Over the last year Dave and I have been kicking around the idea of “Kingdom Democracy” (or maybe kingdœmocracy) as we try to encourage our fellow Christians to adopt a hope-filled, faith-inspired perspective on democracy and how we’re governed. We haven’t quite managed to write the book yet, but it has been brilliant to take things that we know in our bones and put them into words.
It’s also been a powerful exercise in challenging me to put what I believe into practice at a personal level. That led to my prayer walk along the boundaries of the Croydon constituencies, the election night prayer watch party, the time spent praying for every one of our new MPs and subsequently trying to turn that tool into an actual product called PrayReps at Code for the Kingdom BUILD.
I was hoping PrayReps would be online by now. It’s not there yet, although good progress made with the underlying data. Going back to work has definitely slowed progress. So, no product on the internet but I did repurpose my old locally hosted ChatGPT-assisted code for the US Presidential, Congressional and Gubernatorial elections. Now, with the final result finally being confirmed at the end of last week I can finally publish this blog post.
It’s a blog post in three parts.
1. PrayReps USA
Let’s start with the heart hex map of the USA. Each heart represents an elected representative prayed for through PrayReps.
There is an important change from the map produced in July. Red had been my default for the colour of the hearts (because hearts are red, right?). But that unintentionally,and unhelpfully, came across as partisan, especially in the US context. So now it’s multicoloured. I loved the heart maps before, I love them even more in this format. Thank you Foluwa for prompting a change that reflects the diversity of governance while keeping the focus on prayer rooted in love.
2. The democratic health of the USA
US politics looms large in the minds of the politically interested around the world but particularly in the UK. We are indirectly impacted by its machinations, though probably not to the extent that we might follow it. But we external observers definitely have many comments about what we see playing out at the national level.
When preparing PrayReps I started off prepping the dataset for the ~7000 elections that took place in the US on November 5th before limiting the scope. That exercise brought me face to face with a shocking discovery: 30% of all races were uncontested; over 1,500 people were elected before a single vote was cast!
We might decry the limited variety we see in the UK’s Parliamentary politics but our multi-party system does produce a blend of elected representation. The vibrancy of that political diversity can absolutely be seen in our local elections. Indeed, the increasing fragmentation evident in July’s general election is reflective of a healthier plurality of perspectives being voiced in pursuit of national consensus. Maybe one day we’ll even manage some electoral reform (preferably born out of a deliberative, citizen assembly based process).
But across the pond the situation is not only very firmly two party at the national level, in great swathes of the US there is effectively single party government at the state level. It is at least quite balanced, as by my count of unopposed candidates I made it 871 Democrats to 824 Republicans (and a couple of Independents). Even before a vote was cast in the national elections, 20 of the seats in Congress had the same experience
In six states, with a total population of 27 million people, more than half of the seats were uncontested. In Massachusetts for example, 146 seats out of 200 were won (mostly by Democrats) before a vote was cast. The inverse scenario played out in Wyoming with 56 out of 77 seats being won by Republicans when nominations closed (2 Democrats did win under the same conditions).
These are some troubling foundations for democracy. State level legislatures still have meaty responsibilities and deserve a healthier level of democratic activity than this. Just imagine how we’d respond if Denmark (a country with a similar population to Massachusetts) held elections where only a quarter of parliamentary seats were contested.
US State level unopposed elections
| Seats up for election | Total unopposed | Democrats | Republicans | Proportion unopposed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wyoming | 77 | 58 | 2 | 56 | 75% |
| Massachussetts | 200 | 146 | 129 | 17 | 73% |
| Rhode Island | 113 | 70 | 67 | 3 | 62% |
| New Mexico | 112 | 64 | 39 | 25 | 57% |
| Kentucky | 119 | 65 | 17 | 48 | 55% |
| South Carolina | 170 | 89 | 26 | 63 | 52% |
| Georgia | 236 | 122 | 57 | 65 | 52% |
| Delaware | 51 | 26 | 17 | 9 | 51% |
| Illinois | 138 | 66 | 40 | 26 | 48% |
| Pennsylvania | 228 | 100 | 53 | 47 | 44% |
| Arkansas | 118 | 51 | 14 | 37 | 43% |
| South Dakota | 105 | 45 | 1 | 44 | 43% |
| West Virginia | 117 | 48 | 3 | 45 | 41% |
| North Dakota | 69 | 28 | 4 | 24 | 41% |
| Indiana | 125 | 48 | 16 | 32 | 38% |
| Texas | 165 | 59 | 42 | 17 | 36% |
| Kansas | 165 | 58 | 21 | 37 | 35% |
| New York | 213 | 72 | 50 | 22 | 34% |
| Vermont | 180 | 59 | 35 | 22 | 33% |
| Tennessee | 115 | 32 | 11 | 21 | 28% |
| Missouri | 180 | 48 | 18 | 30 | 27% |
| Iowa | 125 | 32 | 16 | 16 | 26% |
| Utah | 89 | 22 | 2 | 20 | 25% |
| Idaho | 105 | 24 | 6 | 18 | 23% |
| Oregon | 75 | 17 | 12 | 5 | 23% |
| Hawaii | 63 | 14 | 13 | 1 | 22% |
| Wisconsin | 115 | 21 | 19 | 2 | 18% |
| Alaska | 50 | 9 | 4 | 5 | 18% |
| Washington | 123 | 22 | 13 | 9 | 18% |
| Nevada | 52 | 9 | 4 | 5 | 17% |
| North Carolina | 170 | 27 | 24 | 3 | 16% |
| Maine | 186 | 27 | 16 | 11 | 15% |
| Connecticut | 187 | 27 | 19 | 8 | 14% |
| Montana | 125 | 17 | 4 | 13 | 14% |
| Arizona | 90 | 12 | 9 | 3 | 13% |
| Florida | 140 | 17 | 17 | 0 | 12% |
| Ohio | 115 | 10 | 6 | 4 | 9% |
| Colorado | 83 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 6% |
| New Hampshire | 424 | 24 | 16 | 8 | 6% |
| Minnesota | 134 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 4% |
| California | 100 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1% |
| Michigan | 110 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1% |
3. Five reflections on the actual outcome
It’s now been a month since the result of the election and the reality of a second Trump term. The obvious things have all been said. Many of them were said 8 years ago and in the intervening period positions have just become more entrenched. By no measure was Donald Trump a suitable candidate for re-election except for apparently the only one that matters: whether Americans would vote for him.
The personal challenge I find in the call of the Kingdom Democracy Project is to keep my eyes fixed heavenwards and on God’s heart for good governance. The eternal perspective of the Kingdom of Heaven is my reference point for thinking about political leaders and the health of nations. And it has brought me to a place where the cry of my heart is “that the people who govern the world would fall in love with the values of the King and His Kingdom”. Hence PrayReps.
But that hasn’t meant an unfeeling contentment with the election result in some fatalistic, “God’s will be done” kind of a way. Rather I find myself reflecting five things:
1. I’m reminded of how my church in 2016 responded to the news then. It was good word then, it’s still a good word today. The disclaimer at the top of that about how I feel and respond to the election outcome remains true: It is easy for me to write this as a middle class, white Brit for whom oppression is not something I’ve ever directly had to put up with. My response is therefore more theoretical than what faces people who are already reporting the sorts of post-Brexit hate we had here. I hope I would always seek solidarity, not safety.
2. Unlike precious years I quickly hit saturation with the election coverage and its aftermath. I have the luxury of distance and found myself uninterested in the analysis about why the result was the result. I am definitely not losing myself to anxiety but when I wrote about Presidential facial hair it wasn’t to trivialise things but to engage without engaging.
3. The hopelessness and anxiety of the apparent situation is hugely at odds with where I am in my spirit and seeking God in this moment. Trump is not the Messiah and he’s not the Antichrist. He is an imperfect, fallen and broken person. Just like me, and just like all of us. Yes, he does of course have outsized influence over the lives of others but I’m not much of a Christian if I don’t put my trust in God’s sovereignty over all of time, which includes these next four years.
4. Elections involve hundreds of people being elected. We are in danger of focusing on a problematic President as ‘the tip of the spear’. But no spearhead penetrates without a stick to carry it or a hand to throw it. All those elected to serve, from President down, can have their lives transformed by relationship with Jesus and the pursuit of His Kingdom. Jesus has a thing or two to say about what public office looks like so I’ll keep praying for that to be their reality.
5. The greatest insulation against the abuse of power are ordinary people living lives of integrity and reflecting the values of the King and His Kingdom (whatever their personal motivations, beliefs or intent). No matter how dark the world is, and it is in a horribly messy place right now, corrupting influences in the highest offices or on the street shouldn’t get very far if it comes into contact with the Body of Christ pointing to Jesus as their King and living out the values of that Kingdom. That is as true as the circumstances leading to someone getting elected as it is in how they wield that power. So, as much as prayerful focus is needed on the President, there is as much need to be praying for the character of my brothers and sisters in Christ who surround, and one hopes, disciple him.
Back in July it was an amazing outcome of my prayer marathon to find genuine love in praying for all our MPs. Early on in the process I can’t say that came as naturally as it did by the end. And this time around I struggled when the President-elect came up, but the more I stuck to the task, the easier it became.
And my takeaway was actually to reflect on the fact that if I really, genuinely, properly care for Donald Trump to have the sort of fellowship with his maker that I do then why haven’t I regularly been investing time in prayer rooted in love for him over the last 8 years?
And so I’m back to the vision for PrayReps – a tool to make it easy and possible to hold those who are elected to serve in prayer out of love for them and all they do to serve their communities and their countries, everywhere and at every tier of government.
4. Bonus multi-coloured heart map of UK constituencies
