How to follow God’s command to love one another during an election year

An op-ed from Pacific School of Religion Professor Dr. Leonard McMahon

BERKELEY, Calif., Sept. 27, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — God entreats us to, “Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another,” in John 13:34. While we may all agree with this sentiment in the abstract it can feel difficult in an election year when James Baldwin’s quote, “We can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist,” feels more urgent.

The closer the election gets, the more urgent it feels. Yet, for progressive Christians the call to love remains. But how can we, when so much is at stake?

Remember that there is a discipline to love. Contrary to what many conservative evangelicals claim, progressives do not subscribe to a do-whatever-you-want lifestyle of no accountability. Instead, the discipline of love means we focus on the presence of compassion, vulnerability, courage, and trust in our connections with all people.

Sadly, conservative evangelicals have it backwards. The discipline of agreement they promote these days—on doctrine, ethics, politics—is easy because no one has to love across difference.

In fact, in the name of agreement, many evangelicals will endorse the loss of reproductive freedom, the rollback of LGBTQ rights, the promotion of racist stereotypes, and harsh proposals like Project 2025.

“Democracy is, or should be, the most disinterested form of love,” wrote Ralph Ellison in 1957. The framers of the Constitution accepted that people will always disagree and designed our institutions to make the best of this fact. But institutions are only as good as the people who believe in them. When we lose faith, we can choose the easy road of agreement or the difficult road of difference. Authoritarians will sell the easier path, but I believe in the discipline of democratic love.

Dr. Leonard McMahon is Assistant Professor of Pastoral Care, Spirituality, and Political Theology at Pacific School of Religion (PSR), a progressive Christian seminary and graduate school. Through his consultancy, Common Ground Dialogue, McMahon seeks the common good through political theology, spirituality, and pastoral care. PSR offers Doctoral, Master’s, and Certificate programs. PSR is also home to the Center for LGBTQ and Gender Studies in Religion (CLGS), and the Bade Museum of Biblical Archeology.

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SOURCE Pacific School of Religion