{"id":1850,"date":"2012-09-21T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-09-21T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2012\/09\/to-vote-or-not-to-vote-the-ballot-the-burden-and-the-believers.html"},"modified":"2012-09-21T16:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-09-21T16:00:00","slug":"to-vote-or-not-to-vote-the-ballot-the-burden-and-the-believers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2012\/09\/to-vote-or-not-to-vote-the-ballot-the-burden-and-the-believers.html","title":{"rendered":"To Vote or Not to Vote: The Ballot, the Burden and the Believers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

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by Earle Fisher<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
R3 Contributor<\/span><\/div>\n

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I have labored for months to find a biblical and\/or spiritual platform to argue for the necessity of people of faith to participate in the political process.\u00a0 I deemed this necessary because in a place deeply achieved in my soul I have felt it nothing short of sinful (and borderline blasphemous) for faith leaders to consider encouraging their parishioners not to vote<\/a>.\u00a0 <\/span><\/div>\n

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On one hand, I could argue for a prophetic necessity of engagement with the political process.\u00a0 In light of the insensitive comments that some candidates have spoken on behalf of the poor, marginalized, non-white, non-male, non-rich and underprivileged<\/a> we can suggest that it is the role of people of faith to stand up for those who are oppressed.\u00a0 This means the oppressed need someone who is informed, inspired and involved in the political process in order to empower those who have little to no social or political potency.\u00a0 In this vein, the prophetic element of faith would thereby require one to research a candidates ENTIRE platform, discern who would best serve the needs of \u201cthe least of these\u201d and speak truth to power by verbalizing, strategizing and \u201cballotizing<\/i>.\u201d\u00a0 So in one sense, for people of faith who value the prophetic tradition; we sin by not voting, because by voting we speak God\u2019s will for humanity to the best of our ability politically.\u00a0 <\/span><\/div>\n

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However, probably the most foundational argument for our faithful involvement in the political process came to me yesterday.\u00a0 Due to technical difficulties, our weekly internet radio show The Pastor & The Professor<\/a> was unable to air live at our normal time, Thursday at 7pm (CST)<\/a>.\u00a0 What Professor Joyner<\/a> and I decided to do was host a live chat via Facebook on our fan page<\/a>. While I intended on using the Faith Forum portion of our show to discuss the \u201cblack vote\u201d relative to people of faith, I decided to take it on via the chat.\u00a0 I wanted to introduce a new perspective on the black faith vote because the media has made a projection that implies that because of his comments relative to marriage equality, the POTUS might by-and-large lose a substantial portion of the black faith vote.\u00a0 However, statistically speaking, the POTUS won 95% of the black vote in 2008<\/a>.\u00a0 He will arguably win upwards of 85-90% of the black vote this year (if not higher). <\/a>\u00a0And if 90% of the black community identify themselves as people of faith<\/a>, then obviously, the black faith vote will collectively be a vote to re-elect the president.\u00a0 And this is in spite of the fact that some leaders in the black faith community are arguably encouraging their congregants to not participate in the election.\u00a0 <\/span><\/div>\n

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Therefore, last night I emphatically kicked off the Facebook chat with the statement that \u201c\u2026<\/span>there is ABSOLUTELY NO EXCUSE for ANY PASTOR to ask their congregants NOT TO VOTE\u2026 It is a violation of one\u2019s moral, ministerial, ethical and social responsibility\u2026 Therefore, if YOUR pastor has persuaded you not to vote\u2026 FIND ANOTHER CHURCH IMMEDIATELY!\u201d\u00a0 This was an unction I felt in my loins, but I still struggled to ground it in a sacred text (other than the sacred prophetic rhetorical tradition itself, which can be viewed as textual).\u00a0 I also know that many people of faith practice Biblical Idolatry \u2013 worshiping the bible more than we worship the God that inspires sacred writings.\u00a0 Therefore, some need scriptural appropriation to affirm any ideology no matter how valid.\u00a0 But I had not found one\u2026\u2026 yet.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
Then a correspondent rebutted \u201cis there an excuse for a pastor to ask their congregants TO VOTE?\u201d\u00a0 It was right there that \u201cthe Spirit of the LORD spoke to me\u2026\u201d (For those unfamiliar with the black preaching tradition, this clause is often used to substantiate our gravitas towards an interpretive idea which can assist us in overcoming any source criticism \u2013 *insert laugh here*). <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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What came to me were the two greatest commandments.\u00a0 Love God.\u00a0 Love your neighbor.\u00a0 These commandments merge the spiritual (love of the Divine) with the social (love of neighbor).\u00a0 Since we exist in a society that functions within a political framework, our theology thereby has political implications by default.\u00a0 I am not suggesting that a pastor is a politician (unless, of course, the pastor has run for a political office and been elected).\u00a0 But if a pastor\u2019s theology is disconnected from the political reality in which we exist, his\/her theology becomes irrelevant. Therefore, the only way to truly love your neighbor is to accept and fully engage in the processes that connect \u201cus\u201d with \u201cthem.\u201d Anything less constitutes a theology of privilege<\/a> that is counterproductive to the p
\nrogress of faith.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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The corner stone of the democratic process is the vote.\u00a0 We know the importance of the vote based upon the attempts by some to suppress the minority vote with subversive legislation. If people of faith seek to connect the divine with the democratic, not voting is sinful.\u00a0 Not voting also dishonors many of our ancestors who literally hung, bled and died that we would be able to enjoy such a right.\u00a0 So again I assert that <\/span><\/span>any pastor who does not see connections between the social, political and spiritual is probably misinforming and miseducating their congregation on the reality of the society in which we exist and is thereby part of the political problem and not the spiritual solution.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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Our dear correspondent asked can I find an \u201cexcuse\u201d or theological and psychological platform to encourage our people of faith to vote? HELL YEA! I just did.\u00a0\u00a0 So please reread this article. Hopefully you can say \u201c<\/span><\/span>AMEN<\/span><\/span> PREACHER.\u201d\u00a0 Then go out and get registered, get the proper identification and make plans to get transportation to the polls.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Earle Fisher R3 Contributor I have labored for months to find a biblical and\/or spiritual platform to argue for the necessity of people of faith to participate in the political process.\u00a0 I deemed this necessary because in a place deeply achieved in my soul I have felt it nothing short of sinful (and borderline […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2251,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nTo Vote or Not to Vote: The Ballot, the Burden and the Believers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"by Earle FisherR3 ContributorI have labored for months to find a biblical and\/or spiritual platform to argue for the necessity of people of faith to\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2012\/09\/to-vote-or-not-to-vote-the-ballot-the-burden-and-the-believers.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"To Vote or Not to Vote: The Ballot, the Burden and the Believers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"by Earle FisherR3 ContributorI have labored for months to find a biblical and\/or spiritual platform to argue for the necessity of people of faith to\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2012\/09\/to-vote-or-not-to-vote-the-ballot-the-burden-and-the-believers.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rhetoric Race and Religion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-09-21T16:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/files\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-bT-L-MMbLHE\/T1_BWtQkMCI\/AAAAAAAAAdo\/cHK79jc2C8Y\/s200\/earle+fisher.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Andre E. 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