Editorial October 31, 1964 Issue

The Responsibility of Voting

Helen Wood Bauman

National elections present a serious challenge to citizens who want to preserve and extend political and religious freedom in their countries and to help them progress socially and economically in the world. Collective action begins with individuals, but with individuals acting in collective harmony; and this is why each vote is important. An uncast vote amounts to negative action against one's sense of Principle, against one's well-being, and against the good of all.

Christian Science destroys negative attitudes toward individual responsibilities. It reveals God as omniactive Principle and man as His idea, embodying His ceaseless action and incapable of apathy or indifference toward good. One must realize these facts if he is to help his country decisively in times of elections. Unity, which appears in national agreement for equality and liberty, progress and justice, as well as all forward-looking standards, hints the presence of one Principle asserting its intelligence and wisdom through its ideas.

An election of officers to conduct the government and affairs of his nation gives the Christian Scientist an opportunity to make practical the truths of God's universal control and man's perpetual obedience to the divine will. Voting in an election calls for the Scientist's conscientious prayer, the scientific prayer by which he not only desires the highest good for his nation but realizes the presence and full operation of the power and control of the invisible forces of Spirit.

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