I recently read this timely post from Baptist Press titled When God’s people fail to vote. I figured it would be good if I included this article as an outside perspective – one that disagreed with my own position(s). There have been many great comments that disagree with me. I think that this article is wrong and that the author has misjudged scripture… but I’d still break bread with him. The article is basically a summary of his book, “Sinful Silence.” The title seems a little harsh. I am not sure that either party should say the other is sinning by voting or not voting.
Here is the article:
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)–Evangelicals have a pitiful record when it comes to voting. Over the last 30 years, on average only half of eligible evangelicals took the time and made the effort to go to vote in a general election for a president, and far fewer bothered to vote in the primaries.
It’s fair to ask, “So what?” Does this really matter to God? Is He really concerned about the primaries?
At one time I had concluded that perhaps it didn’t. I knew God absolutely was concerned about moral issues in our nation, such as abortion and homosexuality, and as a pastor I passionately represented those concerns in various ways. But I assumed that He probably wasn’t so concerned about such mundane things as elections and voting.
That was until a politically active Christian brother challenged me to study God’s Word on the matter. I did a word study on “justice,” which took me to the Hebrew word “mishphat,” which took me to the first chapter of Isaiah. What I found there rocked my world. From Isaiah 1:10-31, I found undeniable and irrefutable principles regarding our role and responsibility in the civil arena — principles that should drive us to our knees, and then to the polls.
In Isaiah 1:10, the mighty prophet declares: “Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; listen to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah!” The Lord, in this scathing rebuke, equated the rulers of Judah with the rulers of Sodom. But what had they done that would justify such a harsh comparison?
Isaiah revealed their wickedness in 1:17, where he declared that the nation had failed to “seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.” Isaiah continued the indictment in verse 23, where he proclaimed: “Your rulers are rebels, companions of thieves; they all love bribes and chase after gifts. They do not defend the cause of the fatherless; the widow’s case does not come before them.”
This alarming indictment was because of Judah’s civil sin. The national leadership had failed miserably in key areas of civil responsibility: justice, deliverance from oppression and protection for the helpless. They had also allowed their rulings and policies to be influenced by bribes and “gifts.” God explicitly identified this failure as “evil” in Isaiah 1:16, and equated these civil sins with the depravity of Sodom and Gomorrah in 1:10.
But why would a fair and just God include the general population of Judah in this indictment? These failures came from Judah’s national leadership, not the average person on the street. When we look closely at Judah’s broader history, we find that God had indeed given the people a key role in deciding their leadership.
In Deuteronomy 16:18-19, Moses commanded the people to: “Appoint judges and officials for each of your tribes in every town the LORD your God is giving you, and they shall judge the people fairly. Do not pervert justice or show partiality. Do not accept a bribe.” God assigned the people the responsibility of appointing fair and just civil leaders in each local area — leaders who would not be tempted by bribes.
In Isaiah’s day, God not only held the leaders accountable for their civil immorality, He held the people accountable for their actions as well.
The principle we draw from this passage is this: When the citizens have a voice in the selection and direction of their civil leaders, God holds both the leaders and the citizens accountable for the civil sins of their government.
It was true of Judah, but is it fair to suggest that God applies this standard to us today? Consider the following:
The citizens of the United States elect the leaders of our nation — leaders who set civil and social policies for our nation, including policies on moral issues such as abortion, “gay marriage,” euthanasia, assisted suicide, and more. The decisions of these leaders directly impact the moral direction of our nation. Therefore, the people’s vote (or failure to vote) ultimately determines our nation’s civil, social, and moral direction.
Furthermore, the president is responsible for appointing members of the federal judiciary. These judges interpret laws and make legal decisions that affect the entire nation. Therefore, the citizen’s role in each election directly impacts every level of government.
Because the American system is a representative form of government, there is an obvious relationship between an elected leader’s actions and the citizens who elected the leader — or who allowed his election by not voting.
It logically follows that God holds the citizens accountable for immoral governmental policies.
God has established universal standards of justice that He expects all nations to uphold and enforce — and the United States is not exempt from these standards. If our government refuses to uphold and enforce them, we shouldn’t be surprised at the judgment that is certain to follow. But even more sobering is the reality that when the citizens choose their leaders, He holds the citizens corporately accountable for the actions of their leaders.
Our vote — or failure to vote — has a direct bearing on not only the election, but on how the Lord will deal with our land. If we fail to vote for candidates that most closely reflect God’s standards — or if we fail to vote — we should not expect to escape the consequences.
–30–
John Revell is editor of SBC Life. This is adapted from “Sinful Silence: When Christians Neglect Their Civic Duty,” by Ken Connor and John Revell.
What do you think?
Lew,
As you know, I read this yesterday when you pointed it out to me. When I started reading the article, I saw that the author referenced Isaiah 1:10-31. Unfortunately, before I read anymore of the article, I made the mistake of actually reading Isaiah 1:10-31.
Then, as I read the remainder of the bp news article, I noticed that the author correctly identified the problem in the Isaiah passage: lack of justice. But, he failed to identify the solution in the Isaiah passage. God did not say, “Choose the right leaders.” Instead, God said that HE would take care of the problem. So, his argument lost steam for me after that.
-Alan
“Thus says the Lord: Maintain justice and do what is right, for soon my salvation will come, and my deliverance be revealed.” As with most of the work of God, there is a partnership between the people of God and God (e.g. I have given you the land, now go and take it or the notion that we are saved by God’s grace, therefore we should work out our salvation). Yes God’s salvation and judgment will ultimately come, but in the meantime we should promote justice and righteousness.
I know that we (not just us in this discussion, but Christians at large) are all in agreement over the notion that we should live justly and righteously in imitation of Christ. I believe the institution government is divinely charged with the responsibility to administer justice on earth. All Christians believe we should be involved in our government to some degree to help this take place. The minimum level of involvement is made clear by scripture: we are to pray for our leaders. Some people think direct involvement in the actions of government by Christians should stop there. They argue (as you do Lew, if I understand you right) that our primary goal here on earth (outside of the development of our relationship with God) is to help people enter the Kingdom of God. Involvement in government is not the best way to do this and it in fact can become an unnecessary stumbling block to people.
Though I disagree with you, I have complete respect for your opinion. The scriptures are not definite one way or another and this seems to me a completely valid reading of the scriptures. As my comments have shown, I believe some Christians (those with passion for government and political skill) should be involved in the government. I think it is not only allowable, but pragmatic. I think the Kingdom of God is best spread through Christians working within the various domains they have skill and passion for.
I appreciate you posting this other article. Equating a failure to vote with sinning (though I don’t think he gets quite there) does clearly cross the line. And reading it helps me understand your point of view. Christianity has zero influence on the politics of my town, so I really haven’t been exposed to that kind of rhetoric. It is a good reminder to remember that, like the people who wanted to make Jesus into a political leader, there are many people who want to use God as a means to their political end (again, not that I think the author is doing this). It may be that people cannot be involved in politics without using God as a means; if that is the case I too would advocate the complete boycotting of politics. I don’t think that is the case, but it very well could be.
And yet, the author does make a good point: to whom much is given, much is expected. Like it or not we have been given political power. I don’t think we can abdicate this power, pretend like we don’t have it, or bury it in the sand like the man with the one talent. We’ve been given wealth, intelligence, and many other things and we will be accountable for how we used them. In the same way we’ll be held accountable for how we used our political power.
But when I talk about political power or political influence, I do not mean mere voting or running for office. I believe most of our potlical power is exercised without us even knowing it. Are we living justly and modeling Christ like behavior? Are we taking care of the poor, educating our kids in a Godly fashion, preaching the Word of God. For by living justly we influence politics. The more people that obey the laws, the less laws, prisons, and police officers are needed. And if we as a church relinquish our responsibility to share God’s love and mercy with people the government steps in our place with social programs. And when we don’t teach our kids to live rightly, the government steps in and educates them (with a false morality) and this in turn effects society.
It is interesting to note that even in absolutists states (such as Tsarist Russia) the people had tremendous influence on governmental decisions, even though they were denied the right to vote. We Christians can (and in fact do) influence our government by how we live our lives. Are we living as we should be? In this sense I agree with the author that if we are not, we bear responsibility for things going wrong. If we as Christians were to live as the salt and light of the world we would make a far greater political difference than if we all voted for some great leader.
Befriending a gay person broken in their sin does far more than changing a law on homosexuality. Setting up a teen pregnancy center does more than changing abortion laws. How we live our lives effects the government. This is 90% of our influence. I think all would agree on this. Where we part is that I believe our influence should not end there (and my cynical doubts further involvement influences anything anyways, for I have worked in government. And even working in a non-partisan office makes one quite cynical about the government). I believe (and I am fairly certain in this belief) it is good for Christians to vote and be publicly involved in politics, but, as I hope I’ve made clear, I could very well be wrong.
Lew, you hit the nail on the head, you’d still break bread with the man. These debates are not negligible, but they are not all that important either. Some day in eternity future I’m sure this will be one of the many things we’ll laugh about, wondering how we could have made it so important. We must always put unity above disagreements over inessential truths. People should trump our principles, for all political principles will fade away (for all the temporal governments of this earth will fade away), while all men will live forever.
Alan
Yeah, his argument pretty much failed for me as well, for a number of similar reasons. I wish I could have included a better argument for this post. I think part of the problem is that a lot of people take a position that it is “biblical” to do something and then try to find bits and pieces of a verse to support their arguments. I hope I didn’t do that in my posts. I know my position has less to do with the “bible” and more to do with how I interpret the bible (you know what I mean).
Nomodiphas
Great comment. I think I agree that we agree on the points that you said we agree on :). Thanks for taking part in these conversations. I have really appreciated your well thought-out input.
God’s Glory,
Lew