Church and State

My Catholic parish is also my voting station. And on election day it always seems like the warm heart of our community, the locus of democracy. The heavyset ladies (black and white) make smalltalk while they look you up in the rolls, and the girls basketball team clomps around upstairs in the gym.

It's a long-standing tradition in America to use churches for elections. They are natural gathering spots and the centerpiece of most towns. And for those of us who are religious they are places where we are already in the habit of examining our values.

The mood at my church tonight was congenial; the pastor hurries by, to a meeting in the parish center. Meanwhile volunteers in support of rival candidates chat over coffee in Styrofoam cups and hand out flyers. It's so different from the smash-mouth politics of some local political sites. And I can't help but speculate that there are those, I'm sure, who are annoyed that churches and synagogues are used for elections. A staunch secular materialist might wonder at all of the friendly folks.

Check this web page for Cincinnati election results.