10/27/2026
THE FIRST TIME HE VOTED, IT WAS ABOUT MORE THAN AN ELECTION.
In 1968, a young J. Wendell Mapson Jr. walked into a voting booth in Newark, New Jersey, carrying the memory of generations who had been denied that same opportunity. His candidate lost, but the significance of exercising that right remained with him.
In this week's Ministry Matters, Pastor Mapson revisits that unforgettable experience and reflects on voting rights, citizenship, moral responsibility, and the approaching midterm elections.
⬇️ Read Below
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OUR VOTE IS OUR VOICE
Ministry Matters
by Rev. Dr J. Wendell Mapson Jr
October 26, 2026
I can still remember the sense of excitement and euphoria that welled within me when for the first time I stepped into a voting booth in my hometown of Newark, NJ to cast my ballot for president of the U.S. along with other candidates seeking political office. At the time, the voting age was 21 not 18, and I had to wait two more years past my birthday before the next presidential election took place.
Though my candidate lost on November 5, 1968 (Richard Nixon defeated Hubert H. Humphrey), what mattered most was that I had participated in a process that my ancestors had been denied. I had benefited from their sacrifice that opened doors previously shut and engaged in a constitutional right for which many of them had shed their blood. My voice had been heard. My citizenship affirmed.
I had been brought up in a home and church where voting was not just encouraged but demanded. I listened to sermons from my father, who, along with my mother, was denied the opportunity to vote in elections in the South. I had lived through the untimely deaths of NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers and the three civil rights workers slain in Neshoba County, Mississippi for attempting to register African Americans to vote.
Over the decades that followed, that sense of excitement and euphoria has neither abated nor diminished. My personal preference is not mail-in voting but going to the polls so that others who don’t even know me may see me cast my vote. For me, my physical presence at the polls is a public statement affirming my role and responsibility in the democratic process, and a repudiation of the attempt to once again disenfranchise Black and brown people through gerrymandering and political intimidation. It’s the 1960s all over again. The old adage is true: “The more things change, the more they remain the same.” This time around, however, the enemy is slicker, more sinister, more dangerous, and more determined to take us back.
Which brings us to the midterms which are just days away. If voting doesn’t matter, just think how different our nation and our world would be if Al Gore and John Kerry had not lost to George Bush, and if Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris had not been defeated by Donald J. Trump? What if American voters had made a different choice?
The polls say that a change is a ‘coming. Yet, we know from past experience that the polls are not always accurate. Polls can be misleading. We shall see. Still there is the sense that a fresh wind may be blowing. Voters have been given an opportunity to repudiate a MAGA agenda that has upended the very foundations of our democracy. Politicians who have the best in health care have snatched those benefits from those who need them most.
The rich whose name is “Dives” and who enjoy sumptuous meals at fine restaurants have snatched SNAP benefits causing more hunger in a nation that has the capacity to eliminate hunger. We have a president obsessed with golf courses and ballrooms for the rich, an INDYCAR series motorcar race on the National Mall celebrating the nation’s 250th birthday, an ostentatious arch and attaching his name to the Kennedy Center while waging a senseless war with neither a justifiable rationale nor an exit plan. America has become the world’s pariah, a bully that nations neither respect nor admire.
Perhaps the tide has begun to turn, and the president’s powers have begun to wane. Too bad that Americans didn’t care that how he governed in his first term would get even uglier in his second term. Too bad that Americans, who were fine when his political and economic policies hurt others, only began to care about the direction of their country when those policies began to hurt them.
Too bad Americans were silent when the administration started a senseless and immoral war with Iran. Silent during the inhumane treatment of immigrants. Silent in response to the “Big Beautiful Bill,” which may be big but certainly not beautiful. Silent while food programs and health benefits for the most vulnerable are cut. Silent when charges of sexual abuse against the president were first made known. But it seems that the high price of gasoline and the cost of groceries were too much to bear. Too bad that Americans who will protest a bad economy will not protest immoral policies promoted and supported by an immoral leader.
I am dismayed that too many Black men have concluded that the man in the White House whom they worship represents real masculinity as opposed to toxic masculinity. I am dismayed that this is the world we adults are handing over to the next generation. They deserve better. But I am even more dismayed if the next generation thinks that opting out of the political system will make things better when our vote is our voice.
Voting is a sacred privilege, a Christian responsibility, and a moral duty. Our national quagmire and moral bankruptcy will not change by prayer alone. An African proverb says, “When you pray, move your feet.” Let us pray by moving our feet and may our vote be a whispered prayer.
Lest we fail to remain diligent following the election, even if the Democrats gain power, the threat remains. The threat that this administration will not accept the results of a fair election and that election deniers will again assert that the election was fraudulent. The economy will still be in shambles. The war will still rage in Iran. But just maybe we will see some light at the end of the tunnel.
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Mapson
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Reflection Question:
How does remembering the sacrifices that secured voting rights shape our understanding of citizenship, civic responsibility, and the importance of remaining engaged beyond Election Day?
