Academia & Ecclesia

According to Jason Brennan, an ethicist from Georgetown University, “most people shouldn’t vote.” That might be a shocking claim from an ethicist, since many consider the act of voting as an ethical responsibility. For him, most American citizens are politically incompetent due to the fact that most of them are ignorant, irrational, or misinformed about political affairs. He claims that there is nothing necessarily immoral about being ignorant, irrational, or misinformed. However, since the stakes are high during elections, the people will be better served if most people, under the influence of ignorance, irrationality, or misinformation, will not vote. I somewhat concur. As a church member, who held leadership roles in local churches, I worry about many politically incompetent Christians who are so eager to vote. Many American Christians claim that they vote based on their moral convictions. As a matter of fact, some major evangelical denominations even directly encourage their member