by Bob Sullivan
It is that time of year again, when all Christians are reminded that politics and religion are to be kept neatly in separate silos, never to mix, and one never to influence the other. Somehow, all Christians are expected to vote according to purely secular ideals, having wiped all notions of faith and morals from their memories before filling in the ovals on election day.
We know this is just a ploy. We know that everyone votes according to their beliefs, even those who approach the booth from what they believe is a purely secular point of view. I say this because even those who profess secularism have almost always been formed according to some amount of Christian teachings, thought, and tradition. We also know that the separation of Church and State is not in the Bill of Rights, the U.S. Constitution, nor the Declaration of Independence. Further, we know that the phrase is meant to keep the state out of our churches, not our faith out of our government.
Where do you fall in this? Do you go through the unpleasant work of looking into the candidates and the issues in order to eventually vote as an informed voter? Or do you just vote for a few candidates or issues that you happen to know something about? Are you more of the passive type, who sometimes or often declines to vote? Maybe you are someone who voices their disgust over problems in our culture, but you also neglect voting?
What does our faith and reason say about all of this?
Neither our faith nor our reason suggest that we should sit on the sidelines and hope (or even pray) that others will do the right thing or that others will stand up and correct errors when they occur. While prayer and hope are essential, so is action. One good example is given to us in the parable of the talents from Matthew 25. What happened to the wicked and unfaithful servant in that parable? What did that servant do—or fail to do—that resulted in his punishment?
In Proverbs 14:23 we read: “In all toil there is profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.” In Deuteronomy 1:13, some form of civil leadership was urged as a necessity: “Choose for each of your tribes individuals who are wise, discerning, and reputable to be your leaders.”
Moses was instructed to appoint Judges in Exodus, and those Judges brought order and peace when they were in office. Then, there is the verse: “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; but when the wicked rule, the people groan” (Proverbs 29:2).
Finally, St. Paul wrote: “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity” (1 Timothy 2:1-2).
On the other hand, there is the seemingly incongruous passage from St. Paul in Romans 13, in which he teaches us to be subject to our governing authorities. Some read this as a prohibition from participation in civil government, even to the point where some Christians felt obliged to allow the Nazis to do all they wanted to do leading up to and during WWII. But that is not what St. Paul intended in Romans 13, because he puts it all in perspective in the end of that teaching by urging us to give such leaders what is due them. If they are honest, trustworthy, virtuous, and have good will, then you obey. If they are corrupt, inept, or have evil intentions, then we have an obligation to resist them and, in our case, vote them out of office. See also Matthew 22:21.
When you combine St. Paul’s words with all the other calls to action in Scripture, you can see that we are not supposed to abandon our rights and obligations in society and simply live or die at the whim of worldly rulers because they are in power. We are supposed to strive for lives of godliness in quiet and peace. This is done first and foremost through prayer, but not exclusively through prayer.
Doing your due diligence in the months and weeks leading up to an election may not be your idea of a good time, or of something which is spiritually fulfilling. It may even bring you closer to a near occasion of sin as you learn what some of the candidates stand for, or to what some of the issues may lead society. But your participation in society can also be a sort of redemptive suffering which can have the added benefit of helping others avoid persecution and other forms of suffering from a government which is hostile to faith, family, and freedom.
Before He instituted the Eucharist at the Last Supper, Jesus spoke of this dual role for the Apostles and therefor for all Christians. In John 17, Christ’s longest recorded prayer focused on the unity and the protection of the Apostles and disciples. He specifically tells us that the Apostles are not of the world, but He was sending them into the world.
In the same way, each Christian, with the exception of those who have taken vows in a contemplative order, is not of the world, however, we are inescapably in the world. If we try to act as though we do not have a responsibility to our neighbor and to God to be good stewards, we run the risk of following the wicked and unfaithful servant. And in the meantime, we do nothing to protect the faith and the lives of others.
