Sept. 25, 2024

By Rev. Rick King

Part 4 in a series based on Jim Wallis’ book, “The False White Gospel”

Those who want to prevent the coming of a multiracial democracy can’t do so without the complicity, silence, or active support of churches. And to stand up for democracy, churches have to stand up and speak out against its most dangerous and current threats….the rise of Nazism in Germany in the 1930s could not have succeeded without the support of the German churches that Hitler seduced and coerced into submission; and perhaps it was only the German churches or military that could have blocked and prevented the Third Reich; but both were easily co-opted. (Jim Wallis, “The False White Gospel,” 82)

“Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our own image, according to our likeness.’” (Genesis 1:26)
Jim Wallis points out that voter suppression has now become mainstream, so normalized by the Right and Christian nationalists that when we see a story of it in the media, its scandal hardly fazes us anymore.

For you and me and other people of faith, Wallis grounds the moral foundation for voting rights in the passage from Genesis above that talks about humans being created in the divine image. But he writes about the way voting eligibility laws have a greater impact on communities of color, voters who are recently naturalized citizens, and low-income people.

The more closely a person identifies with Christian nationalism, the more likely they are to agree that we make it too easy to vote in the U.S. The fact that politicians and pundits now brazenly say voting should be harder, not easier, has numbed us to the true meaning of this statement: participatory democracy is a sham, so why bother to improve it?

And yet, Wallis writes, “To suppress a vote on the basis of skin color is indeed a throwing away of the image of God.” As a result, he says, “Voter suppression and nullification are tests of both democracy and faith.” And if we believe each person is created in the image and likeness of God, then when we legally make it possible for more citizens of our nation to participate in democracy by voting, we’re recognizing a central tenet of our faith: the inherent dignity and worth of each human person.

He points out that this belief in human dignity and worth is also reflected in our political documents, like the Declaration of Independence, in words such as “created equal,” “unalienable rights,” and “truths to be self-evident.” The image of God is built into every human being!

Yet, he says, Harvard political scientist Steven Levitsky has seen “a powerful authoritarian reaction to the emergence of…a multiracial democracy, and that reaction is likely to lead us to a pretty serious constitutional crisis in years to come…There is a real risk of a stolen election in 2024.”

And he said this to Wallis in August of 2022.

If you’re wondering how to respond if the issue of voting access comes up in a conversation or online forum, a good first thing to do is ask, “Who told you that?” You may not win an argument (that’s not the point), but you may have poked holes and created reasonable doubt in another person’s mind that questions the truth of the narrative they have come to believe.

The other part of your response might be to refer to Genesis and everyone being created in God’s image. A lot of people, Christian nationalists among them, have come to believe that Christians are by nature people of conquest, power, and entitled to special status in the world. But you and I can stand as a living argument against that view of the Way of Jesus.

Senator Raphael Warnock, who is also Pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, says: “A vote is a kind of prayer for the world we desire for ourselves and our children.”

What kind of a world do YOU want to live in?