How important is it that Christians vote?

I read this article on a Christian Century blog this afternoon. It suggests that perhaps it doesn't matter if Christians vote. This is a hard idea for me to swallow. Much as I am sometimes tempted to stand dramatically apart from the culture in which I live -- the Amish have such a clear witness to their way of life! as do monks, whose way of life I have always been drawn to, and even the two years I spent working at Gould Farm was a kind of "life apart" -- I am primarily a student of H. Richard Niebuhr, who insists that Christ operates in culture, as much as Christ stands apart from culture. For instance, I'm not sure abstaining from voting will suddenly expose its "hypocrisy," per below. And yet, I think the author is right that Christians should stand apart from the mud-slinging and craziness of the campaign in these recent days. It's not about leadership or real issues anymore. Both of these men are good people and good politicians -- why are various sides of our country demonizing both of them? Mob mentality is a dangerous thing.

What would Nietzsche do?

By Christopher Benson

Instead of asking, "What would Jesus do?” I am inclined to take a subversive approach to the presidential election by asking “What would Nietzsche do?”

Consider this from Nietzsche’s Human, All Too Human:

All political parties today have in common a demagogic character and the intention of influencing the masses. . .all of them are obliged to transform their principles into great frescoes of stupidity, and paint them that way on the wall. Nothing more can be changed about this. . . . one must adapt to the new conditions, as one adapts when an earthquake has moved the old limits and outlines of the land, and changed the value of property.

I face an existential dilemma: endure the “great frescoes of stupidity” painted by the political parties or vacate the voting booth. As this presidential campaign draws closer to Election Day, with sludge flying, I am seriously considering Nietzsche’s proposal “to keep out of politics and stand aside a little,” as he did.

When too many people are speaking, as in our bloviating 24-hour cable news and blogosphere, Nietzsche advises silence. He says that for the few conscientious objectors, “seriousness lies elsewhere; they have embraced a different concept of happiness; their goal cannot be embraced by any clumsy hand with just five fingers.”

G. Scott Becker concurs in an essay in Electing Not to Vote, saying there will be circumstances when “a sudden, widespread Christian abstention from the electoral process could serve to expose the hypocrisy that has seeped in it.”

I am persuaded that my discipleship is not incumbent on voting. Should I abstain from casting a ballot, I will do so expecting to emerge from silent isolation, as Nietzsche describes, and try “the power of [my] lungs again,” calling to others “like men lost in a forest,” so we can “make [ourselves] known and encourage each other; of course, when [we] do, various things are heard that sound bad to ears not meant to hear them.”

Christopher Benson recently earned an M.A. in liberal arts from the Graduate Institute of St. John's College. He works as a freelance writer in Denver.