Why Real Christians Don’t Vote

I walked past a neighbor’s house that was festooned with half a dozen “Vote for…” signs, all bearing names of people I’d never heard of. He was on his porch, so I asked him: “Do you know all these people?”

“Personally? No.”

“Then why are you advertising their campaigns?”

“I’m Republican. So are they,” was his answer.

Sure didn’t seem like a good enough reason to me, but thankfully I managed to bite my tongue.

As I’ve mentioned in previous columns, I don’t vote. I'm not registered to vote. I made a conscious choice long ago to never vote. I work hard to have no opinion as to who should win or lose.

A person may abstain from voting this time around simply because they don’t like either of the candidates. But that doesn’t mean they have rejected the system of a government run by individuals who won election.

Whether you are promoting a candidate, or are apathetic about the candidates but believe in the process, unless you make clear that you are separate from the system, you are the system.

A renowned scholar of the 19^th century, Herbert Spencer, noted that whether a person votes for the winning candidate, votes for a losing candidate, or abstains from voting, he will be “deemed to have consented to the rule” of the winning candidate because of his tacit approval of the system.

Even if you don’t vote? Yes. Why? 

Well, in parliamentary procedure, which also applies in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, a member may be required to abstain from a vote in the case of a real or perceived conflict of interest, or may choose to abstain for ethical reasons. (In reality they are most likely to abstain from voting on a thorny issue that they fear their constituents back home might hate them for voting for or against.)

But: abstaining from voting doesn’t mean they are no longer a representative or a senator. Their simple presence provides a quorum; it makes it possible for the vote to go forward.

But you’re not a senator or a representative. Does the “quorum” rule apply to you? Yes, it does.

For example, let’s say you were a registered voter in 1968. You could have voted for Richard Nixon, voted for Hubert Humphrey, or voted for George Wallace. You could have forgotten to vote; you could have tried but found the lines too long at the polls; you could have been too sick to get to the polls; or you could have chosen to abstain from voting that year because you didn’t like any of the choices. Nevertheless, being part of the voting machinery made you at least partially responsible for the 543,000 U.S. soldiers Nixon ordered to Vietnam in 1969, 11,780 of whom never returned. “But I wouldn’t have voted for that!” Doesn’t matter. You were part of the system.

What does any of this have to do with being a Christian?

When Pontius Pilate asked Jesus about his kingship, Jesus reply was, “My Kingdom is no part of this world. If my Kingdom were part of this world, my attendants would have fought that I should not be handed over to the Jews.” (John 18:36)

Being a Christian, then, means being “no part.” I am not for Trump; I am not for Kamala; I am not leaning toward one or the other.

But Bill, I can hear someone saying, until the kingdom is established, shouldn’t you have some say in these political decisions that might affect you?

Here’s what I care about: The Bible prophesied what to look for in these last days. I have seen nearly all of those prophecies fulfilled. They were fulfilled regardless of who was in office.

The next big thing I’m watching for will be a major outcry of “Peace and Security!” followed almost immediately by a governmental attack on religion. If Trump wins, will that happen? If Kamala Harris wins, will that happen? Yes. The simple fact is, it will happen regardless of who wins.  

My stand is quite adamantly that this system does not work, cannot be made to work, and is no substitute for Christ’s kingdom. It isn’t a ‘back-up plan’, it isn’t some sort of God-approved bandaid to fill in until the kingdom is established.

Daniel 2:44 says very clearly that in our time God’s kingdom ‘will crush all these kingdoms.’ I don’t want to show even grudging acceptance of any of these man-made kingdoms God is about to crush. I want to be as far away from all these kingdoms as I can get. 

 Feel free to leave a polite comment. To read another of my columns on a similar subject, click here.

 

Bill K. Underwood is the author of several novels and one non-fiction self-help book, all available at Amazon.com. You can help support this site by purchasing one of his books.