According to the pundits and experts, the 1973 decision to legalize abortion outraged millions of Americans and mobilized them into a powerful movement to defend the rights of the unborn. But this tale turns out to be a myth.

(RNS) The road to the White House is no longer white and Christian. President Obama won last week with a voter coalition that was far more racially...

The days were long, but the dedication of these volunteers was inspiring. When I would look around the room, I knew I wasn't surrounded by my regular church family, but I was surprised that it still felt like church for me.

Not only did conservative Christians not adhere to their own principles embedded in their theology, but they also shirked their beliefs by acting in ways that were not "Christlike" because of their disdain for the president.

The residue of the election lingers in our hearts and heads like those election signs still loitering in yards and medians. This election told us that we are more divided as a nation than ever. Now it's time to see if we can live together.

What Francis of Assisi said of preaching is equally true of voting: do it without ceasing, and do it on Election Day only when necessary.

What became clear last night is the way to reach the world is not through fear, discrimination or a movement farther right. It's through faith, love and equal treatment of all people.

As this dramatic season of political contests culminates in today's election, there are those who will predicate their privilege by choosing to abstain from voting. I am unimpressed.

Though we may feel as if we share little more than a zip-code with the voters beside us, in truth we share that great American feast and tradition: the ballot box. Nov. 6 is our festival day.

The choice this nation makes today will have an enormous impact upon the freedom, health and safety of American women and girls. As a teacher of pastoral theology and care, I urge readers to consider the well-being of women when you cast your vote for president on Tuesday.

We have to engage. After all, Jesus spent a lot of time talking about the real stuff of his world -- day laborers and unjust judges, widows and orphans, strangers and immigrants, abused women and exploited workers, redistribution of wealth and reconciliation with enemies.

I saw a headline here at Faithful Democrats the other day that asked, "Who Would Jesus Vote For?" The question gave me pause. What would it even look like for Jesus to vote?

This political season, we've heard politicians argue that if persons do not have the means to afford health insurance society should, essentially, let them die. This unyielding position is correlated with the rise of politicians who refuse to work together.

Hispanic evangelicals are the quintessential swing voters. If Pew's research is correct, the approximate 7.5 million Latino evangelicals are an electorate that is not easily tied to any political party.

Perhaps because of the long informal establishment of (Protestant) Christianity as America's culture-religion, long ago the American Church became confused about what exactly it means to be the Church.

We should not go into the voting booth informed only by warm sentiments but instead by an informed understanding of the real social consequences of what the candidates' policies would be.

That sounds harsh and I do not mean for it to be unkind. But frankly, I'm growing exceedingly weary of the nonsense that uninformed and misinformed Christian ministers wail about almost continuously.

With bullet point accuracy, political score cards aim to size a candidate up depending on a specific vote on this or that issue. Their purpose is to help voters sort who are the political sheep and who are the goats. We need a gospel score card.

In the New Testament, there is only one sin that gets the divine death penalty: hypocrisy. There is a reason. It's the devil's best tool against the Christian witness. And it's what so disappoints me about the Republican approach to faith and politics.

A number of my Christian friends have been saying they are not going to vote in the 2012 elections. As a Mennonite whose spiritual history is linked to removal from society, I can respect the belief that not voting is a way of subverting the powers of this world. And yet I'm concerned.

Despite inheriting a wrecked economy, President Obama has indeed moved our nation in the right direction in ways that advance the common good. We need Barack Obama to continue the hard work of repairing our nation.