Blog

This post comes from my friend, Rev. Tim Ahrens, a strong advocate for social justice.

In 1912, it was just called “The Initiative.”

The Initiative represented the constitutional right of all Ohioans to shape fair and equitable laws through the ballot box of initiatives and referenda. The Ohio Progressive Republican League helped establish this constitutional right for all Ohioans in 1912. Under this constitutional mandate, ordinary citizens can fight for the control of monied interest that holds sway over elected officials.

For 111 years Ohioans have had this power and used these rights judiciously.

Now, fundamentalist Christians and politically conservative Republicans controlling our Ohio Statehouse want to take this power away from us. They want us to vote on Aug. 8 to approve their divisive idea that we must have a 60% plus one vote to approve all constitutional initiatives.

Sixty percent plus one vote is not democracy. Nowhere in the world does any democracy run with this approach. Nowhere. But Secretary of State Frank LaRose and his henchmen in Ohio want this to happen here.

In a statement on June 8, LaRose said, “This August election is 100% about abortion.” Sadly, this may be the most honest thing LaRose has ever said.

In other words, because he and others fear that Ohioans might vote differently than he would in relation to reforms in our laws to protect women’s rights, he will force the electorate of Ohio to the polls on Aug. 8 to possibly change our constitution for the foreseeable future. They plan to raise and spend more than $20 million dollars, much of it from sources outside Ohio, to persuade us to vote “yes” on a terrible amendment that would forever harm democracy in Ohio.

Do not end democracy in Ohio simply for LaRose and his cronies.

You might be wondering why I am writing on the Faith and Values page about a state ballot initiative. I am writing here because faith and values are never confined to churches, synagogues, mosques and other houses of prayer. We always act on our faith and values in all aspects of our lives. We do at work, in the streets, in the public square, in city hall and also in the statehouse.

I pray every day. I vote in every election. I am a citizen of Ohio as well as a religious leader in Ohio. One cannot be separated from the other.

When I was in college, I was a double major in political science and religion. The two departments were located in our college’s oldest building, named Old Main. The departments were in two adjacent towers. A person had to walk down two flights of stairs and then ascend two flights of stairs to go from one to another.

One of my professors recommended I set up a tightrope to walk between the towers. I loved that image. I have been walking the tightrope between faith and politics all my life. It is what all of us need to practice – tightrope-walking in our daily venture of faith and values.

Our democracy is in crisis. We are faced with a “democrisis.”

Too many politicians have sold out their votes and values to the highest bidder. Too many voters have given up in despair about the state of affairs in politics. The fewer the voters and votes, the worse the crisis becomes.

The cynical politicians in the statehouse are counting on very few people showing up in August so their anti-democratic, anti-American initiative will pass and forever doom any future initiative from coming before the citizens of our state.

In February, Mike Curtin — a former editor and associate publisher of The Dispatch and a former state lawmaker — wrote on the 111th anniversary of former Republican President Theodore Roosevelt’s speech at the statehouse about the initiative of 1912. Roosevelt began by channeling Abraham Lincoln, who 53 years earlier made his first visit to the Ohio Statehouse, where he reprised his “house divided cannot stand” remarks against slavery.

“With Lincoln, I hold that this country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it,” Roosevelt said.

He continued, “You are engaged in the fundamental work of self-government … framing a constitution (to allow) the people … to do justice and absolutely to rule themselves.”

Roosevelt warned of the “false constitutionalism” of conservatives beholden to monied interests.

“The true Progressive, the Progressive of the Lincoln stamp, is the only true constitutionalist, the only real conservative. … We are engaged in one of the great battles of the age-long contest waged against privilege on behalf of the common welfare. … This country, as Lincoln said, belongs to the people,” Roosevelt said.

Lincoln, a keen student of history, knew of Alexander Hamilton’s warning, in Federalist No. 22, of requiring supermajority votes. “What at first sight may seem a remedy is, in reality, a poison,” Hamilton wrote. Empowering minority rule increases the likelihood of bribery and corruption, he warned.

Our supposed leaders in the statehouse allowed — and a number participated in — the largest bribery scandal in Ohio history to take place on their watch. They are not to be trusted. Many of them are bankrolled by big money interests that are purposefully intended to dilute grass roots power.

We need to stop them at the ballot box on Aug. 8. Register now if you need to. Vote on or before Aug. 8. Early voting begins July 11.

Vote no on this anti-democracy ballot issue. Join with two former Republican governors, two former Democratic governors and a host of other democracy-loving Ohioans to end this madness. Join with millions of other Ohioans to keep in place the power of the ballot initiative process – 50% plus one vote – for years to come.

Take the initiative. Come join me on the tightrope between politics and religion as we balance God’s call in our lives to vote our values and acting out justly in the face of unadulterated injustice. Vote no on Aug. 8. The future of democracy in Ohio depends on it.

[This post was published in the Columbus Dispatch on June 18, 2023.]

The Rev. Tim Ahrens is senior minister at First Congregational Church, United Church of Christ in downtown Columbus and author of the book “The Genius Of Justice.”