On June 6, 1945 ADFD, FATHER DIVINE wrote to Miss Anna M. Betz, Director of the Social Service Department of Harlem Hospital, New York City. He touched on several issues of importance, including modern religion and the need for Constitutional reform that will abolish the Electoral College and employ technology to institute direct democracy. Had the United States heeded this direction from GOD ALMIGHTY FATHER DIVINE, it would have been spared the disastrous presidencies of George W. Bush and Donald J. Trump and all the damage and division they have inflicted.
FATHER writes:
“Likewise with Government similar reforms in outmoded customs must be made. When the colonies became the United States of America, it was necessary, at that time of limited methods of communication, to delegate electorates and to have an electoral college that would cast the final votes. But now in this day when voting machines are in use in almost every poll and could be installed everywhere, even with transmission wires that could register every vote automatically in any central place in the United States, and with instantaneous communication available through radio, it is time we revised and modernized the equipment of government to facilitate a true democratic election.
“This is only one of the necessary reforms that must come and must be made in the mechanics of Government to insure justice and to keep pace with the advances of science. If we do not do so, this Government will become as ineffective in reaching the needs of the people as religions have become, because of the unwillingness of the leaders and teachers in the churches and the so-called representatives of GOD, to advance in the knowledge and understanding of the scientific development of creation according to the Plan and Purpose of GOD.”
There are at least 50,000 letters from FATHER DIVINE on file in FATHER DIVINE’s Library and Museum at Woodmont, which are being digitized and cataloged so that these precious, world-guiding Words of GOD will be preserved and accessible to others in perpetuity. The vast majority of these letters are file carbon copies. Below is a pdf of the file carbon copy of FATHER’s June 6, 1945 letter to Miss Betz.
Authentic democracy requires popular vote; the failure to heed the voice of the people inevitably breeds resentment and division, and eventually, unpredictable upheaval that could either precipitate greater democracy or destroy it altogether. The Electoral College was designed to empower southern aristocracy, a de facto tool for maintaining race and class oligarchy. Like the compromise with slavery itself, the Electoral College is a fatal flaw undermining the whole Constitution. Two presidents in the last 18 years were ensconced by the Electoral College in opposition to the popular vote–and turn out to have been among the worst, most destructive presidents in American history. The current presidency is an unprecedented disaster utterly lacking in democratic or moral legitimacy, engendering a situation in which rejection and non-compliance are social and moral imperatives.