Eric Butterworth Speaks: Essays on Abundant Living #101
Delivered by Eric Butterworth on November 8, 1977
Download the PDF for How To Vote For God
Return to Eric Butterworth Speaks
I like to call Election Day the great American crisis. I do this because the Chinese word for "crisis" means "danger plus opportunity," and this says a lot about Election Day. It can be seen as an opportunity to unify the collective will of the people with the administration of the government of city, state, and nation, and to empower them to go forward with new achievements. However, there is always the danger that in vying for office, the various candidates and slates can take a divisive attitude to the electorate.
The one great danger to our nation is not so much attack from the outside as it is polarization from within. Political disputes should never lead us to reject the cause of unity. There is need to stand back every so often and to give thanks that at least we live in a land where we can differ; where we can voice our own views and vote as we please, thus participating in government on all levels'. Holding this attitude, we can have differences without becoming divided.
The Declaration of Independence states that governments are instituted among men and derive their just powers from the "consent of the governed." This points subtly yet profoundly to the individual's responsibility in preserving and expanding the democratic ideal which is the United States of America. This consent is sort of an amalgam of varying shades of opinion — all the way from total, unquestioned support to radical dissent.
The American dream hinges on the day when the populace enters the polling place and casts votes as individual conscience, and conclusions may direct. We must never allow our dismay over revealed corruption and misdeeds, nor the recollection of political disappointments in recent times, to dissuade us in any way from participation in this important act. There are always those who say that they will "sit this one out." They do not care for any of the candidates; they say that "all politicians are crooks," and they see no point in voting. This makes about as much sense as burning down your house because you didn't like the food you were served.
The realization of democracy must begin in the individual. It consists in the awakening of the inner consciousness to the sense of oneness of self with the whole. Democracy is, in fact, just another name for that spiritual unity which we have found to be the essence of all life, even as it is the fundamental Truth in genuine religion. I emphasize the need for inwardness in democracy. All social watchwords must first of all be spiritual facts, for nothing can ever be established in society unless it is first established in consciousness. Revelation precedes reformation. The seer precedes the doer. The person who generates and spreads abroad sincere and profound brotherly feelings from his own vital center has a more important place in building democracy than any other person.
I love these words of Walt Whitman: "Swiftly arose and spread around me, the peace and joy and knowledge that pass all the art and argument of earth;...And I know that the spirit of God is the eldest brother of my own, and that all men ever born are also my brothers and the women my sisters and lovers, and that a kelson of creation is love." This points out democracy's greatest need today: the sense of community, brotherhood and love.
We need to turn back the spirit of indifference which is so commonplace today. We must begin once again to trust others and to believe in them, to look for the good rather than the not-so-good. We need to see their elements of strength rather than just their weaknesses; we must have confidence that they will become, in time, their best and truest selves. And we must be willing to aid them toward their highest — regardless of any return to us.
This consciousness of love must have its genesis right now, on Election Day. No matter how strongly opposed we are to a candidate or party, nor how loyal to another, we must believe in the Divine outworking of the good. We must then accept, respect- fully and loyally, the wishes of the majority, expressed according to the Constitution. This is all part of the democratic process. During the campaign, it is our right and duty to try to further what we believe. But once the election is over, it is just as much our right and duty to aid those who have won. This is love.
Moffatt's translation of Psalm 25 gives us a tremendous text: "Whosoever reverences the Eternal learns what is the right course to take." The Eternal gives us a sense of perspective in which we can see our part in the whole, and our responsibility to the whole. All the Bibles of the world have taught that the benefits of God's love for creation (good health, peace of mind, and successful living) accrue only to those who consent to the responsibilities of right thinking and living. Reverence for the Eternal gives us the perspective to see that government "of the people" can be "for the people" only so long as it is "by the people."
Reverence for the Eternal gives us a sense of humility which is fundamental in making right and wise decisions. In the Civil War, when to so many there seemed to be a great moral issue at stake, Lincoln brooded over the strange fact that both sides read the same Bible and prayed to the same God. Reflecting on this paradox, he wrote, "In the present Civil War, it is quite possible that God's purpose is something different from the purpose of either party." That was the humility in which a man of deep faith regarded his greatest decision.
It takes humility to see that politics can have a unity of unlike-mindedness. There must be awakened within men the realization of the importance of a point of contact rather than a point of view. It takes humility to accept the results of an election if the "other" party succeeds. But let us know that all men can be channels for God's love and wisdom, and let us be big enough to pray for their guidance.
Reverence for the Eternal gives us all a sense of guidance. The very word "vote" has a religious background. Its Latin root is "votum," which means a vow or prayer. Thus, a vote is (or should be) a prayer for guidance in support of the nation we love. Let us have faith that this collective "day of prayer" will bring forth that which is in the best interest of the greatest number of people.
On the back of a dollar bill you will find a circle in which there is a pyramid with a gap in it. In the gap is an eye with a burst of light around it. The words printed there are "Novus Ordo Seclorum," which mean "a new order of the ages." The gap means that the American dream has yet to be realized. Only through right seeing, through faith, and through following the guidance of the Spirit indwelling can this new order be attained. Whenever you pray for the prosperity and peace of the land, for the guidance and protection of its leaders, and whenever this prayer is fulfilled in your act of voting, then surely you are voting for God.
Certainly, not everyone will vote this way — not this year, and probably not next year. But then, not all settlers on the East coast turned their eye westward to populate this nation. Someone had to start, to brave the hardships and the ridicule. If you vote in this spirit (and by all means, do vote), then the trend has its beginning. Believe that it cannot fail.
© 1977, by Eric Butterworth
