Pennsylvania faith leaders try to keep the peace in a tense battleground state
'All faiths really share this desire for God's greater peace and unity,' says Rev. Anna Layman Knox
Rev. Anna Layman Knox has seen first-hand how the U.S. presidential election is sowing division in her community.
That's because Knox is the pastor of the Grace United Methodist Church in Harrisburg, Penn., which is located just steps from the legislature of one of the biggest battleground states in the country.
"There is certainly a tension in the air," Knox told As It Happens host Nil Koksal.
That's why she joined forces with other Pennsylvania faith leaders on a mission to keep the peace and promote civility as the U.S. heads into a hugely contentious election between Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump on Nov. 5.
"It's a desire to make a public statement that all faiths really share this desire for God's greater peace and unity to emerge, and for us all to be a part of that," she said. "Every faith in the world shares that hope."
Watching it all unfold from a church window
Knox's office has a view of the Pennsylvania State Capitol, a stately domed building just up the street from Grace Church.
"It has always been, in my experience, a place of gathering for all kinds of different political points of view. And that has certainly been the case over the last few months," she said.
From her window, she's seen rallies from across the political spectrum, and heard "lots of different viewpoints being shared through the megaphones."
"We consider that to be a good thing, that there can be that free expression," she said. "But there have also been a few instances of people acting in more of an intentionally intimidating way."
She's referring to a neo-Nazi march in August, which has been condemned by the city and the state. She didn't see that one first-hand, she says. Instead, a congregant took her aside after Sunday service and showed her a video.
"It was a devastating moment for her and for me," Knox said.
But even then, she says, she did what she always does — asked her congregant to pray for the people in the video.
"Intimidation is, you know, kind of derived from wells of despair. And so I ask them to always pray and to seek to understand more deeply where that rage comes from."
Interfaith coalition
Last month, Knox didn't just watch the political action at the Capitol; she took part in it.
She joined her colleagues at Choices and Voices for Peace — a coalition of Pennsylvania faith leaders that includes rabbis, priests and imams — as they went to the legislature to appeal for peace heading into the election.
"Tensions have been rising, and all of our religious traditions preach peace and love," Rabbi Ariana Capptauber of Harrisburg's Beth El Temple told The Associated Press. "We know that that's the highest value in our country — and our highest value."
After their demonstration at the Capitol rotunda, the group gathered for lunch at Grace Church and planned for the tumultuous weeks ahead.
"We're protecting our communities," said Rev. Erin Jones, who works for a state advocacy arm of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which organized the peace rally. It also led a petition asking Pennsylvanians to respect each other as they head to the polls.
"The choices we make there will be a statement about the way we want to live together here and now and the kind of tomorrow we want to leave for our children," reads the petition signed by more than 300 Pennsylvania religious leaders.
Fears of violence
Knox says she holds onto a belief that people are good, and she hopes that goodness will prevail even as election tensions rise.
"I also know it's a reality that there could be unrest and even potentially violence," she said.
After all, Pennsylvania is where some of the first protests erupted in 2020 supporting Trump's false claim that the election was stolen. The string of demonstrations eventually exploded into the Jan. 6 riots, where demonstrators stormed into the U.S. Capitol.
Knox has installed what she calls a "peace pole" outside her church, which features the words "May Peace Prevail On Earth" in six languages.
It's a message she says will hold strong, even after the election comes and goes.
"The work of peace cannot be stopped," she said. "There will be a day after the election, [and a] day after that, and after that, and we'll still be there, and we'll still be doing this work."
With files from The Associated Press. Interview with Anna Layman Knox produced by Leslie Amminson
