Abstaining from Voting

I have heard numerous times during my time at Calvin, “This election is very important! You need to vote!” But rarely is it explained exactly why I should vote; it is simply assumed. The assumption is that as a Christian who lives in a democratic country, my right to vote is a blessing, and because of that, I should honor my faith as best I can by voting in a morally observant way. But what if the particular values I find intrinsic to my faith are contradicted by both the candidates? Do I pick the lesser of two evils, and find the candidate that most reflects the same convictions I do?

That is certainly an option that many Christians choose when as they decide to vote. But even if I do pick the candidate that I think is most “godly,” I know that my particular convictions are directed toward the goal of renewing the world and bringing about the Kingdom of God. Can I be sure that the candidate I vote for has that same goal in mind? As much as the candidates talk about their religious faith, is it too cynical of me to assume that they are simply using religion as another ploy to market themselves and their ideas? Perhaps they do have a genuine faith. But, at the end of the day, if it comes down to a choice between the Kingdom of God and the “Kingdom of America,” will not the President of the United States pick America? By voting for a president who will serve this country no matter what, am I not in some way placing an allegiance of country over my allegiance to God?

These are the concerns I have about participating in the American federal political system. But more than that, I am concerned that none of these options have been voiced openly in the Calvin community (at least not to my knowledge). Although those I have come in contact with have not expressed the belief that to be Christian is to vote Republican, or vice verse, it is assumed that whatever way a Christian votes, he or she is required to do so. Period.

However, there are a number of good arguments supporting an alternative Christian practice—intentionally not voting. Before I explain a few of them, let me be clear in saying that my purpose is not to say that the only option a Christian has is not voting. Neither is it to condone a lazy or apathetic attitude when it comes to the state of the world today (although a level of reasonable critique should be administered). It is not even to say that if one votes at all, he or she is wrong. In fact, I think that voting Christian-ly is certainly better than ignoring one’s faith in the “public” arena. My purpose is to open up the conversation by showing a different way of imagining one’s purpose as a Christian, and how one’s citizenship in the Kingdom of God might prohibit one from participating in the political workings of the kingdom of the world.

First, one must ask, what is the story of America, also known as the nation-state? Why did it come into being? What does it promise us? These are very complex questions to answer, and there may in fact be a multiplicity of answers depending on the interpretation of the questions, but for the sake of this article I will simply concentrate on one. The nation-state arose ultimately for the purpose of peace, gained through the notion of freedom. If we look at Locke’s description of government, he says that the purpose of government is to protect each individual’s property, which is to keep each person safe from harm, in a sense. However, the definition of freedom employed by Locke and the American myth is a negative one—individuals are freed from the interference of others to do whatever they want. This is very different from the Christian view of freedom, which has a positive goal, and claims that it is only by being bound to Christ for something—his Kingdom—that true freedom occurs. America is offering an alternative myth and an alternative definition of freedom than the Christian one. It could even be called “idolatrous.” In this view, to support America’s political system is to give validity to that idolatrous myth by participating in its rituals (of which voting is one of the most important. War, of course, is the other biggest one).

Another perspective is that voting is not just a “right,” but a sacred “rite,” implying that whether one is a Christian or not, one is religiously believing in something when one participates in voting.  Abstaining from it may be an act of witnessing to the world that our allegiance is tied to the worldwide body of believers, not to America. America is a concept of the imagination; we have to imagine that there is such a thing as borders, and that those borders separate us from “the other.” It is much easier to hate “the other” and go to war with “the other” if we have an “us vs. them” mentality.

Another aspect of politics that may prompt a Christian to abstain from participating is that voting is a strictly personal act. To abstain from it would be an effort to link ourselves communally to believers around the world, especially those believers in countries in which America is currently engaged in war.

These are a few perspectives. Now, you might be thinking, but when I vote I am really trying to love my neighbor as best as I can and imagine a nation in which all people flourish. That is a very worthy reason to vote. However,  here is my question: must the Christian’s duty to love his or her neighbor be mediated by the apparatus of the nation-state of America? Or does the church have an alternative politics that is not dependent on the nation-state to bring about the flourishing Kingdom of God?