Opinion: Prayers for leadership that serves, listens to all people

Dear Ms. Handel:

America woke up last Wednesday to the news that you have defeated Jon Ossoff in the special election to become the Congressional representative for the 6th District in Georgia.

While the rest of the country will begin to analyze what this means for this new Administration, its agenda, and what this means in a very divided nation, it is my hope that you will take moment to pause and reflect on what being elected in the place where you are, in a time such as this, means to those people that you represent. I’m sure that no one has to tell you the election results were much closer than anyone would have predicted when this race began. And while you are the winner in this race, you do not have a mandate.

I am writing to you as someone who doesn't live in your district, but as someone whose job has put me into a situation similar to the one in which you find yourself in now. I am not a politician. I am a pastor. I am one of the pastors of a large church that has people on both sides of the political spectrum and all of those in between. I am a pastor to several individuals who live in your district, some who supported you and some who worked very hard to #flipthe6th. With that said, here is what I would ask you to remember: You serve and represent all of them. ALL of them — whether they supported you or not.

As someone who has made missteps in leadership in this divided time in our nation, it is easy to ignore the divisions that exist in our political districts and even our churches. Every Sunday, I stand before a congregation that, along with their hopes and joys, brings their burdens and especially their fears with them into the church.

Some fear they will lose their healthcare, and some fear that the ACA will continue. Some fear that the current immigration laws will allow the U.S. to be overrun with terrorists, while some fear that if our country does not allow for broad policies of immigration, the humanitarian crisis in our world will become a crisis of an epic scale. Some of my parishioners fear the pervasiveness of guns in our society, while some fear that their second amendment rights will be stripped of them and they will lose the right to protect themselves and their families.

Ms. Handel, I must remind myself that I have been called to be a pastor to all of them, with all that they bring with them. But here’s an even more important lesson that I have learned, while the people that I serve are all over the political spectrum, they are all part of a Christian congregation. They all stand shoulder to shoulder on Sunday morning, confessing their sins, confessing the Apostles Creed, and they all come to the altar to receive Holy Communion.