The not voting option
Yes, it’s an option and no, it’s not unchristian. Here is a view that many have endorsed in the Mennonite Weekly Review,
Elections give us the illusion of choice, but the choices usually are options offered by the “oligarchies,” options shaped by lobbyists and bankrolled by corporations. Candidates make promises but then have no power to keep them. Social change shaped by Christian values usually comes outside the political process.
If you want to know more about not voting as a legitimate Christian position, you may be interested in Electing Not to Vote: Christian Reflections on Reasons for Not Voting, edited by Ted Lewis. Not voting in America has a bad reputation among Christians and why should it? Whatever you decide, I do believe that one of the problems is that we think all problems are ultimately solved through politics.
We live as Americans in a relatively free society - which has been admired and emulated around the world - because men and women choose not only to vote, but to fight and die for the freedoms we have. I think of the generations of disenfranchised people: women, African Americans … who sacrificed years, or in some cases their lives, to vote.
Not voting as an option? Are you really serious?
David in Los Angeles
Voting is a symbol of freedom, but it’s not freedom itself. Many people vote in the world and remain slaves to tyranny. In the US, voting can give us an illusion of control. My point is that you are free to vote, but you don’t have a Christian responsibility to do so.