Vote Your Conscience
But do it with a tough mind and a tender heart.
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One of the most frequent phrases you’ll hear during election season is “Vote your conscience.”
Christians, it seems, especially like this phrase.
These words point right back to the personal, individualistic faith that permeates much of Western Christianity.
That isn’t to say that there is not some truth to voting your conscience.
At its best, it means that the way you vote should not act as a religious test of orthodoxy or spiritual devotion.
Vote your conscience means that Christians have free will to weigh the information, policies, and politicians in each election and use a combination of data allied with wisdom to make their own decisions.
But there are problems with tossing around the phrase “vote your conscience.”
A Seared Conscience
Too often people assert that they have nobly followed the dictates of their conscience in the voting booth, all while disregarding the well-being of their neighbor.
Some use the “vote your conscience”concept to absolve themselves from the implications of their vote on others and society as a whole.
Sure, vote however you’d like, but that’s not a free pass to ignore the effects of your choices.
Another problem with voting your conscience is that consciences are malleable. They can be shaped and misshaped.
The Bible explains,
The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.
~ 1 Timothy 4:1-2
The idea of “searing” a conscience carries with it the connotation of flesh being branded with red-hot metal and covered over by scar tissue. The conscience is the site of a grievous wound that has left the area malformed.
Our consciences become seared when we follow “deceiving spirits.”
Those spirits show up today as disinformation and misinformation. There is plenty of both being spread on propaganda sites and social media, especially regarding the election.
“Vote your conscience” is not good advice when consciences have been seared. When they have become calloused to compassion. When they consider empathy “toxic.” When they no longer value facts and truth.
The words of Martin Luther King, Jr. add ballast to the “vote your conscience” concept.
In a sermon based on Matthew 10:16— “Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.”—King said, “We must combine the toughness of the serpent and the softness of the dove, a tough mind and a tender heart.”
A tough mind, characterized by incisive thinking, realistic appraisal, and decisive judgment…There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think…Few people have the toughness of mind to judge critically and to discern the true from the false, the fact from the fiction…The toughminded person always examines the facts before he reaches conclusions; in short, he postjudges.
King’s admonishment to think critically amid a sea of falsities ring even more true today than when he first spoke them more than half a century ago.
But shrewdness is not the only necessity to bring about justice and human flourishing. We also need tender hearts.
For King, a tender heart is the opposite of a seared conscience.
But we must not stop with the cultivation of a tough mind. The gospel also demands a tender heart. Toughmindedness without tenderheartedness is cold and detached, leaving one’s life in a perpetual winter devoid of the warmth of spring and the gentle heat of summer. What is more tragic than to see a person who has risen to the disciplined heights of toughmindedness but has at the same time sunk to the passionless depths of hardheartedness?…
The hardhearted person lacks the capacity for genuine compassion. He is unmoved by the pains and afflictions of his brothers. He passes unfortunate men every day, but he never really sees them. He gives dollars to a worthwhile charity, but he gives not of his spirit.
To vote your conscience you must have both a tough mind and a tender heart.
You must assiduously weigh the options with intellectual honesty and precision. You must also show kindness to your neighbor and a concern for the well-being of others who are different from you.
So, yes, vote your conscience. But do the hard part, too.
Vote your conscience…but realize your vote comes with consequences.
Vote your conscience…but vote for the common good.
Vote your conscience… but vote with compassion for others.
Vote your conscience…but with a tough mind and a tender heart.
Have you heard the “vote your conscience” phrase? How has it been used or misused in your context? Comment below.
I hope we can train up the next generation of justice-seekers from an early age to have tough minds and tenders hearts. That way, when they vote their conscience, they will do so with a concern for their neighbors. These books will help you in the process.
My take on the morning of Election Day in the USA:
This shouldn't even be close. The fact that it is close reveals that sexism and racism is not only a stain on the fabric of our nation, it is part of threads that make up the fabric of our nation.
The main thing hindering Vice President Harris is gender and race. With someone this decent and extraordinarily competent, she should be way ahead in the polling.
I think Kamala Harris will win, but it's sad that the Republican Party under Trump has reduced itself to enabling a liar, criminal, abuser of women, insurrectionist, and someone too cognitively unstable to be president of the United States.
Sound…solid!
A tough mind to critically process data, facts and behaviors
A tender heart that critically processes the resulting consequences on others
Thank you Dr. Tisby