Bring your faith and values into the conversation.

In Part 1, we learned how to recognize misleading information.

In Part 2, we explored how to research candidates and their records.

In Part 3, we looked at how to compare candidates using the same questions and standards.

Now we come to another important question:

What does our faith have to do with how we evaluate public policy?

For people of faith, our values don’t disappear when we enter the voting booth.

But faithful civic engagement is also bigger than asking:

“Which candidate is the Christian candidate?”

No political party or candidate perfectly represents our faith.

Instead, we can ask deeper questions.

Start With Your Faith Tradition

For Lutherans, we don’t have to begin from scratch.

The ELCA has spent decades studying, debating, praying, and adopting social teaching on many of the issues facing our communities.

These include:

• Economic life and poverty
• Health care
• Housing and homelessness
• Immigration
• Education
• Racism and racial justice
• Criminal justice
• Gender, sexuality, and human dignity
• Caring for creation
• Peace
• Civic engagement and democracy

These teachings don’t tell you who to vote for.

They give us a framework for asking faithful questions.

Ask: Who Is My Neighbor?

Jesus repeatedly calls us toward our neighbor.

So when evaluating a policy, don’t only ask:

“How will this affect me?”

Also ask:

Who will this affect?

• What will it mean for someone experiencing homelessness?
• For a family struggling to afford groceries?
• For a rural community without adequate health care?
• For immigrants and refugees?
• For children?
• For older adults?
• For people whose experiences are very different from our own?

Pay Attention to Those Most Affected

It is easy to debate public policy as an abstract idea.

But policies affect actual people.

Before deciding what you think about an issue, listen to people who will live with the consequences.

Ask:

• Whose voices are missing from this conversation?

Look Beyond Charity

Our congregations do incredible work feeding people, providing clothing, supporting shelters, helping refugees, responding to disasters, and caring for neighbors.

That work matters.

But faith also invites us to ask:

• Why is our neighbor hungry in the first place?
• Why can’t someone afford housing?
• Why does a community lack health care?
• Why are some voices excluded from decisions?

Service responds to immediate needs.

Advocacy asks what systems and policies are creating those needs.

We need both.

Remember: Faithful People Can Disagree

Two people can share the same faith and reach different conclusions about the best public policy.

Our goal isn’t to force everyone into the same political position.

Our goal is to engage one another with curiosity, humility, evidence, and a commitment to our neighbors.

As You Research Candidates, Ask:

• How does this policy affect my neighbor?
• Who benefits?
• Who carries the burden?
• Whose voice is missing?
• Does this policy protect human dignity?
• Does it promote the common good?
• How does it compare with the social teaching of my faith tradition?

Faithful civic engagement isn’t about telling people how to vote.

It is about helping one another ask better questions.

Study the issues. Listen to your neighbors. Learn what your faith teaches. Ask difficult questions. Then make your own informed decision.

Because our faith doesn’t give us permission to stop thinking.

It calls us to think more deeply about how our choices affect our neighbors.

An informed and engaged community is a powerful community.