WHEN NOT VOTING IS THE RIGHT THING TO DO

SANDI DOLBEE: FOR JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES, THE ACT OF CASTING A BALLOT GOES AGAINST WHAT JESUS WOULD HAVE DONE

Hundreds of thousands of Americans won’t be voting in this election. On purpose. Because of their faith. They are Jehovah’s Witnesses, who pride themselves on staying politically neutral here and around the world. They say they are following in Jesus’ footsteps, in obedience to his admonition to be in the world but not part of the world.

They pay taxes and obey the law. But they don’t take partisan sides — and they don’t vote.

“We don’t pledge allegiance to a national icon,” says Robert Hendriks, U.S. spokesman for the Jehovah’s Witnesses. “We pledge allegiance to God’s kingdom.”

Over Zoom, Hendriks told me members may vote on issues in their homeowners association or some other residential situation. Just not a political issue or partisan candidate.

“The act of voting is not a problem, but the act of voting for a particular political candidate or issue would be a problem,” he says. “That would be a violation of our neutrality, and that would clearly not put us in line with the way Jesus would have acted.”

There also is a practical consideration. “Once we take a stand for a political party or leader, we stand against our brothers and sisters,” says Hendricks, who is 55 and was raised in this faith.

For a group known for its (PRECOVID-19) door-to-door proselytizing, taking partisan stands could be an unwelcome turnoff. “If somebody says get off my step because I don’t want to hear about the kingdom, well that’s OK,” he explains. “For us, that’s a badge of honor. But if it’s because of our political ideology, well that’s just not something that a Christian would do, in our mind. It’s not what Christ would do.”

There are 1.3 million Jehovah’s Witnesses in this country, including approximately 30,000 in San Diego County. With those kinds of numbers, I wondered whether all of them really follow this teaching — and what would happen if they didn’t.

“If they participated in non-neutral activities, it would certainly be a violation of our Christian standard,” Hendriks says. “And if they persisted in that and didn’t want to stop, they could no longer serve as Jehovah’s Witnesses.”

Hendriks insists it’s not the church doing the deciding. If a member signs their name to a document joining the military or a political party and it was done purposefully and without remorse, “the moment they did that is the moment they resigned as a Jehovah’s Witness.”

But the tough talk may not be necessary. Because neither Jehovah’s Witnesses nor former members I spoke with in San Diego ever heard of a Witness who secretly voted.

Freedom to refrain

George Wallis wasn’t raised in a religious family. But as a young man, he began studying with the Jehovah’s Witnesses and was baptized in 1972.

He’s 67 now and an elder for the Buena Vista congregation, which meets at a Kingdom Hall in Carlsbad. Elders are men who shepherd and care for the well-being of their congregation.

I asked Wallis, who has never voted in an election, what it feels like to sit on the sidelines all these years.

“I actually feel I have cast a vote,” the Oceanside resident tells me. “I chose to pledge my allegiance to God’s kingdom. So I don’t feel left out. I feel that being a subject of God’s kingdom has brought me many benefits.”

What does he say to folks who resent doing the heavy lifting in this democracy — going to candidate nights, studying the propositions, wrestling with decisions that shape all our futures — while he reaps the benefits of their labors?

“Like all Americans, we can choose how much, if any, active involvement in politics that we choose. I have chosen to refrain.”

He says he feels “the best positive change I can make, and it’s been a lot of work, is to try to improve what kind of person I am and the children I’ve raised.”

A few minutes later, he adds this: “We really have tried to model our way of life after Jesus and what he would do. Jesus demonstrated true neutrality. I love his balance when he said there are obligations, you have to pay Caesar his things and God his things.”

Edwin Fajardo grew up in a family of Jehovah’s Witnesses. After straying briefly, he was baptized at the age of 20. He is 52 now and an elder at a Kingdom Hall in National City.

Fajardo has never voted in a political election and mirrors much of what Wallis says. When people ask him why he doesn’t vote, he tells them this: “I already voted for Jesus’ kingdom the day I got baptized. I promised to dedicate my life to support that kingdom in heaven and to follow my leader. My leader is Jesus. In this way, I remain neutral in world political affairs.”

Even though he’s never known a member to vote, the Chula Vista resident is as firm as Hendriks about the consequences. “If a person decides to vote, it would be a personal, conscientious decision and would indicate they no longer self-identify as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses.”

Ex-witnesses now vote

It took several years after Carol Hartman left the Jehovah’s Witnesses to get around to voting. She exited in the 1980s, after spending 36 years as a faithful member.

She says she became disillusioned with what she said were its changing stances on what had been fundamental issues.

“Can God really be behind this organization?” she says she asked herself. “They say they have the truth, but can they keep changing what the truth is?”

Hartman, who is 83 and lives in Allied Gardens, doesn’t remember exactly when she began voting, but she remembers how she felt. “It made me feel like a good citizen,” she says, invoking the same phrase that Fajardo and Wallis used about not voting.

She’s voted ever since. “I’ve been following this election avidly, maybe more than I have in other years.”

Hartman, who attends a Presbyterian church in La Mesa and runs a support group for ex-witnesses, has never heard of a practicing Witness who votes. She credits the teachings for this resolve. “They suggest that Satan is behind all the governments, so would you want to be a part of Satan?”

Hartman no longer believes that. Instead, she believes she’s actually helping do God’s work on Earth by voting. “I care about having good laws in my country and in my city. I’m very well aware of a lot of corruption in government, so I feel I have a duty to vote for the person who is most likely to be honest and not give in to corruption.”

Sherry Jansma and her husband were third-generation Witnesses and had been active members for more than 40 years. But when they finally struck out on their own, it didn’t take long for them to decide to also vote.

If she remembers correctly, the 76-year-old Clairemont resident first voted in the 1988 general election.

“I felt uneasy because I had been so opposed to voting for so much of my life,” she says. “I stood in line and I got into the booth and I thought, I hope I do this right. I hope I put the pointer into the right hole. But then after I voted, I thought that wasn’t so bad. It was really kind of nice, and I felt good about having done it. I thought, this is the first step in many steps I have to take.”

While she has never missed an election, she confesses that she has mixed feelings about whether she actually likes voting.

“I don’t like it because of all the responsibility that’s involved. So I guess you might say I don’t like to vote the same way I don’t like to brush and floss my teeth every night,” she adds, laughing. “You have to do it if you want to be healthy and happy.”

Jansma, who now attends a nondenominational church in La Jolla, doesn’t want to tear down the Jehovah’s Witnesses. “If a Witness is happy not voting and believing the way they do, I’m not going to be the one to try to change them on that.”

No voting matter

A handful of other religious movements abstain from politics and are reluctant to vote.

To be clear, however, most faith groups have no such reluctance. Many actually see voting — and political activism — as an extension of their faith.

I am reminded of what Eric Barreto, a New Testament scholar at Princeton Theological Seminary, once wrote in The Huffington Post about just how political Jesus was in his ministry.

“His preaching was tinged with political statements,” Barreto wrote. “His healings carried massive political implications for the ways we structure our world and understand our neighbor. His execution was of the kind reserved for acts of political disruption.”

In the battleground state of Pennsylvania, a Republican political action committee is reaching out to the traditionally secluded Amish community, hoping to coax them to get in their buggies and vote for the president.

I asked Hendriks if there was a similar effort aimed at Jehovah’s Witnesses. “That would be money not well spent,” he replied.

An unshakable faith that is no voting matter.

U-T ILLUSTRATION / ISTOCK