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According to the PRRI American Values Atlas, 13% of the U.S. population identifies as white evangelical Protestants. But here’s what surprised me: The percentage of the population who identify as white mainline Protestants? Also 13%. Especially during election years, pollsters tend to obsess over the former—and have less interest in the latter. Hardly a day passes before I get a new poll or survey finding about how white evangelicals are (or aren’t) voting and what they do (and don’t) believe—though as my colleague Mitchell Atencio notes, some polling on evangelicals deserves scrutiny. But while white evangelicals tend to attract headlines, Michael Woolf doesn’t want us to overlook the influence of mainline Protestants, especially in an election year. As he puts it: How mainline Protestants “handle this election will have ramifications for years to come.” Woolf is no stranger to the pressure many mainline congregations are facing. As a mainline Protestant pastor himself, he knows decades of declining attendance and church closures are all too real. Yet he observes that these mainline Protestant anxieties—about declining membership, congregations that are losing political diversity—can prevent churches from living into what makes these diverse denominations distinctive and faithful. “The fact that our congregations contain diverse viewpoints doesn’t mean that we should shy away from using the gospel to critique political power,” he says. Regardless of your religious identity, I encourage you to go vote if you haven’t already. And if you need something to read while we await the results, here are our picks: ¡Presente!: Labor leader Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farmer Workers, died yesterday at age 96. She is credited with the movement’s slogan “Si, se puede.”
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