"The truly disenfranchised are those who never make it
to the polling place at all."
-- The New York Times, Sunday, September 21, 2003
The Soul of Our Democracy
A Pastoral Letter From the Rev. William G. Sinkford
Watch
this speech in Real Video 
 Dear
Friends:
The beginning of the church year is a time to reflect on the year
just ended and to set priorities for the year ahead. As this church
year begins, I find myself thinking most about the role our faith
can play in civil society. Unitarian Universalism has always had
a spiritual center and a civic circumference. How are we called
to live out our commitment to American democracy? I believe this
year is a time to take action.
I have a confession to make: I didn’t vote in the last Presidential
election. There were excuses, of course. I was traveling for the
Association on Election Day, and getting that absentee ballot in
never made it to the top of my “to do” list. I also
vote in traditionally liberal Massachusetts. I didn’t think
my vote would make a difference.
But, having lived through these last two years, struggling to find
a place for patriotism to live in my heart, I know that I will be
exercising my citizenship in a much more active way in the days
to come.
I believe that the greatest service our faith community can perform
right now is to help Americans reclaim our democracy. We should
never again have a president or a legislature elected by only half
of the eligible voters as happened in 2000.
Unitarian Universalists, without doubt, register and vote in far
greater numbers than do most Americans. And many of us have worked
in voter registration drives and contributed financially to efforts
to get out the vote.
But we have not, as a movement, committed ourselves to increase
either voter registration or voter turn out. It is time we did.
We will have only ourselves to blame if the only effective voter
participation campaign between now and next November is organized
by the religious right.
 In
our Fifth Principle, Unitarian Universalists covenant to affirm
and promote “the right of conscience and the use of the democratic
process within our congregations and in society at large.”
Too many Americans are not exercising that right, in effect giving
away our democracy by eliminating the checks on those in power that
regular elections provide. As one letter-writer to The New York
Times put it shortly after the 2000 debacle, “low [voter]
turnout is precisely what gives the government the mandate to act
as if no one cares and no one is looking.”
And too many of those who did choose to exercise their right to vote in 2000
were denied that opportunity—the vast majority of them persons of color.
There is work to be done. I’m not talking about simply affirming
the importance of voting, nor of simply promising to vote ourselves.
I’m talking about mobilizing to get out there and work to
prevent the travesty of the last election from recurring.
We want to see this nation’s promise of democracy restored,
and to do what we can to ensure that everyone’s vote gets
counted.
And so, I want to urge all of our congregations to take on voter
registration and get-out-the vote campaigns as part of your work
for this year. I’m imagining thousands of volunteers making
phone calls, handing out voter registration forms in supermarkets,
offering car pools to the polls. I’m imagining election-week
work camps for our young adults, and even youth. I’m imagining
systematic poll-watching.
We won’t be out there alone. Many progressive groups, both
secular and faith-based, have made voter registration a priority
for this year. Our efforts need to be in partnership with them.
This is not a partisan issue. UUs cover the entire political spectrum,
just as we do the entire theological spectrum. What we can agree
on is the need for effective democracy, on the right of all persons
and all points of view to be heard and respected. Everybody counts;
everybody needs to be counted. This is not about politics; it’s
about governance. We cannot claim to be a democratic nation if our
leaders derive their authority from elections in which too few vote
and whose legitimacy is open to such question.
This is not a partisan issue. But I believe deep in my heart that
greater citizen participation in our electoral process will change
the shape of the debate on key issues, and that it offers our best
hope for shaping a new direction.
How many people can we reach? Many of you heard Julian Bond say,
at the Ware Lecture at General Assembly this past June, that the
single most important thing we can do this year is “to search
out twenty like-minded persons—and make them ambassadors to
ensure that they in turn get twenty like-minded persons—to
vote in next year’s presidential election.” There are
about 160,000 adult UUs. You do the math. A few thousands votes
in one state determined the outcome of the last Presidential election.
We have posted information at www.uua.org/voting
listing a wealth of voter registration resources and links to our
partners. Please visit, and check back often to see what we have
added. If your congregation needs ideas or advice, contact Susan
Leslie, Director for Congregational Advocacy and Witness, at sleslie@uua.org.
And be sure to tell her what your plans are so that we can pass
good ideas along.
But for now, I am going out and looking for my twenty people. I hope you and
your congregation will join me. We can take this democracy back.
In faith,
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Rev. William Sinkford |
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