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The U.N. special investigator on religious freedom urged countries to repeal laws undermining the right of minorities to worship and hold beliefs, pointing as examples to China’s detention of Uighurs, 21 countries that criminalize apostasy, and sweeping surveillance of Christians in North Korea and Muslims in Thailand.

Gayle Kirshenbaum planned to spend Election Day calling potential voters and urging them to vote. Instead she woke up to the news that the cemetery where her grandparents are buried was desecrated.

The leadership at All Saints, a church with a long history of progressive activism, decided that opening the building to the public and parishioners was “a way for them to be in community."

The pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, once co-pastored by the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., now faces incumbent Sen. Kelly Loeffler in a runoff election in Georgia.

As millions of Americans went to the polls to vote today amid anxiety about the results, concerns about voter intimidation, and even worries about post-election violence, some clergy showed up as election chaplains to bring a calming presence and safeguard voter rights.

As millions of Americans line up — some in church buildings — to exercise their democratic right to vote, dozens of churches decided to open their buildings to celebrate the sacred rite of communion for services called “Election Day Communion.”

Americans voting on Election Day are exhausted from constant crises, uneasy because of volatile political divisions, and anxious about what will happen next. This includes many Christians on either side of the political divide.

A Louisiana man who admitted to burning down three predominantly African American churches to promote himself as a “black metal” musician was sentenced Monday to 25 years in prison and ordered to pay the churches $2.6 million. 

A number of religious leaders, houses of worship, and faith-based organizations are planning spiritual care to help their communities handle the fear, stress, and anxiety throughout the Election Day.

In their final sermons before Election Day, some of the country’s most prominent Christian pastors urged their listeners on Sunday (Nov. 1) to vote, even as they defended the propriety of addressing politics from the pulpit.