Election Dinner

Prior to moving to California, I lived in Idaho. Idaho is very different from California in many ways. It is a state that is mostly public lands. The population of the entire state is about 1 1/2 million, which is about the same as the population of Sacramento County. It is also a state that is, for the most, part politically monochromatic. Almost all elected officials are from the Republican party and the state always votes for the Republican presidential candidate. Idaho has never been a political battleground. Which means the political parties really did not have to pay any attention to Idaho. Prior to my 12 years in Idaho, I lived 8 years in Hawaii, which was a monochromatically Democratic state. Consequently, for almost all of my adult life, I've lived in states that campaigns did not care about. Which means, prior to moving to California, I saw very, very few political advertisements. I remember watching the news and wishing I could see the ads that everybody was talking about.

Boy has that changed! Now I'm pretty tired of the political divisiveness and rancor. I wonder what damage we are doing to ourselves by this constant negativity. As a congregation we do not have to give into the voices of fear and judgementalism. We can be a different kind of community. We can model grace even when we disagree politically.

And we can do this is a concrete way this Tuesday. Because we are a polling place, many of our neighbors come here to vote. We will be offering them free dinner from 5pm to 8pm. This is an important and rare opportunity for us to model grace and hospitality at a time when poeple will be anxious and excited about the election. I hope you can help with this event. Volunteers are welcome to help from 1pm until about 9pm. I hope to see you there!
Blessings,
Brian Baker