No-confidence vote

Tens of millions of American evangelicals do not vote. A Barna Group analysis of the 2012 presidential election found that of the 89 million “born-again Christian” adults in America—those who claim a personal active relationship with Christ—38 million did not vote for president, and 12 million of those were not even registered to vote.

That 38 million gap is not surprising given the widespread distrust and skepticism of Washington politics—and organizations and churches rallying to mobilize the Christian vote are fighting an uphill battle with folks like Steve Rugg, 46. Once Rugg dreamed of working for a president in the White House. Now he’s an executive with a Christian ministry in Colorado Springs, and sees politics as a “broken system” with indistinguishable candidates, expensive campaigns, and little hope for change.

Rugg was registered for 20 years before he finally voted in the 2000 presidential election. He decided to vote in part because he felt as if he should—but also because Chipotle was offering a free burrito for voters. His church in Colorado Springs, Colo., talks about faith informing politics. He agrees in principle but is skeptical in practice. He has voted in presidential elections since 2000, but “pretty grudgingly,” since he feels neither major party captures his values: “I have to work myself up to do it ... like getting a physical or getting a dentist checkup.”

Rugg’s disdain for politics is typical among Christians who don’t vote, Barna says, but “impact” and “inconvenience” are also factors. Several groups are trying to convince more evangelicals to vote:

• Rick Scarborough, formerly the pastor of First Baptist Church in Pearland, Texas, leads Vision America, a national organization that encourages pastors to host registration drives, hand out nonpartisan voter guides, preach on why Christians should vote, and lead their people to the polls. He cites a “preacher problem,” where pastors are afraid or uneducated about political engagement.

• Bill Dallas, a former real estate developer whose eclectic background includes a redemptive stint in San Quentin State Prison for grand theft embezzlement, is CEO of United in Purpose (UiP), an umbrella organization encouraging Christian cultural engagement. Its Champion the Vote initiative works with ministries and churches to get Christians registered, educated in a Christian worldview, and voting.

• Kenyn Cureton, vice president for church ministries at the Family Research Council, leads Watchmen on the Wall, a network of 65,000 pastors trying to create a culture of “citizenship stewardship” in U.S. churches. Cureton says pastors worry about their legal rights, offending members, and whether preaching on politics would get in the way of preaching the gospel.

Before the 2000 presidential election, while pastoring in Lebanon, Tenn., Cureton preached on the positions of George W. Bush and Al Gore regarding three issues—religious liberty, marriage and the gay agenda, and abortion. Cureton asked his congregants to “prayerfully make their choice and vote their values.” He lost about 500 attendees, then gained as many new ones from among community members who heard about and liked what he did.

A recent national study by UiP’s American Culture and Faith Institute found that among spiritually active, politically conservative or moderate Christians, most want their pastors to address topics of political importance, especially abortion, religious liberty, poverty, and sexual identity. But many pastors fear losing 501(c)(3) status (tax deductibility) if they engage in politics.

The legal threat has loomed large for six decades. In 1954 legislation shepherded by then-Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson prohibited nonprofit organizations from participating in political elections. Since then, although some urban churches have regularly invited Democratic candidates to speak, and some suburban churches have seemed at times like the Republican Party at prayer, no church has lost its tax exemption because of a sermon preached in the pulpit.

(One church, The Church at Pierce Creek near Binghamton, N.Y., lost its exemption because in 1992 it placed ads in The Washington Times and USA Today criticizing then-candidate Bill Clinton’s position on abortion, sexual abstinence, and other issues. The ad began, “Christian Beware,” and ended, “How then can we vote for Bill Clinton?”)

Deeper than the legal threat has been a divide on what’s right and wrong for churches to do. Some are like 2,000-member RockPointe Church in Flower Mound, Texas, which has on its welcome desk a list of local, state, and federal officeholders. Ron Holton, the Southern Baptist pastor who founded the church, urges his congregants and staff to study candidates and find out what they stand for. He tells them to write their representatives and make their voices heard.

Holton says some young people in his church have told him he should not talk about politics. He asks them if Dietrich Bonhoeffer was out of line in fighting Hitler. Others say “the system” is messy and broken: Holton replies, “We live in a fallen, sinful world, and because of that, we sin and others sin. It’s not easy and clean and neat and pretty, but look at Jesus. He kept going toward things that were messy.”

Other churches ban any mention of politics. Matt Ristuccia, senior pastor of Stone Hill Church in Princeton, N.J., takes a different approach: He distinguishes between “the church gathered” (typically, for Sunday worship) and “the church scattered” (Christians out in the world). He says God calls the church scattered to political involvement, but the church gathered is called to proclaim the gospel.

Ristuccia says it’s important to inculcate a strong civic duty in the church and to train members how to think biblically, but says the church speaking on candidates or parties is going too far: “I do teach my people about abortion. I don’t avoid talking about those things. But I don’t pile them on in late October and early November.”