Faith and Voting

Editor's note. The following is adapted from a sermon delivered a few weeks ago by Mark Gallagher.

"Thus says the Lord God...Put away violence and opporession and do what is right and just." (Ezekiel 45:9) Yes, the Lord wants justice for all, and that is what the purpose of government should be and what our elected officials should pursue.

We soon will be called up to vote again. Over my lifetime I have heard only a few sermons regarding elections. Invariably they have included the statement: "I am not telling you how to vote."

This always struck me as strange, because in church we are provided moral guidance for every phase and aspect of our lives. Yet in voting, some say it's hands off.

How can it be hands off, when how we vote determines what type of society we have? How can it be hands off when how we vote determines whether the government achieves the purpose that God intends it to achieve, that is the common good, which means protecting human life and dignity?

Thomas Jefferson said it so well: "The care of human life, not its destruction, is the first and only legitimate objective of good government."

Faith doesn't take a hands off approach toward elections. Rather, it compels us to vote, tells us what to vote for, and warns us of the consequences of voting for the wrong things.

First, faith compels us to vote, for it is so important to the well being of so many people. Consider these two examples: Through one individual's voluntary activity, such as helping with "So Others Might Eat" (SOME), a person in his or her lifetime could perhaps provide several thousand meals to feed the hungry.

But, if the person and others elect the right people, then the government will fulfill its responsibility to help feed daily millions of persons in our society who are unable to obtain adequate food for themselves and their families.

Though one individual's voluntary activity, like working in a pregnancy aide center, a person in his or her lifetime could help save hundreds of unborn babies' lives. But if that same person and others elect the right people, then the government would change the law, thereby saving more than a million lives a year.

So voting is enormously important. Failure to vote when the common good is at stake is a serious sin of omission.

Second, faith tells us what to vote for. For a government, for laws, for candidates who will protect the human life and dignity of each human being. Sadly, today certain elected officials and candidates don't agree with this purpose of government; they think that a certain class of human beings should not be protected. This is not unique to us or to our age.

Among the ancient Athenians an infant was not considered a person until a special ceremony was performed five or ten days after birth. This allowed time for the parents to put the child to death if the child had any disability or if the parents felt they already had enough girls. In Nazi Germany Jews were dehumanized and killed by the millions.

In our own country, Native Americans were often treated as subhuman. African Americans were enslaved. The industrial revolution brought economic or wage slavery, with children and adults working from daybreak to late in the evening and paid subhuman wages. And today, our unborn children are excluded from the law's protection.

In every one of these cases the purpose of government was perverted. Anyone who would exclude a class of human beings from the protection of the law perverts the law, turning it upside down, from protector to persecutor, and is guilty of a grave injustice.

Finally, faith warns us of the consequences of voting for the wrong things. We have free will. We can vote solely for what we perceive to be our own self-interest - - economic or otherwise - - and not for the common good. We can vote to protect some human beings but not others. But if we do this, if we knowingly and intentionally do this, we are responsible for the laws that follow.

Historically, those who voted for candidates who supported the Nazis, who supported dehumanizing American Indians, who supported slavery, who supported child labor and treating workers as property - - those who so voted bore responsibility for the evils those officials permitted or perpetrated.

And today, if we elect someone, knowing that the person will permit partial-birth abortions to continue, then our vote is gravely sinful, for we are morally responsible for the deaths of each of these babies whose brains are sucked out.

Just last month the Pope said one of the chief missions of the Catholic laity was to "create a political culture that always and everywhere operates for the common good and for the protection of values."

Faith does tell us how to vote. Not by having the pastor go to the polling place on election day and hand out sample ballots. We should inform ourselves, and others, about candidates' positions.

Nor should the clergy tell us which candidate is better when all the candidates support the common good. Clergy are not any better than lay persons in making prudential judgments as to what is the best legislative approach to achieve the common good.

But faith does tell us:

....that we must vote,

....that we must vote for candidates who support the common good of protecting the human life and dignity of all human beings, and

...that if we knowingly and intentionally help elect to office candidates who would pervert the law to hurt a group of human beings, then we are morally responsible for every life hurt and lost.

Mr. Gallagher is a deacon at St. Mark's Catholic Church in Hyattsville, Maryland.