Protect the Vote. Protect Faith Freedom.
Your right to worship depends on your right to vote. Take away the vote, and people lose control over their own lives, their own communities, their own churches.
Here are election resources for you and your community.
Access Resources
Protecting voting rights can feel like a monumental task. These resources provide accessible and tangible ways to get started, with items you can adapt to best meet your community’s needs.
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Executive Override Faith Companion Guide
Created by Sojourners in partnership with Protect Democracy, this resource brings a faith-rooted perspective to the challenges facing the 2026 midterm elections and offers practical ways for faith leaders, congregations, and people of conscience to respond before, during, and after Election Day.
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Faithful Civic Engagement Guide
No one congregation or organization can do it all. This one-page document from BJC helps you consider where your congregation is today and choose a few next steps that align with your gifts, relationships, and your community’s needs.
Specific Action Steps for November
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Become a Poll Chaplain
Poll chaplains are volunteers of faith who ensure that voting rights are preserved ,and the voting process moves freely, fairly, and without hinderance. Anyone of faith, including clergy or lay leaders can be poll chaplains. Turnout Sunday has more information, and you can sign up for trainings in September or October.
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Send Postcards to Engage Under-Represented Voters
Everyone deserves equal voting representation. The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism created resources to encourage voter engagement in under-represented communities. You can request cards before September 25.
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Report Concerning Behavior at the Polls
See something at the polls? Be sure you know what to do if you encounter an issue. Save and share the Center for Common Ground’s tool to report incidents of election issues.
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Join or Create a 'Protect Our Vote' Team
The RAC has a wealth of voting rights resources available. Along with their voter engagement cards, they have started Protect Our Vote Teams, which you can get involved in, both through training programming.
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Webinars
BJC joined with Protect Democracy and Sojourners for a webinar about what’s at stake this election year, and we introduced the Executive Overreach Faith Companion Guide. Original airdate: July 14, 2026.
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Resources for Churches
You cannot divorce religion from politics or separate Christians from the duties of secular citizenship. Religious people have the same right as anyone to communicate convictions in the marketplace of ideas, working for public policies by preaching, teaching, lobbying, voting and running for office.
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But What About the Separation of Church and State?
Houses of worship have a role in protecting democracy, and the institutional separation of church and state does not require a banishment of religion from public life. BJC’s Chief Legal Officer Holly Hollman wrote a column on this topic in 2024.
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Understanding the Johnson Amendment
The Johnson Amendment is a portion of the tax code that protects 501(c)(3) organizations, including churches, from opposing or endorsing candidates for office. It protects the core charitable mission of churches and preserves religious liberty. We have a guide for churches during election season and a page with more information.
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Liturgies for an Election Year
The Progressive National Baptist Convention released a guide called “The Hope of America and the Reality for Black and Brown People” this summer. While offered to churches to use near Independence Day celebrations, it has ideas and resources that many congregations might find helpful. “It is time for us to resist the status quo and demand full inclusion in this democratic experiment,” said the Rev. Dr. David Peoples.
Stay Involved With BJC
Voting rights don’t just matter during election season. If you want to stay involved and informed about voting rights beyond the midterms, connect with or start a local group with BJC.
Additional Articles and Reading
The BJC Center for Faith, Justice and Reconciliation encourages you to think about how you can use your freedom to protect other freedoms — as well as others’ freedoms.
Here are a few resources and articles from the Center about voting rights election readiness.
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The evolution of voting rights in the United States
See the progress and setbacks to voting rights throughout our history in this timeline, first published in our spring 2024 magazine.
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Protecting voting rights is a matter of human dignity and justice
We must reaffirm the right to vote as a right to dignity and acceptance in our democracy. Read Dr. Sabrina Dent’s story, first published in 2024.
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Christian nationalism drives voter suppression efforts
Supporters of religious freedom and the separation of church and state must work together to protect democracy and all Americans’ right to vote.
