I’ve made some changes in my views on voting over the last few years. I’ve gone from pro-voting to anti-voting to my current in-between stance. I want to review some of my reasoning in upcoming posts, but I’d like to hear your thoughts:
- Do you plan to vote?
- If so, do you plan to vote on all issues and candidates? If you only plan to vote on some things, how will you pick and choose?
- How does your Christian faith affect your decision as to whether or not to vote?
- If you are a voter, how does your faith affect how you vote?
And don’t limit yourself to those questions. I’d rather not discuss particular candidates at this point, but I’d like to hear anything you’d like to share on voting in general. Thanks!
For years, I didn’t vote … based on a belief that God literally chooses leaders (Daniel 2:21 et al). And I didn’t want to vote against God’s wishes. Okay, I was little more than a teenager at the time.
Then I didn’t vote for a while, mostly because I felt overwhelmed by the responsibility and the compulsion to know all I could before voting wisely. Gathering the necessary information in those pre-Internet days was a TASK!
Getting over that (and realizing that I was at least as well-informed as most of my fellow voters), I cast my ballot for many, many years. I voted for local referenda, constables, state legislators and governors, candidates for Congress and for the Presidency. I researched, read, considered prayerfully, then voted as wisely as I could.
Now I’m faced with a quandary. I cannot settle upon a single current Presidential candidate that I can vote for in good conscience — either as a believer or a citizen, and certainly not both.
I would sooner cast a protest vote by writing in “Pat Paulsen” than to affirm any of the current cast of characters running.
So at this point, I will probably be voting for a number of other issues and candidates.
And leaving the boxes at the top unchecked.
I find myself going back and forth, but I keep coming back to this: Paul, via Timothy, tells us not to take part in evil. Furthermore, we get warned repeatedly about getting caught up in the fears, concerns, and discontent of this world.
Being politically active encourages both of these problems. I cannot personally condone with my vote one whose party line encourages open sin, nor can I endorse a person whose party thrives on fear, animosity, and basic greed.
When I try to look into issues relating to the election, I find myself caught up and led into attitudes that fail to reflect Christ in my life. So I find I must, as much as it is possible, practice political abstinence.
Therfore, I will likely not vote. And I will remain content in Christ whatever the outcome. I hope.
Gotta love the reference to Pat Paulsen, but, boy, you sure reveal your age if you get the joke.
I am a Reagan baby – cut my political teeth celebrating Reagan’s massive victory over Pres. Carter. Then came crashing down when I realized that Reagan’s victory only gave us eight years of Clinton, which only gave us eight years of Bush lite, which only gave us eight years of Obama. Now, faced with either Trump or Clinton redux, I am utterly bereft of any hope at the highest levels of our government.
Somewhere along in my journey I discovered (or rediscovered) David Lipscomb. His theology struck me like a lightening bolt. His understanding of the “two kingdoms” (not Augustinian, and therefore not Lutheran) has helped rescue me from the myopia that afflicts most modern discussions of politics. As I read Lipscomb, we cannot, underline cannot, participate in the kingdom of the world without accepting the guilt for promoting the evil that inevitably comes from the sin of greed and power mongering. (Bonhoeffer had an interesting take, but I digress.) And, politics is all about greed and power. This was my great epiphany of the Reagan (and first Bush) presidency. No one elected to a position of that amount of power can abstain from the evil that is inherent in the position.
I do not condemn those who vote – but I do want to challenge their motivations for doing so. Why is “voting for the lesser of two evils” a Christian concept? How can voting for someone because their opponent supports abortion, while the chosen candidate supports unrestricted use of torture and the use of clandestine drone strikes be considered a Christian action?
I fear voting reveals far more of our inherent worldliness than it does our Christlikeness. The more we pray “thy kingdom come, thy will be done” the less we are interested in the politics of this passing world.