I have stood here and preached before quite a few General Elections over the past forty years or thereabouts and at none of them have I advised – let alone told – anyone how they should vote. That is none of my business. I do believe, though, that people should vote. If people don’t vote then democracy is undermined, and as Winston Churchill once remarked, “it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government, except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” But is it a religious issue? Our American co-religionists in the Unitarian Universalist Association certainly thought so when drawing up their statement of Principles and Purposes, which includes the “covenant to affirm and promote…The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large.” And I agree with that.
But while a person’s faith and religious principles can and should play a part in how they exercise their democratic rights, religion should never be allowed to subvert, overturn or overrule democracy. So-called theocracy is one of the very worst forms of government because far from being the rule of God, which is what the word means, it is actually the rule of people (usually men) who claim divine authority for their own bigotry and tyranny, and the oppression of those they disagree with. Bigotry, tyranny and oppression is what so-called theocracy inevitably involves, which is why I am deeply suspicious of any attempt to bring sectarianism into our – or any – system of government. And the same goes for any attempt to say that God or religion requires us to vote for any particular party in a free and democratic system. That choice is a matter for our own personal judgement and conscience to decide.
We live in a world where democracy is under threat, where many countries are under authoritarian rule – or where incipient authoritarianism threatens democracy from within, using the very instruments of democracy to subvert it. And once democracy goes, so too do all those associated rights and freedoms that long years of struggle, sacrifice and martyrdom have won. Vote for autocracy, or surrender to it, and you may never get the chance to vote again! Democracy, then, requires a willingness to lose an election, a willingness to allow others to rule if they have been freely elected to do so, a willingness to allow other voices to be heard in an atmosphere of free debate. It requires tolerance – a principle dear to us as Unitarians. It requires an open mind and a willingness to see someone else’s point of view. It requires goodwill and respect for the integrity of opponents – and in my experience most democratic politicians in our democratic system, whatever their inevitable shortcomings, genuinely try to do their best for those they represent. The hysterical, confrontational and tedious atmosphere of election time is probably the worst at which to assess the true value of democracy, and we shouldn’t allow it to cloud our judgement of its essentials. The superficial hurly-burly of knockabout, petty party politics, which some people enjoy but so many find off-putting, shouldn’t get in the way of serious engagement with the serious issues that confront us all at this or any other time.
But what relation does democracy have to religion? Modern democracy really has its roots in the Enlightenment of the late 17th and 18th centuries. This is when people questioned and rejected the ‘divine right of kings’, the authority of religious hierarchies, the supposedly pre-ordained class structures and the injustice and privilege that went with them. This was when the rights of men and women were declared and affirmed, and people claimed their equal freedom and dignity as human beings. And while conservative religion was, at best, suspicious of such things, liberal, humanistic and progressive religion embraced them. It was values derived – directly or indirectly – from truly Christian principles that inspired the movements for human rights and social reform in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. Love of neighbour, simple kindness, justice for the oppressed, compassion for the suffering, humanity’s fundamental oneness, the equality of both genders and of all nationalities and ethnicities without regard to sect or religion – can all be traced to the spirit, example and teachings of Jesus. It is hard to exaggerate the extent to which these informed humanity’s long and tortuous journey to the rights and freedoms we value and enjoy today.
Democracy was the product of this journey. It is sometimes said that democracy was born in ancient Athens, but Athenian ‘democracy’ was confined to male citizens only. Women were excluded and so were the great numbers of slaves on whom the then unquestioned economic and social systems of the whole ancient world depended. Of course, slavery persisted for many centuries despite the undermining of its rationale by the earliest Christian communities where, as Paul wrote, “There is no such thing as Jew and Greek, slave and freeman, male and female; for you are all one person in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). But, much later, in places like the West Indies and America’s southern States, despite their Christian pretensions, slavery-based societies actually mirrored ancient Athens. Slavery’s pernicious heritage of racism gave the lie to the democratic pretensions of the countries that practised it. But the absolute incompatibility of slavery, of racial and gender discrimination, with dawning democracy could not be suppressed for ever. Those who resisted slavery and those who fought and campaigned against it in the 19th century, those who protested, preached and marched for Civil Rights in the 20th, saw themselves as doing a sacred task, but they were also making real the human promise of democracy.
The ancient world, with its emperors, kings and high priests, had no democracies as we would understand them, not even in Athens or the Roman Republic. But there was a tradition of calling for justice, a tradition found in the Hebrew prophets and their vision of a world where peace would prevail and people of all nations would share in a great banquet. Jesus inherited this vision and held to it in the face of an arrogant empire and its priestly stooges. And the outcome was a community of communities that shared it too. And although the later Church, as a worldly institution, often became as corrupt and hierarchical as the political systems around it, the essential message and nature of the vision was never altogether lost. Its basic character as a repository of truly human values survived the centuries, coming to inspire the liberating movements that we now celebrate as evidence of progress. And democracy is part of this.
But this progress cannot be taken for granted. It is not inevitable. It can be undermined and reversed. Authoritarianism, dictatorship, theocracy and their like are all too present in today’s world, while democracy is often reviled, despised and neglected, even by people who should support, practice and defend it. Whether we see this as part of our religious duty or simply as our responsibility as citizens is up to each of us to decide, but it is worth asking what humanity demands in a time when inhumanity still blights our present and threatens our future.
Ipswich Unitarian Meeting House 