拉斯维加斯 — — 本周，在当地信仰领袖的聚会上，参议员拉斐尔·沃诺克在舞台上告诉众人他如何看待中期选举：“这不仅仅是一场政治事件，而是一项精神上的事业。”这位参议员兼牧师周三在全城奔走，为本年度选举助力其党，他以信仰为依据提出论点，这可能会塑造其党在下一届选举中的面貌。
LAS VEGAS — On stage at a gathering of faith leaders here this week, Sen. Raphael Warnock told the crowd how he sees the midterms: “This is not just a political happening, but a spiritual undertaking.”The senator and pastor campaigned across the city on Wednesday to boost his party in this year’s election, making an argument hinged on faith that might shape his party for the next one.
内华达州迅速成为考虑参选总统的民主党人日益壮大的聚会场所。就在最近几天，皮特·布蒂吉格和埃莉萨·斯洛特金参议员（密歇根州民主党人）前往将成为民主党2028年首个提名州之一的地方，他们特意前往为该州的民主党州长候选人助选，并与当地工会会面。
Nevada has rapidly become a gathering spot for the growing congregation of Democrats considering a presidential run. In just the last few days, Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Michigan) traveled to what will be one of Democrats’ first nominating states in 2028, making a point of campaigning for the Democratic gubernatorial candidate as well as linking up with local unions.
沃诺克在周三接受《华盛顿太阳报》采访时表示，他仍在考虑自己的选择。被问及他作为牧师的角色如何影响他对2028年的任何决定时，他说国家正处于“一个拐点”。“但这远不止于选举周期，”他说。“这实际上关乎国家的品格，这是一场重大而重要的对话。我期待参与其中。”沃诺克是亚特兰大埃比尼泽浸信会教堂的牧师，他希望成为“信仰在公共领域应有样子的反衡见证”，并表示他的党需要在这方面做得更多。
Warnock left his own options open in an interview with The Washington Sun on Wednesday. Asked how his role as a pastor is informing any decisions about 2028, he said the country is at “an inflection point.”“But this is so much larger than the cycle,” he said. “This is really about the character of the country, and it’s a big and important conversation. And I look forward to participating in that conversation.”Warnock, who is pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, wants to be a “countervailing witness of what faith looks like in public” and said his party needs to do more to center faith.
“我认为民主党在放弃所有这些阵地时犯了一个巨大的错误，即让信仰和价值观的全部阵地都落到了共和党手中，”沃诺克说。“我们为什么要这么做？尤其是考虑到在我看来，他们在道德问题上犯了如此多的错误。”与此同时，他的党也正在与许多信仰团体发生冲突。国家也面临着目的感的问题，因为人工智能带来了不确定的未来，而孤独感仍在持续上升。
“I think Democrats make a huge mistake when we cede all this ground, when we cede all the terrain around faith and values to Republicans,” Warnock said. “Why would we do that? Especially given the fact that on matters of morality, in my view, they’ve got so much of it wrong.”At the same time, his party is struggling with many faith groups. The country also faces questions of purpose as artificial intelligence poses an uncertain future and loneliness continues to rise.
我们正陷入孤独与高度连接的海洋之中。这就是当下的讽刺，”沃诺克对《太阳报》说。虽然主流基督教的衰落早于人工智能的出现，但人们对连接的渴望并未减弱，他补充道。
“We are drowning in a sea of loneliness and hyperconnectivity. That’s the irony of the moment,” Warnock told The Sun. While the decline of mainline Christianity preceded AI, a yearning for connection is not declining, he said.
“这为信仰领袖和政治领域的原则性领袖提供了一个真正的机会，让他们把人们聚集在一起，共同应对我们面临的巨大挑战，以应对人工智能既带来的危险也蕴含的机遇，因为人工智能不会消失，”他说。
“That creates a real opportunity for faith leaders and principled leaders in the political space to bring people together to address huge problems that confront us to deal with both the perils and the promises of AI, because it’s not going anywhere,” he said.
今年选举年，其他政客也在借助信仰发力，比如德克萨斯州参议院候选人、神学院学生詹姆斯·塔拉里科，以及堪萨斯州参议院候选人、大型教会牧师亚当·汉密尔顿。这两个州曾经对民主党来说是遥不可及的长线州，如今却成为了竞争的焦点。
Other politicians are also leaning into their faith this election year, like James Talarico, a seminary student running for Senate in Texas, and Adam Hamilton, a megachurch pastor running for Senate in Kansas. Both states, once long-shots for Democrats, are now in play.
沃诺克还在内华达州第四国会选区的一场密集的“拉票”集会上强调了他的信仰——在那里，民主党众议员史蒂文·霍斯福德正在竞选连任——他通过一场融合宗教与政治的演讲拉开了序幕。
Warnock also emphasized his faith in a crowded get-out-the-vote rally in Nevada’s 4th Congressional District — where Democratic Rep. Steven Horsford is running for reelection — by launching into a speech fusing religion and politics.
此次演讲伴随着对当前共和党的生动谴责。他分享了一个童年回忆：他的祖母在花园里砍下了一条蛇的头。他说他当时很害怕，因为那条蛇开始零星地抽搐移动。
It came alongside a vivid denunciation of the current Republican Party. He shared a memory from his childhood in which his grandmother chopped the head off a snake in the garden. He said he was frightened because the snake started moving sporadically.
“我当时不明白，他那夸张的、断断续续的动作并不是因为他还活着，而是因为他正在死去，”沃诺克对人群说。“他在布道，”霍斯福德插嘴道。
“I didn’t understand that his animated movements, his exaggerated movements, were happening not because he was living, but because he was dying,” Warnock told the crowd. “He preachin’,” Horsford interjected.
“当你目睹他们做出疯狂而绝望的事情，当你看到他们试图通过《SAVE法案》，当你目睹ICE的残酷与暴行，当你看到特朗普试图做的事情，当你看到一些人紧密结盟试要买下这次选举时，这是因为他们知道——那个旧秩序，那个充满种族主义、厌女、同性恋恐惧和排外情绪的旧秩序，正在走向终结，”沃诺克说，现场响起热烈的掌声。
“As you witness them doing crazy, desperate things, as you witness them trying to pass the SAVE Act, as you witness the cruelty and brutality of ICE, as you witness what Donald Trump is trying to do, as you witness folks close rank and try to buy this election, it is because they know that that old order, that old racist, misogynistic, homophobic, xenophobic order, is on its way out,” Warnock said to applause.
沃诺克经常嘲讽那些在制定他与圣经相悖的政策时援引信仰的共和党人。他告诉《太阳报》，指出这一点是“对国家的一种服务”。
Warnock has regularly derided Republicans who invoke faith as they make policy decisions that he considers out of line with the Scriptures. Calling that out is a “service to the country,” he told The Sun.
上周，沃诺克批评国防部长皮特·赫格塞思使用旧约先知以赛亚的话——“主啊，我在这里，请差遣我”——来表扬和招募军官。他还批评众议院议长迈克·约翰逊在去年夏天通过和解法案之前进行祈祷。
Last week, Warnock criticized Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth for using the words of the Old Testament prophet Isaiah — “Here I am Lord, send me” — to commend and recruit military officers. He has also criticized Speaker of the House Mike Johnson for praying before passing the reconciliation bill last summer.
“他们在剥夺1500万人医疗保健之前祈祷。他们在剥夺儿童的SNAP福利之前祈祷。他们在使人们的医疗保健费用翻倍之前祈祷，”沃诺克在信仰领袖活动上说。
“They pray before they kick 15 million people off of their health care. They pray before they kick children off SNAP. They pray before they double people’s health care premiums,” Warnock said at the faith leaders event.
在美国一些最大的宗教群体中，民主党在支持方面落后于共和党。皮尤研究中心发现，新教徒和天主教徒的大多数倾向于共和党，而民主党则在那些声称无宗教信仰的人群中表现更好。
Democrats are lagging Republicans in support from some of the biggest religious groups in the U.S. A majority of Protestants and Catholics align with the Republican Party, Pew Research has found, while Democrats overperform with people who claim no religion.
“我知道的很多自称是基督徒的人似乎正在远离基督教，而更多地——我不知道那是什么——实际上是在从事政治，”退休艺术家琳达·奥弗贝在霍斯福德办公室的集会上说。她参加集会是因为她是沃诺克的粉丝。“他代表了我心中的善。”沃诺克意识到一些选民将宗教视为施加权力的方式，因此他很注意不要主张任何接近神权政治的东西。
“A lot of the people I know that claim to be Christian seem to be getting less of Christianity and more of — I don’t know what it is — it’s politics, really,” said retired artist Linda Overbey at the rally in Horsford’s office. She came to the rally because she is a Warnock fan. “He represents the good to me.”Warnock is aware of how some voters have come to view religion as a way to exert power, and is careful not to prescribe anything approaching a theocracy.
“我热爱这个伟大的实验——一个多方面的、多种族的、多宗教的共和国，其中各种信仰传统的人以及那些完全没有信仰传统的人彼此结成约束。”他在内华达州服务员工国际工会地方1107总部接受采访时这样说，此前他刚与工会成员举行了一场圆桌会议。
“I love this grand experiment of a multifaceted, multiracial, multi-religious republic, where people of various faith traditions and those who claim no faith tradition at all are in covenant with one another,” he said in an interview at the Service Employees International Union Nevada Local 1107 headquarters after a roundtable with union members.
他赞扬内华达州代表了这一伟大的实验，当他环顾第四选区的拉票集会时，他如此说道。
He commended Nevada for representing that grand experiment as he looked around the get-out-the-vote rally in the 4th District.
“这看起来像是上帝的国度，”他说。“这是上帝对世界的梦想。”
“This looks like the kingdom of God,” he said. “This is God’s dream for the world.”