What does it mean to love your neighbor? In our fraught political and social climate, we are confronted every day with stories of people who struggle with expressing love. As followers of Jesus, we seek to follow his teachings and his example, and he placed a high priority on love, particularly love for others. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus teaches us that we should consider everyone our neighbor, even people who look, think, act, believe, and yes, even vote differently than we do. We don’t want to be divided against our neighbors, and we will vote to love them beyond any election cycle, into the next year and beyond. “Voting,” while overtly political, can also be interpreted in many ways; e.g. cleaning up the neighborhood park could be a way to “vote to love your neighbor.” Working for equality and justice, practicing environmental stewardship, and demonstrating Christ-like hospitality are all ways of voting to love your neighbor. Our prayer is that we all develop a lifestyle of caring for our neighbors with our words, our actions, and our ballots.
Listen to Dorothy Shank share about the inspiration behind this project:
Please contact Erin Conway (erin@ridgewaymennonite.org) if you, your church, or your organization are interested in getting involved and would like a copy of the Love Your Neighbor graphic.