News and Views

CCoRR offers thoughts on presidential election

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The Baltimore-Washington Conference Commission on Religion and Race, chaired by the Rev. Rod Miller, offers these thoughts following the divisive presidential election Nov. 8.

We have just come through an emotional, divisive and painful political season. And while many are celebrating the election of Donald Trump as our president, there are others who are anxious and fearful about the future. We have been in prayer throughout the election process – now let us be in prayer for the ability to hear and support one another no matter what our feelings and political views.

Our faith reminds us that people need to come first over politics. This is something that we hold as a common value in the Baltimore-Washington Conference. The Commission on Religion and Race hopes you'll join us in prayer that we find pathways which bridge the divides by honoring and respecting each other.

It is abundantly clear that God loves diversity because we are each unique and we are all beloved children of God. And ultimately, we know that we are all connected through the love of God which is in all and over all.

We remember the poignant words from closing paragraph of Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address: “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and will all nations.”

Together, let us pray:
God, we give you thanks for this great nation and for the opportunities we have to vote and to express our opinions. Forgive us when we are less than we can be. We admit that it is sometimes very difficult to go beyond looking to really see one another and beyond listening to really hear one another. Help us to find honest and healing words which bind up wounds and allow each person to be who they truly are. And God, guide our new president, Donald Trump, and our whole country on the path in front of us to the end that your name be lifted and glorified. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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