“The experience has been wonderful,” says Frederick Douglass Haynes III, senior pastor of Dallas' Friendship-West Baptist Church. “I can’t tell you how many people have breathed a sigh of relief, feeling that the voting location is a safe location simply because of our offering a spiritual presence that is nonpartisan, but very much peacekeeping.”
Haynes is one of roughly 1,500 specially trained clergy participating in the Faiths United to Save Democracy (FUSD) initiative, in which “poll chaplains” are lending their presence to polling stations to act as peacekeepers and spiritual leaders. The program was started by Barbara Williams-Skinner, a faith leader and public policy strategist who serves as CEO of the Skinner Leadership Institute.
Haynes says that Williams-Skinner’s initiative struck a chord with him.
“Unfortunately, we are in a season in this country of severe polarization, not to mention of the political violence and vitriol that characterizes our time,” he says. “We needed to offer a moral presence that involves praying for our country as well as serving as peacekeepers so that free and fair elections would have a greater chance of taking place.”
And praying, they have done. As Haynes explains, all participating clergy will band together on Monday for a prayer call, where they will pray for the country and the administration of a free and fair election.
When Haynes explains this mission, it is apparent that a sense of societal justice intersects with both his politics and his spirituality. More precisely, his spirituality informs his conceptions of justice.
“My spirituality connects with what I feel is the promise of America, [which] America is struggling to live up to and has always struggled to live up to,” he says. “There are those who have tapped into the fears of many in this country, because this country … has an ugly history when it comes to othering groups, just according to race, gender and basically how God created them.
“Unfortunately, we are in a season in this country of severe polarization, not to mention of the political violence and vitriol that characterizes our time.” – Frederick Douglas Haynes III, Faiths United to Save Democracy.
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“When you have leadership that plays into that instead of seeking to solve that and heal that, then, unfortunately, it exacerbates a situation that is already somewhat volatile.”
“Somewhat” may be an understatement.
An August 2023 report by Reuters found 213 instances of political violence since the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol, and at least 39 people have been killed. Since then, an armed assailant nearly succeeded in an attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump near Butler, Pennsylvania, and Paul Pelosi was attacked in his San Francisco home by an intruder who was searching for his wife, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
The heat has only risen since, and even more violence is generally anticipated. As CNN reports, a number of Trump supporters are coordinating plans for another attempted coup in the event that Vice President Kamala Harris wins the election. For his part, Trump has already made claims of unlawful election interference in Pennsylvania, a critical state that analysts say is likely to decide the result.
Unrelated to Trump’s unsubstantiated claims of systemic voter fraud, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s predictions that vigilantes would try to destroy ballot drop boxes has already come true. Recently, ballot boxes in Oregon and Washington were set ablaze by someone who police believe was the same arsonist. The incendiary devices had the words “Free Gaza” carved in them, according to ABC News. Similar ballot box arson attacks have been reported in Arizona and Massachusetts.
“Unfortunately, this election is characterized in terms of the spirit of so many by anxiety and fear,” Haynes says when discussing the national upheaval. “That is a reflection of the fact that, again, many of our leaders failed to serve as agents of healing, but instead, they use fear in order to further division. It is a sign … of moral decay and spiritual rot in the country, and that’s why more than ever, faith and democracy is so vital and so necessary.”
In an effort to fight such contention and vitriol, FUSD is currently serving polling places in Texas and key battleground states (Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia are of particular interest to pollsters and analysts). If their prayers bear fruit and the mission proves successful, Tuesday’s election will be free and fair, and the basic dignities of society’s most vulnerable will be vindicated.
“Faith should play a role in preserving a democracy that is definitely worth preserving,” Haynes says. “Our best days can be in front of us.”
