Explainer: What you should know about the Electoral College

On Tuesday, Americans will go to the polls to finish casting their ballots for the 2020 election. But while that will complete the process for many of the offices they are voting for (such as for Senators or state legislatures), it is merely the first step in the Electoral College process that is used to elect the President and Vice President of the United States. Here is what you should know about that process.

What is the Electoral College?

Although the term “Electoral College” is never used in the Constitution (Article 2, Section 1, Clauses 2 and 3), the electors that choose the President at each election are traditionally called a College (meaning a group of people organized toward a common goal). The Electoral College was proposed by James Wilson, a leading constitutional lawyer among the Founding Fathers, at the Constitutional Convention. Wilson’s plan was offered as a compromise between those who wanted the Congress to choose the president and those who believed the election should be decided by the state legislatures. The Framers were generally in agreement against giving the people the power to directly elect the president.

This Week at the ERLC

• Russell Moore joined Iowa Baptists virtually for their annual meeting. He will also do an interview that airs Sunday with the Philos Project about this current polarized moment. He was also quoted in Baptist Press about the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett.

• Jason Thacker was on MPR discussing conspiracy theories and social media. He also talked about QAnon.

What You Need to Read

• Jason Thacker with What is our role in social media renewal? Online discourse and loving our neighbors

One of the powerful ways that technology forms us is over a long period of time through the small decisions we make along the way. The breakdown of our civil discourse did not happen overnight and neither will the restoration of loving our neighbors as we seek better communities, online and in person. The small steps that you can take right now with your social media consumption and habits can alter the trajectory of our interactions and life in this technological society.

• Kendal Conner with How to talk to your teen about race

So while Gen Z may be a generation consumed with the idea of justice, they are also a generation who knows little of its Author. This is why we, who know the God of righteousness, must speak about issues of justice with our teenagers. When justice is found outside of the gospel, it is not true justice. And when the gospel we speak is void of justice, it is less than biblical.

• Dennis Greeson with How do we rightly relate church and state? Augustine on the times in between

In this time between the times church and state should remain clearly apart in their authority and social responsibilities. However, because Christians are to fill the offices of the state in order to uphold justice and enact laws for the common good, religion and politics must always be intermixed and mutually influencing. The state’s job is to ensure there is freedom to do so, while the church’s job is to fill society with the type of Christians who give guidance on the proper use of such freedom.

News From Capitol Hill

This week, Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed by a vote of 52 to 48 in the U.S. Senate to be an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Commending the final confirmation vote, Russell Moore urged prayer for Justice Barrett, her new colleagues in the nation’s highest court, and the Barrett family:

“Easy questions do not come before the Supreme Court of the United States; those cases are settled long before ever getting there. Therefore, all of us should pray for Justice Barrett, and for all eight of her now colleagues on the bench, that they would have wisdom and prudence and conviction as they make decisions on big questions that often affect the lives of generations of Americans to come. Additionally, we should pray for the Barrett family, and especially her seven children, that the years to come would be for them years of thriving and joy.”

Here is our explainer on what you need to know about Justice Barrett and key rulings from her time on the 7th Circuit. To learn more, check out this article from Josh Wester exploring her judicial philosophy, “according to Barrett, originalists ‘insist that judges must adhere to the original public meeting of the Constitution’s text.’”

Of the cases on the Supreme Court’s docket in November and December, next week for oral arguments will be heard in Fulton v. Philadelphia, a case on foster care and religious freedom. The ERLC filed an amicus brief this summer with a wide range of religious institutions arguing that the Court’s decision in Oregon v. Smith should be reconsidered because of its disastrous effect on religious freedom.

For more on the case ahead of next week’s arguments, here is a snapshot from our friends at Becket, who are representing the foster moms:

“As dedicated foster parents, Sharonell Fulton and Toni Simms-Busch are heroes to countless kids. Between them, they have welcomed more than 45 foster kids into their loving homes—the majority of whom came from disadvantaged communities and experienced severe trauma. To do the hard work of caring for these kids, Sharonell and Toni (both Catholic themselves) partner with Catholic Social Services, one of the most successful foster agencies in Philadelphia. But in March 2018, the city government stopped placing kids with foster parents that partner with Catholic Social Services (like Sharonell and Toni), demanding that the agency change its religious practices or close this important ministry.

In May 2018, several foster moms stood with Catholic Social Services to challenge the city’s unlawful exclusion of this agency and its families from the foster care system. Catholic Social Services and its foster families—represented by Becket—are hopeful that the Supreme Court will protect their freedom to continue serving kids in need without compromising their deeply held religious beliefs.”

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