Keystone State News Connection

November 2, 2020

Faith Leaders Launch Initiatives to Vote for Justice, Reconcile Families

Andrea Sears

HARRISBURG, Pa. — A national organization of religious leaders is encouraging people of faith to reject the politics of fear, heal family divisions and participate in voting as a sacred act.

The New Moral Majority, representing more than 750 faith leaders, has launched an initiative to encourage broad participation in the presidential election.

Last week, the group released three new ads to run in battleground states such as Pennsylvania, calling on people to embrace love and compassion as a step toward healing the nation.

Rev. Ryan Eller, founder of the New Moral Majority, said he is concerned many Americans are discouraged by the multiple stresses facing their communities, even though voter turnout appears to be strong.

“We’ve been battling not only with a pandemic,” Eller described. “We’re exhausted from generations of racial injustice and the lack of political will, it seems, to really deal with some of the systemic issues.”

He believes this year’s vote can be an important step toward a longer process of healing the political tensions that have divided communities and families.

Part of that process is a campaign to help young people rebuild family relationships shattered by political polarization.

Liza Ryan Gill, co-founder of Operation Family Meeting, said evangelical support for Donald Trump has driven many millennials away from the church.

“For many people, that means that their relationship with their parents and friends and family that they grew up with is broken or completely severed,” Gill lamented.

The campaign provides tools and encouragement to help young evangelicals engage family members in difficult conversations about religious values and political choices.

Sarah Ryan, Liza’s sister and co-founder of Operation Family Meeting, explained they encourage beginning conversations from a position of mutual caring.

“‘We love you, we miss you and we’d love to talk about faith again,'” Ryan suggested as a message. “‘We actually feel like we have faith. We’ve defined it in a different way than you but we’d love if you’d be willing to talk about it with us.'”

She noted the goal of the New Moral Majority is not only to ensure that every vote counts this year, but to begin the long-term healing that the nation needs going forward.