(RNS) — Barely a month ago, more than 150 million Americans went to the polls and voted for their new leaders in Washington. No matter how you voted, the results are in and a new administration and Congress are preparing to take office next month. With that, our work at the Friends Committee on National Legislation continues.
Our persistent, nonpartisan Quaker advocacy organization has more than 80 years of experience lobbying Congress and various administrations, and we look forward to working with the incoming 119th Congress on a wide range of issues of concern to our community — war and peace, economic justice, immigration, the environment. We also feel compelled to raise a warning of the threats we see in the reelection of Donald Trump as president.
We are deeply concerned by the renewed threats a Trump presidency presents to the dignity and lives of millions in our country and around the world, many of whom we work with daily. We call on President-elect Trump to uphold the Constitution, comply with national and international norms and laws and to respect the rights and dignity of all people.
We regard the 118th Congress as a vital time to prepare for the opening weeks of the 119th. With this year’s appropriations bills still unfinished, crucial funding decisions on poverty alleviation, peacemaking and security at risk have yet to be made. With the new administration signaling its intention to make major new cuts to federal programs for those most in need while extending tax cuts for the rich, now is the time to vigorously engage with lawmakers.
The United States is a democracy, no matter the threats lining up against it. But our democracy depends on all Americans’ active and engaged participation. With the election season behind us, we need to turn to the ongoing work of building democracy day by day, in our communities and with our elected officials, those we agree with and those we don’t.
In 1659, the English Quaker preacher Edward Burrough said, “We are not for one party or against another. … We are for justice and mercy and truth and peace and true freedom, that these may be exalted in our nation, and that goodness, righteousness, meekness, temperance, peace and unity with God, and with one another, that these things may abound.” This is as true today as it was before the United States existed.
For our part, we will redouble our efforts to create cooperation across political divides and foster peace amid conflict. Diversity of thought is one of the greatest strengths of our democracy. We are committed to working with all political parties and across the beautiful diversity of our country to advance our sacred, beloved community. That includes seeking common ground with the second Trump administration to advance laws and policies for the common good.
As people of hope, we will persist in our belief that our democracy is strongest when we are all engaged with it and with one another. Not Republicans. Not Democrats. Not independents. But all who call this nation home.
As people of faith, we’ll bring a voice of moral conscience to the policy process. We stand in solidarity with people most impacted by the policies our federal government implements. We affirm our commitment to building the world we seek, a world free of war and the threat of war, with justice and equity for all, where every person’s potential may be fulfilled, and where our precious Earth is restored.
Most importantly, we will continue to fiercely advocate and lovingly defend human dignity and protect the rights of all people. We will stand firm in our historic peace witness that war is not the answer because peace is possible and within reach. We will lobby to protect the environment and the fullness of God’s creation.
Faith calls us to practice hope during tough times and to narrow the gap between what is and what should be. We are called to live a prophetic witness for the world we seek and to put our hearts and hands to action for it.
We are called to love our enemies, without exception, and to work for the transformation of our world into the community we know is possible.
The election is over; our work is not.
(Bridget Moix is general secretary of the Friends Committee on National Legislation and its associated Quaker hospitality center, Friends Place on Capitol Hill. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.)
