Gov. Kehoe’s call to gerrymander Missouri is anything but Christian | Opinion
Is gerrymandering Christian?
Named for a salamander-shaped senate district in 19th-century Boston, the gerrymander was a snake in the Eden of American democracy. Using maps to dilute the voices of ordinary voters, the original gerrymander reached all the way to the New Hampshire border. Even in Puritan Massachusetts, nobody called it Christian.
Gerrymandering isn’t a Christian practice, but you wouldn’t know it from the rhetoric coming out of Jefferson City.
The Bible condemns dishonesty and putting your finger on the scales, but that’s just what our politicians are doing in the special session called by Gov. Mike Kehoe.
Claiming to speak for all Christians, they are doing their best to disenfranchise them by diluting the votes of Missouri’s cities. Senate President Pro Tem Cindy O’Laughlin called this an expression of the state’s “Christian conservative majority,” but there is nothing Christ-like about exclusion.
Ironically, the No. 1 goal of the special session is to defeat Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II, who is also Reverend Cleaver, a pastor who served St. James United Methodist Church.
It isn’t Christian to target one of three ordained ministers currently serving in the U.S. House of Representatives.
It isn’t Christian to gerrymander one of Missouri’s most diverse congressional districts.
It isn’t Christian, or constitutional, to use redistricting to privilege conservative Christians when that means disenfranchising other Christians and people of every faith.
Missourians come from all religious backgrounds, and from no religion at all. The First Amendment forbids the establishment of religion in our state and in our nation. Rabbi Doug Alpert of our Missouri Faith Voices board adds: “While I know from my valued Christian clergy colleagues that the comments of Gov. Kehoe and Senate President Pro Tem Cindy O’Loughlin in no way represent Christian values, the bigger point is that in our Missouri Constitution, our state is prohibited from creating legislation that establishes any one religion over another. Kehoe and O’Laughlin’s goal is both clear and alarming: to establish our state and our country in the mold of narrow white Christian nationalism that does not represent our Missouri values or the values upon which our Founding Fathers formed our nation.”
As people of faith, we condemn Gov. Kehoe’s call to gerrymander our congressional districts. As representatives of 100 congregations across the Show-Me State, we condemn the use of religion to legitimize dishonest district maps.
The special session is an unconstitutional effort to disempower ordinary residents of our state. Far from Christian, it is a partisan attempt to dilute the influence of African American voters.
Besides gerrymandering our congressional districts, the politicians in Jeff City want to destroy the initiative petition process, one of the purest forms of direct democracy.
In a state whose official motto is, “Let the welfare of the people be the supreme law,” our politicians think the people have too much power.
Missouri’s governor warns that out-of-state interests are deceiving Missourians and that voters are too gullible to be trusted. Gov. Kehoe, thou shalt not bear false witness.
Ballot initiatives on Medicaid and sick leave did not win because of special interests. They won because Missourians believed that the welfare of the people should be the supreme law — people like Irene Livingston, who notarized thousands of signatures to expand Medicaid.
Why did Livingston devote countless hours to the cause? Not because of special interests. No, Livingston worked to expand Medicaid because of her sister, who died because she couldn’t afford health care. She worked to expand Medicaid because of her commitment to human dignity.
The General Assembly must not take away the voice of the people. Instead, Missouri must be a place where justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
The Rev. Susan Schmalzbauer of Nixa is interim executive director of Missouri Faith Voices, a nonpartisan, multifaith, multiracial, social justice nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting racial equity and economic dignity. She wrote this essay with board member Rabbi Doug Alpert of Kansas City, Secretary Dr. Michael Dunn of Jefferson City, Vice President Rev. W.T. Edmonson of Jefferson City, Board President Rev. H. Russell Ewell III of Webster Groves, board member Dr. Bob Hill of Kansas City and Treasurer Forestal Lawton of Kansas City.
This story was originally published September 3, 2025 at 12:58 PM.