Evangelical leaders call to be “peacemakers not just peacekeepers” as the country's socio-political divide deepen.
The front pages of US newspaper New York Times' international edition, and French newspaper Le Monde, on Thursday 5th November. / Photo: [link]Markus Spiske[/link]
Three days after election day, the United States still don’t know who will be their next president.
By Friday morning (European time), there were still no official results in 6 states, mostly because mail-in votes were being counted. In five of these states, the difference between the Republican candidate and the Democrat candidate remained below 3%. In the case of Georgia, the gap at one point was of only 400 votes.
As this information was being written, Joe Biden had secured 253 electoral votes and Donald Trump, 214. To win the election, 270 are needed.
A high participation was expected for this election, going up from 60.1% in 2016 to an estimated 65% this year. Around 100 million people voted in advance of election day on 3 November.
The tense wait has led to confusing information and pro- and anti-Trump demonstrations in several cities.
On Tuesday night, incumbent President Donald Trump prematurely declared himself as the winner, and later called to “stop the count”, threatening legal action in states where the incoming results showed Biden was gaining ground. He also called the Supreme Court to put an end to the “fraud”.
Later on Thursday, Trump went further to say in a press conference in the White House that “if legal votes are counted, we win”, adding that “illegal votes” were helping Democrats. “They're trying to steal an election, they're trying to rig an election, and we can’t let that happen”, he added.
Analysts of a large scope of US media agreed in saying that no evidence of fraud had emerged so far. Trump’s reaction, they said, could damage the trust of many in the US democratic system and would make a peaceful transition of power very difficult if Biden was declared the winner.
Meanwhile, candidate Joe Biden called his supporters to remain “patient”, adding that “no one is going to take our democracy away from us. Not now, not ever”.
Evangelical Christians in the country followed the election with interest. Polls showed that 73% of white evangelicals planned to vote for the Republican candidate, while 69% of black evangelicals were voting for Biden.
The Matthew 5:9 Fellowship, a network of Christians who aim to “place their identity in Christ above partisanship and societal divisions”, called on “all Americans to respect and support each other, to build peace in their local communities, to advocate peacefully for their political perspectives. (Matt 5:38-39; Rom 12:17-21). We reject any efforts to sow discord and divide Americans for political gain (Prov 6:16-19; Rom 16:17)”.
The statement, signed by over 200 evangelical leaders, said Christians were “called by God to walk in Christ’s footsteps to be peacemakers—not merely peacekeepers—in a nation grappling with toxic levels of polarization and the targeting of specific religious, racial, and political groups with violence”.
Despite many calls to not fall into a partisan debate, opposed opinions were shared by influential pastors, evangelists and theologians, before and after election day.
Las opiniones vertidas por nuestros colaboradores se realizan a nivel personal, pudiendo coincidir o no con la postura de la dirección de Protestante Digital.
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