Voter turnout decides close elections

With only a few days left until the Midterm Elections, if the polls are any indicator (which they often are not), almost every single national election of consequence could not be any tighter.  Therefore, one thing (and one thing only) will decide virtually every race in the country … voter turnout. 

Relative to that, election history typically tells us that 30% of Christians do not vote.  If you are one, let that sink in … THIRTY PERCENT.  If even 3% of that bloc would vote, that would be 4.5 million people.  Elections turn on much less.  Bottom line, if 80-90% of Christians would vote, the political pendulum would not be swinging back and forth in this country every four years.

I don’t know if that 30% includes Catholic Christians, but I tend to think it does not.  I am told Catholic priests are not shy about telling their congregants not only that it is their Christian civic responsibility to vote, but also how they should be voting on specific issues based on biblical principles and the Christian worldview.

That means the bulk of those 30% who opt out are mostly evangelical Christians.  If that is true, it is an anemic political theology that is to blame.  It is nothing short of stinkin’ thinkin’ to believe that social issues and the political realm are not a “spiritual” concern.  The Church is the conscience of society.  One of the major ways of asserting that conscience in a free country is through voting.  The faithful need both guidance and a major kick in the pants from their pastors on this.

Colonial preachers during the days of our founding regularly and fearlessly addressed social and political concerns in their sermons.  They even read the Declaration of Independence from the pulpit every 4th of July!

Thankfully today, there are a handful of courageous men of God contending for truth on the socio-political front:  Josh Howerton, Franklin Graham, Jack Hibbs and Bishop Robert Barron (to name a few) regularly speak out against socialism, Sharia Law, abortion and transgender ideology.  The vast majority of the conservative clergy still tip-toe through these cultural issues, if they walk that way at all.  Fearless sermons amongst evangelical clergy is much more common in the black community, whose congregations welcome them!

According to both Testaments of the Scriptures, Christian believers are citizens of parallel kingdoms, and are supposed to be participants in both – not one at the expense of the other.  Look no further than Joseph, Esther, Daniel or David for examples.  Even with Jesus Himself, “the government was upon His shoulders.” 

The Christian mandate has always been not only to redeem souls, but society as well.  And every serious follower of Christ, if taught well, is firmly committed to the proposition that just as the only hope for the human soul is the Person of Christ, so also the only hope for human society is the Body of Christ.

Religious freedom, peace through strength, sanctity of life, two biological sexes, rule of law, limited government, free enterprise and Constitutional fidelity have taken a beating for decades because 30% of Christians don’t vote (the Barna Research Group says it is higher than that).

I was not entirely sure how my own church would deal with this (or not), but I was pleasantly surprised last Sunday when our pastor courageously and forthrightly got up before his message and exhorted the congregation about their responsibility to vote on November 3rd.  He did not equivocate even a little bit on the part that civic involvement plays in Christian discipleship.  Without endorsing any one candidate or party, he made it indelibly clear that choosing not to vote, while still one’s right, is not ok – especially when millions of patriots have spilled their blood on so many battlefields to secure our right to choose our leaders. 

All the more so when we find ourselves in the middle of America’s third existential crisis (the first and second being the American Revolution and the Civil War). Notwithstanding, we can be grateful that the fight for freedom still begins at the voting booth and not at the end of a gun.  No excuse, then, for the faithful not to turn out en masse. 

Brian Schroeder is the former Wyoming Superintendent of Public Instruction, an ordained minister and founder/president of The ChrisCorps Commission (bschroeder081858@gmail.com)