Fred Sneesby - Observations on Culture, Faith and Politics

Keeping Faith When Elections Go Bad

November 3, 2006

Then they cast lots and the lot fell upon Matthias and he was counted with the eleven apostles. (Acts 1:26)

That is how the remaining apostles chose the replacement for Judas (who was not seeking a second term). “Casting lots” was like rolling the dice or flipping a coin. Not exactly what the local Board of Elections might dream up for November 7th.

We have choices to make on Election Day. Some of them are lousy choices (see last week’s column) but choices nonetheless. There are many factors that go into making decisions about candidates and issues, and faith underlies all of them. How do you approach the election as a believer? Cast lots?

We probably wouldn’t be the first ones to be flipping a coin in the voting booth, but it is not the best way to make a decision. Some religious voters do “leave it up in the air,” so to speak. I know of one local candidate, who is stridently religious and whose political beliefs sound more like sermons, who has not put out one flyer or one lawn sign for his campaign. Maybe there are other reasons why he has not waged a more active campaign, but maybe he is expecting some sort of divine intervention. If it is God’s will, he will win. Faith will produce a victory, sort of like a political Quietism.

This is one extreme to avoid when approaching Voting Day. While miracles do happen and God is God and can do whatever He wants, that is not the way he normally operates. He uses secondary causes. He places his mission at the mercy of human free will (now there’s a decision he probably reviews every now and then!). Although it is only one part of a believer’s political life, praying that God’s will be done in the electoral process is good and necessary.

Our prayer is, first of all, for the gift of discernment, that we can see and understand what God wants accomplished in our civic life, to have a clearer take on who would be the best public official or what direction we should choose from among the many referenda that always fill up the slate.

We pray, also, for the candidates. It is no easy thing to run for office. There’s a lot of sacrifice: time, energy, resources, privacy and the like. It is good to pray that they keep the best motivation, that they stay honest and seek and speak the truth, and that they treat the electorate with respect (not to mention their opponents).

Our prayer is also for the whole citizenry. How do you get people to think beyond their own needs? How do you get voters to go beyond their natural groups and interests? How do you join with others to promote the common good? How do we as a civic community learn to value the things that really matter? Prayer is a big part of answering those questions.

Prayer alone, of course, is insufficient. The old adage of St. Ignatius must be followed: Pray as if everything depended on God and work as if everything depended on us. We must act. Read and think about the challenges that face us as a society. Pay due respect to your conscience: keep it informed, stay honest with yourself, and have the courage to follow it. Have arguments with others who don’t think like you and do it with an open mind. Work on voter registration drives. Join a political party. Work on someone’s campaign. Write letters. Call in to talk radio. Join forces with other people and work on issues like affordable housing, education, health care, immigration, and the like. Like the theologian Paul Tillich recommended, read the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other.

The sin to avoid is presumption. Never presume to have all the answers. Never presume that you have a monopoly on God’s Word or Will. Never presume that you are absolutely right or that you know God’s mind. Humility is the virtue that must accompany us.

In the end, some of the candidates whom we think are the best will lose and some of the issues we are for will be rejected while others pass. I will be as frustrated as the next person when this happens. On November 8th can we be thinking that God’s will has been done? Hardly. God’s will is thwarted all the time. Will our mission be accomplished by November 8th? Win or lose, no. Our tasks will be pretty much the same on the day after Election Day as it was before. They might have been made a little easier or we may have made some progress depending on the election results, but we will be called, as believers, to continue doing the same: praying and working for the common good.

If the (in our estimation) “bad guys” win or if initiatives are passed that we judge harmful, should we be depressed or crestfallen? Maybe for a moment, long enough to express some outrage and do a little commiserating with like-minded people. But then we have to ask ourselves where our faith lies. Do we believe in these public officials more than God? Do we have more faith in the government than in the divine? Of course not. So let the work of faith and the confidence that comes from faith carry us forward.