OUR COUNTRY IS IN TURMOIL due to the intense race between the presidential candidates. So my blessing to you is for discernment.
Blessed be those who before casting their votes consider what is required by the gospel and the love of God and neighbor;
Blessed be those who have the gift of discernment and can test the spirits in this spiritual and very concrete political war;
Blessed be those who follow attentively the electoral race;
Blessed be those who are attentive to the ways in which some states are trying to shut down the opportunity for minorities to vote and continue to work for them to register and to vote;
Blessed be those who look beyond the Democratic/Republican parties and see what is offered from other candidates not contemplated by the media;
Blessed be those who struggle for a campaign system that is not purchased by private wealth, so that elected officials will represent the people and strive for the common good and not follow the agenda of these private institutions;
Blessed be those who do not confuse “the good old days” with a romanticized time of prosperity, peace and harmony that never fully existed;
Blessed be those who are aware of the past of each candidate and how they voted if they were politicians and where they stood during their public life;
Blessed be those who know what companies and institutions are supporting each candidate, for this support will show where this country will lean;
Blessed be those who welcome the strangers;
Blessed be those who are ashamed of walls that divide and see these walls as signs of our sins and fears and hatred and not protection;
Blessed be those who pay attention to the ways the candidates treat black people and how they are engaged in the plight of the black population;
Blessed be those who will demand their candidates to expand and not cut social services for the poor;
Blessed be those who know what each candidate thinks in terms of global warming and the actual disasters of the climate change of the planet;
Blessed be those who know that ecology is one of the most important tenets of anyone’s government;
Blessed be presidential candidates who honor women and know their worth, their fundamental place in society and their capacity to lead;
Blessed be those who fight for the peace of the country knowing that the meaning of peace also means economic justice;
Blessed be those who look to any topic or issue in life from the perspective of the poor;
Blessed be those who know the economic relations between big donors, investors, private companies and mayors and governors and deputies and congressmen and congresswomen, so we can have a lucid vision of their politics and priorities;
Blessed be those who are outraged with the economic situation of this country and the world;
Blessed be those who will vote for candidates and will keep following them and will engage them every step of the way;
Blessed be those who are politically savvy and will never forget that to engage in politics is not a choice, but a demand of the gospel that demands us to love our neighbor and that love is translated in and through public policies!
CLÁUDIO CARVALHAES is associate professor of homiletics and worship at McCormick Theological Seminary.
