O, goody. There are now several official contenders for our next Presidential election. I can’t tell you how happy that makes me. Since you can’t see me as I write this rambling, let me simply say that my first and third sentences are full of sarcasm. In actuality, I hate election cycles, particularly presidential election cycles. They rarely bring out the best in our nation and its citizens. The more common outcome is the opposite. As a nation, we tend to show how easily we can be swayed by sound bytes and exaggerations. We tend to lay common sense aside rather easily, either to champion our chosen candidate, or to demonize their chosen candidate. And we get nasty. Really nasty.

I am fully aware that political discourse has roamed all over the map of civility in the years since our democracy was founded. We can go back to the 19th century and see how nasty politics could be, which makes me feel marginally better, but not really. We don’t necessarily need to celebrate it when we can step over a bar that is set so low. Slinging mud and drawing blood in politics is as American as apple pie and baseball. Taking a cue from the love of baseball’s statistical wonkery, politics now has its own stats and boxed scores to help us measure how well or how poorly particular candidates are doing. If I were smart, I might actually capitalize on that reality to create Presidential election trading cards.

It’s not the candidates themselves who do most of the

nasty things though. It’s surely their staff and their surrogates that do most of it. But the average person eats it up and joins right in. I don’t like seeing what it does to us; how hatred and vitriol and slander fit right back on the American people like a broken-in baseball glove every time we crank up the political machine. Somewhere inside our collective psyche, we like the ugliness of political campaigns. It’s like rubbernecking the car wreck, watching a prizefight, or sitting in the coliseum as tributes battle it out for our entertainment. We can’t just hear about issues and ideas; we need the reality TV version.

I am aware that we have come back around to a climate of more collegial bipartisanship in the past, but it has typically taken a war or a major catastrophe to do it. No one wants that. So what will it take? What has to happen for such a large system to change? How do we move back to civil discourse and a sense of unity? We are entering this particular cycle with a high level of political dysfunction, even more so than the last few cycles. For all the great things that come with social media and Internet news, one negative attribute of such technologies is the rise in lightening fast attacks and “viral” scandals. Something has got to give.

Call me Pollyanna, but The Episcopal Church still has an ability to lead the way. I heard a comment once from a new Episcopalian who appreciated how often we pray for elected leaders by name. On a typical Sunday of late we prayed for, “Barack, our President, and Nathan, our Governor.” I think we would all agree that these two men aren’t exactly uniform in their political ideas and goals. As we pray for them, we don’t do so to champion either one of them, but because the very nature of their vocation demands our prayers. They are responsible for leadership over large numbers of people, some of whom like them, and some of whom do not. Regardless of how we feel about them as individual politicians, we must pray for them; that God would grant the wisdom and discernment, and a conviction to serve all people justly.

We are already preconditioned to pray for such folks who desperately need our prayers. We know how to pray for our elected leaders, whether we agree with their policies and their politics or not. Whether we do it, is another question. I think we need to pray for all the soon to be named candidates for President (and any other office) as they step forward, whether we agree with them or not. Some might say, “How can I possibly pray for (I don’t know, say, Ted Cruz or Hilary Clinton – you pick one)?” Praying for them doesn’t mean praying for the success of those we like or the failure of those we don’t. It doesn’t mean praying for God to turn their hearts and minds to the political ideology we know to be the God-given truth. It means praying for them for who they are, where they are, and what they face in their leadership.

Beyond prayer, I think we can all make an agreement with ourselves not to pass on blatant propaganda either. We don’t need to forward ridiculous emails or post blindly partisan things on Facebook this time around; we don’t need to repeat ridiculous statements full of hyperbole and cherry picked statistics. Perhaps we can dig deeper for more substantive research on what candidates say and do, and what their records are, without the extra helping of drama and snarky memes. I certainly think we should have our favorite candidates; lawn signs and bumper stickers are fair game. But I don’t think we need to embrace the mud and blood arena of politics. In fact, I think such engagement is bad for the soul – our individual soul and our national soul. We can present a different approach: a prayerful and hopeful approach that draws us to civility and towards unity.

I really don’t like the political election cycle. Maybe this time will be different.

Tom+

Almighty God, whose kingdom is everlasting and power infinite; Have mercy upon this whole land; and so rule the hearts of thy servants The President of the United States, the Governor of this State, all others in authority, and those who aspire to serve in such offices, that they, knowing whose ministers they are, may above all things seek thy honor and glory; and that we and all the People, duly considering whose authority they bear, may faithfully and obediently honor them, according to thy blessed Word and ordinance; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with thee and the Holy Ghote liveth and reigneth ever, one God, world without end. Amen. 1928 Book of Common Prayer, p. 132, with an addition for those running for office.