Pensees: Republican Baptists, ACORN and the Culture of Voter Accumulation

Republican Baptists, ACORN and the Culture of Voter Accumulation

It’s funny how the same people who cram the pews of the church with uninvolved members in order to get them to vote out the pastor or approve a controversial plan are outraged by the antics of ACORN and its massive effort to recruit millions of “disenfranchised” voters. Republican Baptists do the same thing all the time, but for some reason it’s scandalous when the other side does it in national politics.

It’s called ethical categorization and it’s an American Christian debacle, particularly with fundamentalists. A certain kind of ethos is appalling when practiced by another group, but it is not even perceived when practiced precisely the same way in the village.

It seems like a lot of church-going Republicans are mad about the whole ACORN mess. They don’t like the fact that ACORN and the libs are registering a gazillion uninterested people who haven’t had enough character to register themselves. The Democrats are doing it just to get their vote because everybody knows that the votes of uninterested people without the slightest sense of civic responsibility will deliver a vote that goes liberal. Why else would they be working so diligently to register voters?

But Democrats and Republicans are people; and their character and ethic spill over into other categories of their lives. Christian Republicans may not fanatically attempt to register voters who are too lazy to do it themselves, but they won’t hesitate to give the octogenarian grandmother from the nursing home who hasn’t been to church in twenty years a ride to church in order for her to vote in favor of their agenda. They didn’t need her vote in the previous twenty years so she never got a ride. Suddenly, when every vote counts they are overwhelmed with a desire to show Christian love to the poor shut-in. And, as is usual with people who don’t otherwise get a lot of attention, the sweet octogenarian casts her vote against the pastor or against members who tithe and attend with regularity. It happens all the time. Sweet grandma should realize that it would be ethical for her to recuse herself from a vote.

And the sweet octogenarian is the most legitimate of the unethical voters. What about the people who just don’t care enough to be involved? But many church members don’t care when it comes to pressing their agenda. Perhaps they don’t do it in national politics, but they do it in real life. Not all of them, to be sure, but when Baptists need to be political in real life they are not above ACORN-like tactics and rationale.

The rationale for recruiting legitimate voters who have no clue what they are voting about is really an honest mistake. It’s the stupid democracy of Americana. There is a stupid democracy that religiously believes that everybody has a right to vote. Period. No qualifications to that axiom. Most Americans believe that if a person is born in America he has a right to vote even if they vote ignorantly. Most Baptist Americans believe that if a person is on the roll in her church she has the right to vote. Period. No qualifications. So it stands to reason that when votes are needed to get the desired result there is no moral question whatsoever about the justice of uninterested and ignorant people making decisions that negatively impact the interested and knowledgeable voters.

A person may have a legal or constitutional right to vote in his or her country or club or church, but it doesn’t follow that he or she has an ethical right. While ethics cannot be legislated, it is perfectly appropriate to appeal to the conscience of people about their ethical right to cast a vote in any given situation, particularly when heretofore they have shown no involvement at all in the question at hand. Likewise, it is unethical to recruit such votes for one’s personal agenda under the guise of enabling the “disenfranchised.”

Even if the efforts of ACORN on the national level are completely above board and legal, the mass collection of uninterested eligible voters who, in the main, don’t have the minimal strength of character to make an effort to register themselves to vote disenfranchises the voters who care. It cuts out the heart of responsible voting. But this is stupid democracy; and it is not exclusively liberal.

Stupid democracy says that anyone who is eligible has a right to vote and that right is so basic to our freedom, as elementary as breathing, that it is granted immunity from any kind of moral, logical, or ethical scrutiny; like, for example, whether or not the voter actually knows what he is voting. American Christians are so infatuated with stupid democracy that they employ exactly the same strategies as ACORN in their churches and clubs. ACORN is American despite what Hannity will try to tell you. It’s as American as apple pie.

But in agreement with Hannity and other mad conservatives, it is a very bad thing. But it’s worse than what they say. It’s not bad just because of voter fraud, which is illegal. It is bad because of legal American voter fraud.

There are three kinds of voters. There are the illegal voters. That’s easy. We all know those are wrong. Even ACORN. The other two kinds of voters are both legal. There is the eligible voter and there is the eligible voter that is a fraud. A fraud is a person that unjustifiably claims accomplishments, responsibilities or privileges. Though it may be legal, it is certainly unethical. The person who claims that he or she has a right and responsibility to cast a vote in a major decision when he or she has not taken the responsibility to even know the issues or register themselves is a fraud, a legal fraud. The person who claims that he or she has a right to vote in church because on paper he or she is a member even though he or she has not exercised any of the biblical expectations of membership is a fraud. And frauds vote in church all the time. Many of them are Republican. The same ones that are mad at ACORN.

Go figure.

Legal fraud happens all the time. Churches and clubs operate the same way. I know of a number of churches where members wanted to get their pastor out of their church at any cost and when the time came to vote those pastors met members that they had never seen in their life! But, alas! They were members; and members can vote.

While every American has an ethical responsibility to fight illegal fraud, they also have the legal right to oppose ethical fraud. In other words, it is not voter suppression to challenge voters about their vote. We cannot and should not make a law that imposes a litmus test on the voter to prove whether he can with ethical integrity cast his vote, but we are dumb to buy into a stupid democracy that just because a person is breathing and therefore eligible to vote does not give us the right to seriously challenge them on moral and ethical bases. If Republicans are really incensed by ACORN then they ought to demonstrate it by ridding themselves of the same culture in their clubs and churches.

As a pastor I have no problem telling people that if they are not giving to the church they should feel some kind of compunction about voting. I have actually asked from the pulpit that those who are not faithful in giving, have been unfaithful in attendance and are not doing well in their private Christian walk to abstain from voting. Though they have a constitutional right to vote, it is unethical for them to poison the decision making of the committed with their vote.

Obviously, I cannot control whether people actually vote or abstain in my church. But I know of some who abstained from voting because my words made them feel ashamed to vote. I know one large church where every ballot has a couple questions before the actual matter to be decided is marked. They are upfront with the people: if you are unfaithful in your basic responsibilities your vote will be discarded.

Illegal voting will always occur, but most voting is unethical. It’s the American way. Republicans shouldn’t be surprised. It happens in their churches all the time.