Leading up to the election, Bishop David Bard encourages us to vote, showing up with a demeanor that enhances democracy and reflects who we are as God’s beloved in Jesus Christ…
One unique coincidence between our United Methodist church calendar and the national calendar is that bishops are elected and assigned in the same year as our presidential elections.
Just a few months into my time as your bishop, I wrote the following (2016): “We have an election on the horizon and I encourage each of you to go to the polls and vote. Vote with Christian principles in mind — justice, freedom, peace, concern for those on the margins, deep hospitality. Vote with biblical stories echoing in your heart — the heroic Samaritan, the healing of the Syro-Phoenician woman, the strong words of the prophets. Yet when the voting is done, and the office holders are elected, remember that the real work begins.”
A few years later, in 2020, another presidential election year, and writing during the pandemic and shortly after the murder of George Floyd, I penned these words: “Yet there are moral concerns which are also political concerns, political in the broad sense of having to do with our life together as a country, not necessarily political in the narrow sense of partisan politics. One of the challenges of our time, though, is that anything that has a broad political dimension is forced quickly into narrow partisan politics. Nevertheless, we cannot let our concern that others may quickly label us politically, keep us from speaking to moral issues which are also political issues, and speak out of our prophetic tradition. One of the descriptions of the role of a bishop in The Book of Discipline is that a bishop will have ‘a prophetic commitment for the transformation of the Church and the world. The role of the bishop is to be a prophetic voice for justice in a suffering and conflicted world through the tradition of social holiness.’”
It is 2024, and we are moving toward another presidential election and elections for multiple offices. As I have in the past, I encourage you to go and vote, voting with the principles of our Christian faith in your minds and the biblical stories in your hearts. Vote and continue working for a better world — kinder, more just, more compassionate, and less violent. In a democracy, the people help determine the direction of the country and the tone of our political culture.
We help determine the tone of our political culture. That brings to mind a word that may not always find its way into our civic conversations but perhaps should: demeanor. As followers of Jesus, we are encouraged to bring together demeanor and democracy.
Demeanor is the way in which one behaves, their deportment, how one “carries” oneself, how one shows up and presents oneself. Demeanor is how our attitude toward others is reflected in outward behavior. Artificial intelligence (AI) offers these adjectives to accompany demeanor: calm, cool, gentle, confident, decisive, easy, haughty, folksy, and sweet. I could add others: courteous, dignified, condescending, demeaning.
I recently got to thinking about demeanor while reading a history of the Civil War by Bruce Catton. Catton grew up in Benzonia, Michigan, near Frankfort, and wrote about his childhood and youth in Waiting for the Morning Train. This book is particularly interesting for describing the lumber industry in northwest Michigan at the turn of the last century. In his book about the Civil War, This Hallowed Ground, Catton describes the political culture of the mid-1850s. “Yet angry words were about the only kind anyone cared to use these days. Men seemed tired of the reasoning process. Instead of trying to convert one’s opponents it was simpler just to denounce them, no matter what unmeasured denunciation might lead to.” This suggests a certain kind of demeanor displayed by many in that divisive time. It was not a sign of a healthy democracy.
Healthy democracy is nurtured and nourished by habits and practices and certain ways of showing up that I would call demeanor. If our demeanor is characterized by anger, rancor, disrespect, absolute self-righteousness, and injudicious use of language, it erodes democracy. Democracy thrives when our demeanor is marked by curiosity, listening, respect rooted in a sense of shared humanity, mutual learning, humility when one’s side prevails in a vote or election, graciousness when one’s side loses a vote or election, and attention to how we use our words. On this last point, a healthy democratic demeanor calls out injustice and expresses our heartbreak in the face of violence in ways that offer hope and do not demean others. We can call out unjust actions or demeaning behavior from others without demonizing them.
Healthy democracy thrives when we show up and display a constructive demeanor. This may sound superficial. Shouldn’t we express what we are feeling? Shouldn’t anger at injustice be given full voice? Aren’t we being hypocritical when we don’t express our feelings?
I am reminded of the image used in Colossians 3. “As God’s choice, holy and loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Be tolerant with each other . . . . And over all these things put on love” (vv. 12-14, CEB). I also appreciate Eugene Peterson’s rendering in The Message: “So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered . . . . And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.”
The language of “putting on” and “wearing” is a wonderful description of demeanor. To encourage a certain kind of demeanor means acknowledging that we may not feel as warmly toward someone as we are displaying. There is an important distinction to be made here. On the one hand, there may be an incongruity wherein one appears in one way but acts in another, which undermines one’s appearance. One says kind things to someone but works quietly to undermine and hurt. This is unacceptable.
On the other hand, one may have powerful feelings about something and choose to express those feelings judiciously. There are more constructive and destructive ways to express one’s anger about injustice, and attending to demeanor is to search for more constructive expressions. One may disagree strongly with the political position of a friend or family member yet remain courteous toward them.
Certainly, Jesus is about the transformation of our hearts. And sometimes, our hearts are transformed when we display a demeanor that may be just a little bit ahead of how we are feeling.
As followers of Jesus, we are invited to dress in the wardrobe God picked for us: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. We are encouraged to be even-tempered. Regardless of what else we put on, we are to wear love. It’s our basic all-purpose garment. And it just so happens that such a demeanor nurtures and nourishes a healthy democracy.
Go vote. Work to make the world better. Show up with a demeanor that enhances democracy and, more importantly, reflects who we are as God’s beloved in Jesus Christ.