Last Sunday, we held the first of Texas Impact’s Houston Faith Votes Kick-off Events at Congregation Beth Israel. We welcomed almost one hundred attendees representing roughly thirty faith communities across Houston.
This weekend, we are excited to welcome even more collaborators to our next two Kick-off Events on Saturday and Sunday (register here). I have spoken with several faith leaders across Houston leading up to these events. Each week, I’ve shared 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.
In the last iteration of this series before our final kick-off events, I spoke with Rev. Leslie Jackson, Senior Pastor at St. Peter United, United Church of Christ in Spring Branch. Rev. Jackson shared about the many perspectives, figures, and traditions from which he derives wisdom, and how they help him understand how his own faith calls him to pursue a government that truly represents the voices of the people.
Kyle Riley: How do you express your beliefs through voting?
Rev. Leslie Jackson: [This question reminds me] of what Rev. Raphael Warnock said in his maiden speech before the Senate. He said, “A vote is like a sacred prayer.” When I vote, I keep in mind the things I am praying for– love, justice, hope, peace, and all of the things I would like to see created in the world. It would be fun to sit back and let things be whatever they’re going to be, but voting is important because of all of the people who have sacrificed to make it possible. It’s especially important for me as a person of African descent to vote.
Riley: What from your faith tradition do you point your community to when explaining the importance of voting?
Rev. Jackson: There’s a lot that I point to. First and foremost, understanding the Roman context and the historical context of [the scriptures] and understanding the time in which Jesus was active; understanding why the text was written and who it’s addressing, and that these are people who did not have the opportunity to vote. They lived in an empire in which the emperor and Roman citizens could control the destiny of many different people. I think it’s important to realize that a vote is not just a prayer but also how we can collectively control our destiny.
When we think about an empire in which not everybody has a say versus our current context in which we get to have a voice, I believe it is important from a faith perspective to understand the freedom that we have. People say “WWJD” (What would Jesus do), and I think my Jesus would say you need to go vote. Scripture says that “he whom the son has set free is free indeed,” and our freedom is contingent on our voting.
Riley: What from your faith tradition motivates you to participate in democracy through things like voting?
Rev. Jackson: I’m thinking about Brother Cornel West, who has spoken a lot about deep democracy and wrote a book,Democracy Matters. I’m also thinking about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was brilliant at bringing together a coalition [for] the Poor People’s Campaign. He challenged the oligarchy by bringing people across racial lines together to stand up for poor people’s rights and a living wage. Dr. King was engaged civically; I think we stand on those shoulders. We come from people who, because of their faith, were motivated to create a change in the system. Voting rights were part of what they were fighting for. You also think about John Lewis and that the Voting Rights Act is gutted, and the act is sitting there in Congress, not moving.
My faith tradition is not just my membership in the United Church of Christ; my faith tradition includes Saints like John Lewis and Dr. King. Plus, Andrew Young, who marched with Dr. King, was a UCC minister and became the mayor of Atlanta. He would frame it this way, “Voting… is how we as a people get the government to express our will.” My faith tradition has those folks in the pantheon of Saints that inform my political and theological philosophy.
Riley: What do you wish people understood about the connection between civic engagement and your religious tradition?
Rev. Jackson: I’ve been thinking about this question while preparing for my Doctoral studies. I’m wrestling with the idea of what my religious tradition is and how I engage civically. What policy positions do I want to support? I say that because I think in justice movements and liberal movements, there is also religion that informs those positions. The question for me becomes, “Am I trying to force my religious beliefs onto other people who don’t believe as I believe? Or, should we, me in particular– my tradition and the congregation I serve– should we be working to create a civic environment that… seeks to elevate all voices? We say we want to expand the voting franchise, and if we can get the numbers high enough, we can say this is the people’s will. But because we do not have a significant voter turnout, I don’t think what is happening expresses the people’s choice.
From a religious standpoint, how do I say, “These are a list of my moral values and things I’m unwilling to legislate?” These things are for me and not for anyone else, and here are my political values where I think the world should head to create the maximum amount of freedom for everybody. I don’t know if I answered it. It’s a question I’ve been wrestling with a lot lately.
I don’t think we can answer it if [we] only have 20-30% of people showing up to vote. Voting isn’t the silver bullet, but it’s one of the best shots we have at getting people to express their voices.
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.