Wednesday morning, as the bells of the San Fernando Cathedral resounded over Main Plaza, a small group of interfaith leaders gathered before an audience of two dozen people to promote post-election civility in San Antonio.
“We have come to the end of a particularly painful and polarizing election season,” said Sue Briner, bishop of the Southwestern Texas Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. “There are those who are rejoicing and those who are weeping today as we look into the future.”
Organized by Interfaith San Antonio Alliance and the faith-based Texas Impact public policy nonprofit organization, the gathering was meant to reaffirm San Antonio’s status as a compassionate city and to plead for calm amid potential unrest in the wake of the divisive 2024 presidential election.
Former President Donald Trump won a second term over Vice President Kamala Harris, and Republicans won a majority in the U.S. Senate. In Texas, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz successfully defended his seat against U.S. Rep. Colin Allred.
A higher calling
Migdalia Garcia, director of the San Antonio Peace Center at Northwest Vista College, told the crowd that the choice of location for the gathering was deliberate: directly between the cathedral and the Municipal Building, “in the heart of San Antonio, between the intersection … of faith and politics.”
Wyndee Holbrook, executive director at Interfaith San Antonio Alliance, read a prayer by Native American theologian Steve Charleston, quoting, “Let me not look away, O God, from any truth I should see. Even if it is difficult, let me face the reality in which I live.”
Holbrook turned the microphone over to San Antonio First Lady Erika Prosper, who emphasized “the need to be safe, the need to be fed, the need to be seen and the need to be loved” as universal values and facets of the city’s “higher calling for moving forward.”
Briner said that people of faith must abide by their calling, “to welcome the stranger … to be vigilant guardians of truth, refusing to perpetuate lies or half truths that further corrode the fabric of our society,” to denounce violence “whether in speech or in action” and to “build bridges of understanding rather than erect walls of intolerance.”
No candidates or political affiliations were mentioned, though the divisive rhetoric of the election season was acknowledged.
Mara Nathan, senior rabbi at Temple Beth-El, said, “We are at an inflection point in our nation’s history. It’s hard to deny that what many of us spend our lives trying to achieve — acceptance, equality, inclusion for all — seems just a little further out of reach this morning.”
Nathan continued, “Waking up this morning, whether you were delighted or despondent at the news or a combination thereof, we are a very varied and vast nation, and the only way that our republic holds together is if we keep being out there, keep talking to people, keep seeing every other person — whether we agree with them or not — as a human being.”
A new day
Juan Ayala, a retired Marine Corps Major General and City of San Antonio director of military and veteran affairs, addressed the audience wearing a Military City U.S.A. T-shirt.
Ayala said that in 36 years in the military he served under seven presidents and learned that “the people I served with are a reflection of our country,” representing every state, multiple countries around the world, both genders and all faiths.
But under duress, such as a post-hurricane rescue or in combat, Ayala said of recognizing and helping others, “We don’t care what they look like. We don’t care what religion they are, who they voted for, who they love … we care about making sure that we bring home and we take care and protect the person on the left, and the person on the right.”
Ayala’s comments drew cheers from the small throng, which drew passersby as the speakers continued.
DreamWeek founder Shokare Nakpodia spoke of a maxim learned in his native Nigeria: “When two siblings are fighting, both of them are wrong.”
He said, “Elections are not a snapshot of who wins or who is right, but really a way of introducing ourselves to our neighbors,” adding that the difficult issues of the day such as the war in Gaza, abortion, immigration and gun control remain unresolved.
Penny Owens, a leadership empowerment speaker standing in the crowd, said faith drew her to the morning gathering. “Life goes on regardless of who wins, blue or red,” Owens said. “The only thing you can control is yourself. … Don’t get distracted by what’s in the media and on the news or other people’s fears. It’s important to be grounded and be aware.”
To close the event, Garcia led the group in reading aloud a compassionate city pledge that included, “Being kind while maintaining the right to disagree.”
Texas Impact executive director Bee Moorhead said such interfaith gatherings and discussions are “what needs to happen in every community,” and that “when we speak on an issue, it’s not on behalf of a particular set of individuals with ideology. It’s more intended to be the broad, shared, deeply held social values that all the faith traditions come together around.”
Debra Ponce, a climate justice organizer for advocacy group Public Citizen, talked with attendees and speakers after the event. Before leaving, she said she came “to give myself a boost, and to ground myself. Just to be with others and know that it’s a new day, and we just have to accept this is the future, and we have to move forward.”
