The Sacred Duty of Voting
As I drove home from work on “Super Tuesday” (March 1st), I saw something really encouraging. The local library on Frankford Road near Preston Highlands had a line of people coming out the front door, down the sidewalk, and almost into the road. There were people parking across the street and running through busy traffic to get over to the library. There was a line of cars trying to get into the parking lot of the library. It was a scene you typically do not see at a local library – especially since reading books is a lost discipline in our society!
What I saw was encouraging because it reminded me how many people still make the effort to get out and vote on Election Day. People stood in lines all over Texas (and ten other states) on that day in order to vote in the Presidential Primary Election (and several local elections). I hope that you made the effort to vote on “Super Tuesday” (or earlier), and if you did not, let me encourage you to make sure you are registered to vote so that you can be ready to vote in the general election on November 8, 2016. If you are not sure if you are registered, or if you are not registered, go to www.votetexas.gov to register or check on your status.
This article is not about a particular candidate or even a particular political issue. The intent of this article is simple: to encourage you to vote. Voting is a sacred duty for every individual, but especially for Christians because our faith provides two of the bedrock principles upon which any democracy is built.
The first biblical principle that our democracy is built on is the dignity and equality of every person. The Bible teaches that every person is made in the image of God (Gen. 1:26-27). Christians therefore believe that all people are created equal. One of the implications of this belief is that all people should have an equal say in their government. This biblical principle influenced the way the Founding Fathers of the United States crafted the Declaration of Independence. The second sentence of the Declaration says, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”
This political idea was revolutionary because it stood in direct contrast to the assumptions of many European nations at that time, who held the view that only a special group of people known as “royalty” had the right to rule over ordinary people. The Founders of the U.S., however, said that, because everyone is created equal by God, everyone has the right to be a part of the “ruling party,” or government. Our democracy – our right to be part of the political process through voting, is based on the biblical principle that all people are made in the image of God. Therefore, not voting is a failure to live out one of the implications of being made in the image of God.
The second biblical principle that our democracy is built on is the principle that every human heart contains moral evil, or sin. Every person who has ever lived is made in the image of God and yet fallen in sin. This means that every person is capable of great good and great evil. The potential for human evil and sin is why there should be limitations on the power of human governments. Governments are made up of individuals and individuals are prone to pride and greed and lying and stealing. So there should be limitations on the power of government.
One of the most obvious ways to limit the power of government is through the public referendum that happens at every election. We the people get to decide whether or not a man or woman is morally qualified to hold, or continue to hold, a public office. If they have broken trust with the people and pursued their own self-interests, we limit their power by voting them out of office. In this way, we the people are able to protect our government and our nation from sinful people. Thus, to not vote is to not take our moral responsibility to limit the powers of human government seriously.
Of all people, Christians should view voting as a sacred duty because our democracy is built on biblical principles. Voting is a way we display our equality as image-bearers of God and a way we limit the influence of human sin by limiting the powers of human government.
Voting is a privilege and a responsibility given to us from God and won for us through the sacrifice of millions of men and women. Wayne Grudem, in his book Politics According to the Bible, argues that our responsibility to vote means that we have a responsibility to learn what God says about government. He says:
“In a democracy a significant portion of the ruling power of government is entrusted to the citizens generally, through the ballot box. To be able to vote is to have a share of ruling power. Therefore all citizens who are old enough to vote have a responsibility before God to know what God expects of civil government and what kind of moral and legal standards he wants government to follow.”
There is an abundance of good material available to Christians who want to heed Grudem’s challenge. A good place to start is the Grudem book quoted above, Politics According to the Bible. Grudem provides a good foundation for a biblical approach to politics, but he also discusses what the Bible says concerning over sixty contemporary political issues. If you want to engage this subject with friends or fellow church members, there is an excellent study written for small groups called The Good and Faithful Servant: A Small Group Study on Politics and Government for Christians by Hugh Hewitt.
The sacred duty of voting is a responsibility, but it’s also a stewardship. To quote Grudem again: “The opportunity to help select the kind of government we will have is a stewardship that God entrusts to citizens in a democracy, a stewardship that we should not neglect or fail to appreciate. That at least means that Christians are responsible to learn enough about the important issues to be able to vote intelligently.” This idea of voting as a “stewardship” means that God will hold us accountable according to what he has given us, and in America, we have been given the power and the ability to shape the direction of our country, to protect the weak, to promote justice and righteousness. And, as Jesus said, “Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required” (Luke 12:48).
Not voting is not only bad stewardship, but I would argue that it also disqualifies people from touting their opinions on those who are elected to serve as our public officials. It’s the height of hypocrisy to express dissatisfaction with politicians and yet be disengaged from the political process. To not vote is to essentially say with your actions: “I don’t care what happens to the country that God has placed me in,” which is not a biblical option for Christians (Jer. 29:7).
It remains to be seen who the nominees for our next President will be, but the process leading up to their nomination is exciting to me because it reminds me that we the people actually have a say in who the leaders of our country will be. The people of North Korea, China, and many other countries would love to have that kind of power in their countries.
God is sovereign over the affairs of all nations, including who is elected and who is not. But his sovereignty does not cancel our responsibility. We have a responsibility to pray for the leaders God places over us (1 Tim. 2:1-2) and we have a responsibility to take an active role in the process of electing those leaders.
May God give us grace and wisdom as we exercise our sacred duty to vote,
Pastor John