Why do I vote?

In the course of the primaries and the months leading up to this day, I have been pushing the idea of voting further back in my mind. I have always been told that voting is the number one way of making your voice heard. It is intricate in democracy. It is a national past-time and a privilege that others do not share. It is down-right American. And yet, I ask myself, is it Christian?

The James Dobson's and Pat Robertsons of the world would tell you that voting is intricately linked to our lives as Christians. Being involved in the political process is like being involved in the Kingdom of God. Jim Wallis would say that we have an obligation to vote our conscience but making a clear distinction between the difference between the nation and the Kingdom of God. And yet, I am haunted by the memory of the early church refusing any participation in imperial society. They would not defecate themselves by offering a pinch of incense to either party.

The relationship between the church and state has become extremely murky. Conservatives seem to scream about no prayer in schools and try to break down the barriers between the church and state, trying their best to build a theocracy with the Bush administration. But I wonder if the separation of church and state isn't so much to protect government as it is to allow the church the freedom to be what it ought. Christian citizenship has never been about aquiescing to the state. It has always been about courageous, community altering, unqiue set-apartness. Blending the church with the nation-state always ends up altering the church, never the other way around.

So how does this uniqueness look like when we go to the polls, acting as good Americans? I went to the Art Music Justice Tour the other week. Derek Webb took some time to talk about voting and started to question why voting seems like such a 'christian' thing to do. My wife looked at me and asked, "Did he just tell us not to vote?" Yeah, he did. And while I'm still working this out, I still took the time to submit my early vote. Maybe I should take some more time before the next election, but I'm interested in hearing what others think about this great American christianized voting mechanism.