. My mother impressed upon me that my grandmothers and great-grandmothers did not have the right to vote, so it was very important for me to vote every time there was an election. My grandmother told me that our church in Alabama had taken a firm stand in the Civil Rights movement to stand with our African American neighbors and their right to vote.
That was a part of our expression of our faith and who God called that church to be, and those of us who were in that church, by extension, that’s who God called us to be. Voting is a tangible expression of how I live out my faith and understand that we are all created in God’s image. In secular language, we are all given human rights. As a person of faith, the language is that if we are all created in God’s image, we are supposed to live out and respect people and their dignity, worth, and personhood.
Riley: What from your faith tradition do you point your community to when explaining the importance of voting?
Rev. Dr. Brown Daniel: As a person of faith, I follow the ways of Jesus. All of the stories of Jesus in the Gospels are stories where he advocates for, stands with, and walks with those who are voiceless in the community, those who have been pushed aside, rejected, judged, condemned, and the vulnerable. The Hebrew scripture teaches and informs us that we are supposed to make sure that those who are foreigners are also given opportunities for the land and the fruits of the land.
Those pieces really inform who I’m supposed to be in the community as a neighbor, how I’m supposed to understand that, and how I’m supposed to vote. Are the people I’m voting for advocating for everyone, including those who don’t look like them and those who don’t have a voice in our society? That is essential in how I vote and what I vote for.
Riley: What from your faith tradition motivates you to participate in democracy through things like voting?
Rev. Dr. Brown Daniel: Growing up historically Southern Baptist, I had a strong sense of the separation of church and state. Yes, our faith informs our vote, but our faith does not have the power or the right to dictate what… the government will do. As a minister and a pastor in a church, I…advocated the same way. I felt called to preach on essential issues in the community and the nation. Still, I also knew what that fine line was, not stepping over to advocate for one political party or candidate.
The year 2021… was a really horrible year in Texas. Before [2023], it was the worst year regarding legislation for people in Texas. The more legislation passed that was intentionally harming the most vulnerable of us, the more it made me angrier and angrier.
In that rage, that passion, I heard this call – as real and deep as any ministry calling I’ve ever had. The calling was, “You need to run for the Texas House of Representatives.” At first, there was this identity crisis– “Oh no, no, no, I’m an advocate of separation of church and state. I need to stay on my side.” But I realized the person I ultimately ran against was using the same faith tradition as mine to harm the people I’ve been called to stand with as an ally. I ran for office [in] 2022.
What I experienced at that moment was the goodness of a community. It doesn’t matter whether it’s supposedly conservative or liberal, one political party or another. When I was invited into different parts of our society, the faith community really was the bridge on issues and areas that are contentious and volatile, especially right now. A Mosque provided the only candidate forum where my opponent and I and other candidates were invited to come. It felt like holy ground–understanding that what they were offering us was indeed their sanctuary.
At an African American church…we brought in…some of the new voting machines because part of the challenge has been that the voting machines become intimidating to those who don’t know how to work [them]. We taught the members how to use them to get comfortable. They had people there to check people’s voter registration. Wouldn’t you know it, some people, including the pastor and his wife, had been purged.
Then there was another African American church, Fallbrook Church, and they have been doing this for a long time. They are an election location. They have voter registration drives before, during, and after their worship services. They have a really active engagement with the community. In fact, one of their pastors is solely focused on civic engagement. For their members, part of their responsibility is to be a literal bridge and be as helpful as possible for everyone to exercise their right to vote and be engaged in our democratic process.
Riley: What do you wish people understood about the connection between civic engagement and your religious tradition?
Rev. Dr. Brown Daniel: In this particular moment, there seems to be almost a polarization of people who either think the faith community isn’t supposed to be involved at all, or we see examples of where the faith community may be too involved. There has to be this middle ground. People see those two extremes and get turned off by them. I have experienced and observed a lot of ordinary saints who are in that middle ground, holding voter engagement as a necessity and a right in the midst of space that says otherwise.
I would hope there would be more engagement and respect for one another. I think it’s one of the places where we don’t have to talk about theology, ideology, or politics – but we should talk about how we can collaborate to help people vote as quickly and as accessibly as possible– for them and our community.
Kyle Riley is Texas Impact’s Houston Civic Engagement and United Church of Christ Fellow. He is a Master of Divinity student at Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado.
Texas Impact’s Houston Faith Votes (HFV) campaign is bringing together mainstream Houston faith groups to build faith-based civic participation throughout our region. HFV mobilizes diverse faith communities across the Greater Houston area to engage their members and neighbors in elections in 2023 and 2024. This is a non-partisan effort, and any policy discussions will focus on voting rights and our current voting regulations and processes.
The HFV initiative provides resources that are developed by people of faith, for people of faith, with the support of more than two dozen partner institutions. These resources will help faith communities explore the faith-based call to civic engagement and provide tools for faith-based voter engagement activities that help faith communities scale their impact and get out the vote.
To learn more about our Houston Faith Votes campaign, visit our website, houstonfaithvotes.org.