I don’t know if you’ve heard, but I think there’s an election coming up! You wouldn’t know, what with how little the media is covering it…

I’m kidding, of course. Election coverage is everywhere. And today is Primary Day in Indiana, so there is all sort of focus and attention going on right now.

We had Ted Cruz in town last week and Donald Trump on Sunday. I think quite a few people skipped church in Terre Haute to go hear “The Donald” speak at the Indiana Theater. Some were lined up when I drove to church at 6:30.

It seems that as of late, few things bring out our passions quite like politics, and nothing nearly as much as a national presidential election. It always seems like we tend to ignore the character of our leadership, but Presidents get our attention.

We recognize voting as our civic duty. But is it Christian? What should we do about voting?

How Should Christians Vote? Should We Vote?

Depending on who you talk to, Christians should vote. Or abstain from voting. Or always vote for a particular party. Or never talk about who they voted for. Or vote for the issues. Or bring out the vote. Or champion a cause. Or never talk about anything that has the whiff of politics at all.

Christian theologians are similarly divided. And not into two camps, but many. It isn’t a Left/Right split. There isn’t a “liberal church” perspective and a “conservative church” perspective.

There are also strong arguments for Christians to refrain from voting: not because Christians don’t do political things, but because they believe we are to not be “of this world”.

With all these options, what should we do?

Caesar and the State

One of our favorite quotes to talk about the relationship between the faithful and the government comes in Jesus’s final week, in the midst of teaching at the Temple. In Mark 12:13-17, we read:

Then they sent to him some Pharisees and some Herodians to trap him in what he said. And they came and said to him, ‘Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality, but teach the way of God in accordance with truth. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not? Should we pay them, or should we not?’ But knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, ‘Why are you putting me to the test? Bring me a denarius and let me see it.’ And they brought one. Then he said to them, ‘Whose head is this, and whose title?’ They answered, ‘The emperor’s.’ Jesus said to them, ‘Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.’ And they were utterly amazed at him.

There it is! That famous line about giving to the emperor, or as the King James put it “Render unto Caesar”.

But the whole story, the confrontation with Rome and the Jewish leadership, the attempts they were making to trap him so that they could kill him, the persistent questioning of his authority and getting him to prove his authority: these are dishonest questions from dishonest people trying to get Jesus.

In context, the question: “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” is not about Roman law but Jewish law. Are you telling us to break Jewish law to appease the Emperor or follow Jewish law (and run afoul of the emperor)?

The beauty of Jesus’s response, given this context, is not simply that he evades the trap, but that he springs it on his accusers. He exposes them as carrying money they shouldn’t have in a place in which they shouldn’t have it. He seems to show the coin as blasphemous, making its possessor look like a greater blasphemer than he. AND he gives them the opportunity to choose whether the Emperor is indeed in charge of this realm, or is it GOD?

Jesus’s response is tricky for us to translate and we too often suggest that it is a defense of the separation of church and state. If that is true, then it is also to remind us that the state is to be subordinate to GOD and that the state’s work which defiles creation should probably be opposed and condemned by faithful people.

It is more likely a question of how to be faithful to GOD when Rome demands we participate in the defiling of the world.

The Bottom Line

Today’s refrain from the morning office as found in Common Prayer was appropriate:

Root us, Lord, in your life : the life that lasts forever.

Our lives are full of personal and corporate decisions. They are full of influences and moderators. We have leaders all vying for attention and personal convictions born from our unique histories.

Every part of our lives should be rooted in faith. And every part should enable the GOD spark in us to come out.

The key to the variety of theologian’s responses to how we should vote or whether or not we should vote is rooted not in privacy or civic religion or duty to country (though some of that heavily influences their arguments). The key is our common commitment to a reconciled creation.

We are about making the world a better place.

Our differences reflect different approaches to that work. But that work, that common purpose is foundational to how we answer that question.

So to vote as a Christian is to embody Christ in this common action, electing representatives who best embody that commitment, and to ultimately heal the world through a common commitment to justice and vibrant living.

To abstain from voting is to not participate in the dysfunction and to reject the false narrative of our two-party system. But when unaccompanied by greater interest in building a better system, a more ethical and influential system to transform the world, our protest will largely be ignored or rebuffed. For the purpose is not to avoid corruption, but to reconcile all of creation. Rejecting the system requires a better system to overwhelm it.

So vote.

Or don’t.

But accompany that action with another one. Voting is no more the greatest action than not voting is. Both require follow-up. Both require us to work for change in our communities and to build the kingdom. Both require our embodying Christ with one another for the reconciliation of the world.

For without our commitment to follow Christ, elections themselves become yet another false idol of piety and indifference. And Jesus has quite a few things to say about that.