Is Voting Sacramental

Is voting sacramental? The act of eating certain food elements while gathered with others who attach a shared meaning to this simple meal is said to bring God’s strength and blessing. The act is holy. It is, in most Christian circles, considered sacramental. That is, it is a symbol that not only points our hearts to Divine Grace but the very act produces it. Does the casting of a vote for a presidential candidate arise to measure of a sacrament? A vote is the acumination of a series of judgments about a given candidate and his or her qualifications.

Robert Bellah’s essay entitled “American Civil Religion” forever established my view of civil government. In regards to such matters I am a moderate secularists. My nation is not holy. My society is not righteous. Our elected leaders are no more or less sinners than the rest of us. Bellah defines American Civil Religion as "an institutionalized collection of sacred beliefs about the American nation." As in all beliefs, their truth or falsehood must be backed up with reason based on revelation. Does God desire us to worship our nation?

What are the belief of American Civil Religion? That the nation legally constituted in 1789 formed a covenant with God making it morally and spiritual superior to every other nation. (American Exceptionalism) In 1630, while traveling to the New Land, the Puritan, John Winthrop preached a sermon about the new life and the new land these pilgrims could and should anticipate. The title of sermon is telling. It is “A Model of Christian Charity.” It is their charity or love that makes his community a “city on the side of hill.”

Under the idea of Civil Religion, the president is, thereby, the high priest of this divine nation. The president is the guardian of the covenant terms. We are, somehow, viewed as a New Israel. The President becomes the King of the New Israel. Therefore, the president is placed in office by Divine decree administered through popular election. I happen to believe that God’s Sovereignty is unremitted. It is boundless. It knows no political lines. God establishes rulers and takes them out. Jesus is the King of kings, not the co-sovereign of an American President or any other ruler.

How often have you witnessed congregations singing patriotic songs on various national holidays? I have witnessed flag ceremonies during Sunday morning worship – where the flag was processed in, placed in its standard, and the congregation pledged their renewed allegiances to the “nation for which it stands.” The pledging of allegiance is a covenantal act. In a time and place set aside for the worship of the Living God, it is pure idolatry. Yet, in American Civil Religion and the god of this religion is the “nation.” We may be “one nation” but there is little evidence that we are “under God” sovereign rule any more or any less than any other nation.

How does the Scripture depict civil governments? The Old Testament does demonstrate a particularism regarding the nation of Ancient Israel. It is a people set apart from all other peoples and nations. God reluctantly granted Israel a king – who was anointed to serve in a holy position. The king was called to “walk in the ways of his father David” and was thereby blessed or contrary to David and thereby to suffer a curse. In the New Testament God does not view the government as holy or sacred. The governments serve the function of order and justice. It is part of God’s Common Grace just as the family or the visible Church.

When I chose a president this year, I will choose between two very deeply flawed human beings. Each have proven themselves, in their personal lives and business dealings, to be dishonorable and crass. It is amazing to me how evangelical leaders could endorse Donald Trump in night of his contribution to the moral decay of our society. Imagine George Washington learning that the owner of several large gambling houses could be considered worthy of the office of President of the United States? What Christian could support Hilary Clinton in light of her defense and support of abortion and homosexual marriage? Imagine Abraham Lincoln’s reaction to a Presidential candidate who sold her influence to foreign governments and corporations?

I think this season, voting is a kind of “anti-sacrament.” Rather than grace, it imparts a curse. If there is a civil religion, then it has replaced the God of Abraham. Maybe the new god of Civil Religion is Moloch – to whom infants are sacrificed, or Bacchus the god of intoxicating drugs, or Fortuna, the goddess of chance gain. It is clearly Ares, the god of war. It is certainly all the fertility gods of economic gain. We must event a new god or elevate Narcissus as the goddess of the Selfie. Either of the candidates, this year, are perfectly suited to be the High Priest or Priestess for these gods.