Vote Your Civic Values

Vote Your Values

A recent interview with the leader of the Southern Baptist Convention revealed that he advocated people to vote their values (faith values) including their Christian values and their family values. I challenge this advice in voting for the President of the United States or for any secular political office. His advice is sound if you are voting for a pastor or the leader of your church organization.

My position is, rather, vote your civic values. That is, vote your values framed by the Declaration of Independence. "We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." There are certain rights that need to be upheld for all citizens and all peoples. These rights give rise to our civic values of equal opportunity, equal administration of the law, protection of individual pursuit of happiness, and protection of individual life. In the national view, these values concern the best course for our nation as a whole, the relative prosperity of our peoples, fair play for all people, and the relative security in which we dwell. We contemplate the best course for America in the world with due regard for the unalienable rights of our fellow travelers on this earth. In other words, we analyze the customary political issues of our day in the light of our civic values framed by the Declaration.

Origin of Civic Values

The Writer of the Declaration, Thomas Jefferson, sources the rights as derived from the Creator and as self-evident. Therefore, there is no attempt at further derivation or proof. For the 90% or more of the people on earth, these rights are clearly evident in the attributes of the Creator whom they believe in, and, therefore, these rights derive directly from His intrinsic nature.

The use of the word Creator in the Declaration has a universal appeal that transcends religious divisions and is particularly useful in a pluralistic society such as the United States of America. The vast majority of people accept the existence of the Creator and the self-evident nature of the rights enunciated in the Declaration. For those seeking further development of this idea, I refer you to Paul's explanation in Romans 1:20 where he says that the Creator is apprehended first through the creation.

The origins of government are therefore found in the nature of the Creator and are meant to secure the basic rights and preserve the natural order reflected in the Creator. The Biblical basis of this idea of government may be found in the Covenant and Dispensation concerned with Noah. However, the idea is apparent in the primary revelation of the Creator as alluded to by Jefferson and therefore on this basis co-exists and, for those so inclined, is confirmed with the specific Biblical formulation.

The universal appeal in the Declaration overrules any narrowing in its scope and therefore is not Christian in its application. On the contrary, it is applicable to all who hold the idea of a Creator. Thus, the civic values are not an attempt to enforce a Christian perspective onto government, but, rather, to support the universal appeal to rights and the natural order imposed by the Creator. Realistically, no single candidate or political entity will reflect all of your civic values; but your choice will be based on the best overall representation of your civic values and their pursuit rather than dictated by single issue (faith) values. For example, economic issues are just as relevant in life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as are any other issue. They were an important component in the Declaration itself as were many other issues some of which are related to those found in the Bill of Rights.

Conflict Between Faith Values and Civic Values

The Christian critics of a civics values approach will no doubt quote Peter that men should obey God rather than men. This is of course supposedly the ultimate confrontation between religion and civil law. However, Peter's statement was not in a civil context at all (i.e., with Roman law), but rather in a religious context relative to the Jewish religious leaders of his day. The Christian guidance is found in both Paul and in Jesus Christ statements. Jesus said render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and unto God what is God's. As far as we know He was never in conflict with the rule of civil law. Paul developed the rule of civil law in the position that governments were instituted by God and that we should live peaceably with others as much as we are able.

Therefore, there should be no conflict between rights endowed by the Creator leading to civic values and faith values. The conflict arises when we do not entertain the entire range of civic values and treat them on an equal basis; controversy ensues when they are presented as Christian values rather than universal values derived from unalienable rights. If certain derived civil law conflicts with your idea of the unalienable rights, then you may pursue a course that helps ameliorate the effects of that law, perhaps through specific social service. Alternatively, you may also attack the law based on its failure to insure the unalienable rights of all men and thus maintain a universal appeal.

There are certain well-known wedge issues that come to mind that often precipitate (faith) values voting. One of these, in the area of homosexuality for example, is often portrayed as a warning to society about the ultimate fate of Sodom and Gomorrah. However, I think we miss some additional perspective on this episode. First, the Law of Moses did not exist for them. Certainly, they were not a Christian people. But, the unalienable rights endowed by the Creator were violated by that society as a whole: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness were not preserved, but rather were violated continuously. Therefore, the very reason for the existence of government was subverted and as such could not stand. This is not an attempt to reinterpret the Biblical event to the exclusion of what a just God may do according to His authority. It is, rather, to approach it from the standpoint of the universal appeal to rights endowed by the Creator that are self-evident to all of creation and therefore none of His creatures are exempt from that judgment.

Vote Your Civic Values

There is also something amiss when the Christian leaders focus on transmitting Christian values to civil government. First, the Declaration is a universal appeal to all men regardless of their beliefs other than in a Creator. Decidedly, the focus of Christianity itself is not to improve the world or to impose Christian beliefs on government as is evident in the life of Christ. Its primary focus is to evangelize the lost by means of a propitiation for sin that effects a salvation and results in an individual relationship with Jesus Christ. This is a universal call with a definite theological goal. In my view, voting your (faith) values subverts the universal call of the Declaration to all men and its universal application, whereas voting your civic values as derived in the Declaration preserves universality and the foundations of democracy in a pluralistic society.

William C. Brumley 08/09/2008