In this series I will not only propose that it is one’s duty as a Christian to vote, but I will also argue that there is a Christian way to vote – and that some ways of voting are decidedly NOT Christian. But before that, first some background.
Part One:
Who is in charge?
If we are going to get involved in deciding who gets to be in charge, it is important to understand what we mean by, “in charge.”
In short – God is, and then it gets complicated.
Christians have wrestled with the question of how to regard those who wield power since they first became conscious of themselves as a distinct community within the larger community of the nation. So, Paul, writing to the Christians in Rome, admonishes, “Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.”
Rebellion against the authority must have been seriously considered by members of the church in Rome and for good reason. The Roman Empire was brutal and corrupt with values that were antithetical to those of the church that followed Jesus Christ – a Jew who was executed by the Roman authority.
It is important to see that Paul was not making a political or ethical argument here. Nor do I believe he was cynically making an argument motivated by institutional preservation. Rather, Paul was asserting a theological conviction that “the authorities that exist have been established by God.”
The faith assertion that civil authority is from God was more fully fleshed out by St. Augustine in the 4th century, and later by Martin Luther in the 16th century, in what is commonly referred to as “the Two Kingdoms Theory.” There is the spiritual kingdom on the right and the temporal or civil kingdom on the left. God rules in the kingdom on the right by convicting people of sin and calling them to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ when they encounter God’s word and sacraments. This is a spiritual and eternal kingdom that becomes real for us when we hear and believe the Gospel. But God also rules through the kingdom on the left by curbing the destructive power of sin and exercising justice through civil authorities. This is a temporal kingdom that stops being real for us when we die and rise again to live with God in righteousness and purity forever.
In Paul’s day, and for most of western Christian history, it was easy to figure out who the civil authority was. Caesar, the king, the prince -- whoever sat on the throne and their agents were the authority. If you doubted it – well let’s just say they had ways of making you believe. As King George sings in the musical Hamilton, “Cuz when push comes to shove, I will kill your friends and family to remind you of my love.”
In a democracy it is both simple and more complicated. Simply stated, in our form of democracy the governing authority is not a person but a set of ideas enshrined in the Constitution of the United States of America. In their oath of office agents of the government swear to uphold and
protect not a person or even a homeland, but this set of aspirations and laws laid out in this founding document of our nation. And that is where it gets complicated.
Here, acting through human agents, God has ordained a form of government in which, by design, authority is not embodied in one person, but shared by many people and held in an intentional counter-balance. In our unique democracy, God has ordained a form of government in which, by design, authorities are also to be challenged and held accountable to the governed.
The president wields the authority delegated to him or her by the constitution which can be and has been revised by the authority of the Congress and the States. The Supreme Court interprets the laws that Congress passes and to which the president is also subject. Citizens may make various kinds of appeals regarding the laws, the leaders who enforce them or the manner in which they are enforced. They do this not only through the courts, but also by exercising their First Amendment right to “peaceably assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances,” (that is – to engage in peaceful protest). All of this happens under the watchful eye of a free press to which our God-ordained form of government gives special place in the First Amendment as a way of providing the people with the information they need to hold all the governing authorities accountable.
Following the wisdom of St. Paul in Romans 13, along with St. Augustine and Luther, in our unique form of government not only are elected and appointed officials to be considered “authorities,” but so are the free press questioning those officials and the citizens carrying out peaceful protests in the streets. God rules through all of these authorities.
And God also rules through the vote of the citizens. So, how would a Christian citizen vote?
Stay tuned.
For further information see the recent Social Message on Government and Civic Engagement in the United States: https://www.elca.org/Faith/Faith-and-Society/Current-Social-Writing-Projects/Government-and-Civic-Engagement
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