Recent Sermon

Title

The Sanctity Of Elections

by Rev. Ken Langer

First Church of Barre, Universalist

Date

Sunday, March 8, 2026

Sermon

My sister was born when I was only three years old, so of course, I don’t remember much about that day. I have to rely on what my parents said I was like. When I first heard the news, they say, I was not a happy child. I was used to having all the attention around the house from two people. Who doesn’t enjoy a good two-to-one caregiving relationship? All the attention was focused on me. All our plans were dictated by my needs. The floor and all the amazing, colorful little toys on it were mine. It was my world until this other little creature came along. Suddenly, the universe shifted, the earth stopped rotating, and those cute little kids' songs I adored so much started playing slowly in minor keys. It was the end of the world. This other little creature was now the apple of my parents’ eyes. She was the focus of their attention, and I now had to play second fiddle. I was devastated, I was angry, and I was out for revenge. I tried to steal attention away from her. I cried when I was fed second. I acted out when I thought I was being woefully neglected. I pouted when they made those silly little googly faces at her.

Eventually, however, my place in the family changed. It was explained to me that my role was to help love and protect this new child because she was one of us now. My place in the clan had not been usurped; it had only changed to adapt to growth. But it was a tough part to play. At times, I was the brave knight who kept her from harm, but at other times I was the evil prince who plotted for attention and revenge. At a certain age, we simply came to tolerate each other because we knew peace was critical for the overall health and welfare of the clan as well as for ourselves. By the time she went to college, however, we had become good friends and learned to respect each other’s curious quirks and peculiar worldviews. We have remained so to this day.

The history of American democracy is not unlike the story of sibling rivalry that has played out in thousands of families across the world. Through the American Revolution and the founding of this new country, the founders spoke of the need for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, emphasizing that all men are created equal. Implicit in these statements was the reality that they were directed only toward white males of European descent. The new family of Americans, who claimed to be part of “one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all,” (1) was male-dominated and white, and these boys had no intention of sharing with the other children. However, the house they built for this new family was open-ended because the high platitudes it was founded upon reached across a wide expanse. Soon, people began to ask questions like, “If all men are created equal, does that not include the black man, the Asian man, the indigenous man?” and “Does not liberty and justice for all actually include all human beings: male and female, black and white, churched and unchurched, rich and poor?” The arms of the American family began to open wide to embrace more kinds of people. The clearest example of this growing awareness is illustrated in the history of the right to vote in this country.

In 1789, the U.S. Constitution was ratified. It did not contain instructions for voting. Instead, individual states were given the mandate to establish their own regulations. As a consequence, voting was limited in most states to white male landowners. In some states, those landowners also had to be Christian. In 1856, the requirement of land ownership was removed by all states. It was not until 1868—almost a hundred years later—that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution was enacted, granting citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States, regardless of color or status. Native Americans, however, were mostly excluded, and the act did not include the right of those citizens to vote. That right would only be granted in small portions. Black men were granted the right to vote in 1870. Women were first allowed to vote in that same year, but only in Wyoming. It would not be until 1920 that all women were finally given the right to vote. Native Americans were given the same right in 1887, but only if they agreed to separate from their tribes. That law was updated to allow all Native Americans to vote in 1924. In 1943, Chinese immigrants were granted the right to vote. In 1965, the landmark Voting Rights Act was signed into law. It sought to enforce voting rights protections for all citizens.

This same history of expanding tolerance and pluralism has also been true of Unitarian Universalists. Both of these traditions began as liberal, and one might say, heretical denominations of Christianity. The Unitarians preached against the concept of the Trinity and argued that there was only one God who loved all equally. The Universalists preached against the condemnation of people through punishment in hell. A loving God, they claimed, would never allow His children to suffer in eternity. By the end of the twentieth century, the Age of Enlightenment took hold, and both traditions began to be influenced by the wisdom of other religious texts and practices. The Bible was seen not as the word of God but as the texts of wise and prophetic men and women who tried to make peace and sense of a difficult world. Further influences such as the Transcendentalists, the Humanists, the influx of people with many different religions, and post-modern theories, among other factors, led to the development of a Unitarian Universalist pluralism symbolized by a single living flame that can warm the hearts of all people, regardless of who they are. Indeed, the long arc of history bends toward justice.

Just as our flaming chalice is the one symbol that represents the many and varied people who come together in covenant and compassion to hold and support each other, so does the election box symbolize the right of a free people to choose their own government that will uphold and support all its citizens. Elections are the defining act of democracy. The right of all citizens to vote without intimidation or restriction is as sacred as any religious commandment or doctrine. It is the bulwark that protects us from tyranny and autocracy.

That is the reason why those in power in this country and others throughout the world want to restrict and control elections. In this country, there have been claims about the corruption and insecurity of our election process, all of which have been proven untrue time and time again. These cries ring out when a particular candidate does not win an election but are suddenly silenced when that candidate wins. The system appears to be broken only when one party loses. In recent months, our current government has requested voting data from states in order to try to disqualify voters and is attempting to pass a bill that would make it more difficult for large numbers of people to vote. As midterm elections draw closer, even more threats have emerged.

What could be done to control the vote? ICE could be deployed near voting sites with their masks and guns to intimidate people. Federal officers could be directed to stop vote counting for some trumped-up reason. If the votes of even one city are impounded for any reason, that entire state's elections cannot be certified by law. If the currently proposed law requires people to show passports or birth certificates to vote, then the government can slow down the process of obtaining those documents in time to vote. These are just some of the many ways that voters can be intimidated or discouraged from voting. This is especially true for minority and marginalized groups of people.

Perhaps the most terrifying method of election control by an autocratic government is the one used successfully by Hitler in Germany, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey, Vladimir Putin in Russia, and Viktor Orbán in Hungary, among others. The tried-and-true method is to either cause or seek to take advantage of a perceived national crisis, then declare a national emergency so that presidential powers can dominate the government, including elections. Elections might not cease altogether, but there will be no fair and equal choice for the people. I am afraid such a tactic will be employed in this country in the near future.

The fact is that claims of false and rigged elections have been proven untrue multiple times by various courts and investigations. Elections in this country have historically been among the most well-run operations of any nation. There are already a multitude of safeguards in place, and each state is committed to open and fair elections regardless of its dominant political population. It is already the law that non-citizens cannot register to vote, and instances of fraud have been incredibly small.

In our Unitarian Universalist history, our churches developed a covenant to help and support each other in tough times. As people of this country, we are also in covenant to support one another through the election of representatives who will defend our rights and help us meet our needs. Just as we would never condone the abuse or destruction of any sacred text or restrict others from engaging in their own spiritual practices, so too must we never allow elections—the most sacred act of our democracy—to become defiled, debased, and destroyed.

Notes

1. From the original American Pledge of Allegiance. The words “Under God” were added only in 1954.

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