Consider this a short statement from a Christian and a conservative on why he is not going to vote for John McCain. If it comes out clearly, then there you go. If it doesn’t, which it easily might not, then I will no doubt have to follow up with further explanations — all offered while dodging about in the comments section with alacrity.
So let me begin by objecting to voting considered as a civil sacrament, piously enacted in the temple of democracy. To voting as a process of simply making a decision, I have no objection at all. When voting is simply decision-making, the people are in control of their government. When voting is a sacrament, the priests are in control of the worshippers. Let me say that again — when voting is a sacrament, the priests are in control of the Temple, the Temple precincts, and the roster of acceptable names from which we have the privilege of selecting the next high priest.
Now I am not talking about the action of voting. I am addressing the pagan religious assumptions that go into it, and which many Christians need to get free of. I intend to vote this fall, but I don’t want to participate in the unstated religio-political assumptions of the whole process. If I were to do that it would relinquish far more authority than I am exercising. I would not be pushing; I would be pulled. Now I do intend to vote as a statement of what I think we ought to do (decision-making). But I refuse to participate in this religious theater, I refuse to ascend up to the altar.
Now when I say that I am not going to vote for McCain, no how, no way, many culturally-engaged Christians hear this as me refusing to participate in the decision-making process. I see it rather as a refusal to worship in that temple any more. This is not because I don’t care what happens to our nation, or that I don’t care what will happen to the unborn if Obama gets into office and starts appointing his death judges to the high court. It is rather that I have become convinced that the reason we lose so consistently is that we have been compromised at the very heart of our resistence.
Suppose I lived in ancient Rome, and you asked me whether I would rather live under Augustus or Nero, the answer would be easy. Augustus. Would I rather try to bring up a family under Augustus or Caligula? Easy again. Augustus. When the nutcase Nero is replaced by the comparatively decent Vespasian, do I give thanks to God for His great mercies? You bet. Now, does it follow from all these opinions of mine that it would therefore be acceptable for me to burn a small pinch of incense to the genius of the emperor and the spirit of Rome in order to be able to add my voice to the crowds acclaiming the new Caesar, the one who would be the much better choice? No, because however effective my voice might have been in helping the “comparatively decent” Caesar take office, I have reduced my salt and light effectiveness much more than that through my spiritual compromise.
This is the problem, and this is the only problem worth mentioning in this whole dilemma. If Obama is elected, conservative Christian believers are in for it. It will be terrible. If McCain is elected, there will be (comparatively) a number of things to be thankful for. I would rather live under Vespasian than Tiberius. Does that mean we invite the pagan Vespasian to give a campaign speech in the church to help make that happen? For the biblically-minded, of course not. For most conservative, politically-involved evangelical Christians, the answer would not be of course not. That illustrates our compromise.
If Jesus is Lord over the political process, voting is simply a reasonable way for a bunch of people to make large-scale decisions. But if Jesus the Savior is systematically and dogmatically excluded from the political process, that is not done because we don’t believe we need a Savior. It is done because the State, the democratic process, the secular system, wants to be that Savior instead. We must not participate in any way that grants that point. I believe that voting for McCain the way most evangelicals will vote for him does in fact grant that point. I do not believe this across the board, incidentally. I do believe there could be a principled way of voting for McCain, and I have seen some indications of that kind of thinking in the comments on my blog. But when I look out at the crazy world of political endorsements, all I see (if I may swipe a turn of phrase from Gary North) is Christians selling their birthright for a pot of message. I hope that James Dobson stays the course, and does not endorse McCain. Far from making Dobson a bit player and a has-been, I think the effect would be just the reverse.
Now most Christian activists on the right (and all of them on the left) have bought into this lie. It is a rare voice that proclaims that Jesus is Lord over the whole thing. If you asked 100 conservative, Christian activists whether we, the people of these United States, have a duty to acknowledge the exclusive Lordship of Jesus Christ over the public square and everything in it, 92 of those 100 activists would think you were crazy, and 98 of them would say that you were crazy. The remaining two guys (Shadrach and Meshach) go into exile with you. Abednego is in a mandatory sensitivity-training summer camp. His letters remain feisty and he looks to be there a while. Daniel is in prison in Toronto.
Now tell me this isn’t case. The problem is not that we vote, or that we are involved. The problem is not that we vote in large numbers. The problem is not even that the content of our positions is somehow misguided. The problem is that we are a compromised people. When we vote — because of the attitudes we bring to it — we are partaking of an alien sacrament. And however much you partake of a pagan sacrament, that will not make the pagan temple fall down.