All citizens should have voting rights. It’s a moral issue at the heart of being American

While it’s true that there were no voting machines in the times of the Torah, the Israelites voted on whether they would embrace the principles God presented at Mount Sinai as a blueprint for living a holy life.

In Exodus 24:7 it is written, “Then Moses took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, ‘We will do and hear everything the Lord has said.’”

That was the first time in the Bible that a voice vote was taken by all Hebrews to embrace the covenant that God set down before the Israelites.

The decision wasn’t made in a cave or in secret confines by self-appointed priests and political leaders. The true democratic process happened in an open place, the Sinai desert, for all to see and hear. Even though it was God dictating the terms of their freedom, the people still voted to cast their lot with God and Moses, his prophet, thereby embracing the sacred writings we call the Torah.

We revere and cherish in a democratic society the voice of the people and their right to vote.

Recently 800 clergy from many faiths around our nation wrote President Joe Biden, expressing their concerns and fears that many states have attempted to whittle away at the population of potential voters in America by passing legislation to curtail voting. Others say these state legislative efforts to increase restrictions on voting are to protect the integrity of the voting system.

Yet, these clergy wrote,

“We cannot be clearer: you must act now to protect every American’s freedom to vote without interference and with confidence that their ballot will be counted and honored. Passing comprehensive voting rights legislation must be the number-one priority of the administration and Congress.”

These religious leaders and many more are advocating that the president and the Senate pass legislation such as the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.

Should clergy go beyond their duties of presiding over the rites and rituals of religious life to protect the right to vote, which is critical to the foundation of our democracy and our own survival as a nation?

It’s easy to cross the line, under the guise of protecting election integrity, by enacting laws that deprive or impede Americans from voting, based upon race and economic status. If the right to vote in America is a human rights issue, then shouldn’t religious leaders — and all Americans — feel compelled to speak out?

In their letter to President Biden, the 800 religious leaders wrote, “During the Civil Rights era, prominent leaders were driven by their faith to fight for equality. This is why we continue the push for voting rights today — our faith teaches us that each one of us deserves dignity and freedom.“

America has been fighting over the right to vote since after the Civil War. In a speech entitled “Give us the Ballot,” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke on May 17, 1957, three years to the day after the Supreme Court’s Brown vs. the Board of Education, appealing to the nation to give Black American citizens the right to vote.

“The denial of this sacred right (to vote) is a tragic betrayal of our democratic tradition,” King said. “And so our most urgent request to the president of the United States and every member of Congress is to give us the right to vote.”

King believed that the right to vote was part of the Bible’s sacred teachings and core values on justice, which is why the right to vote is a moral issue that religious leaders should be concerned about.

King wrote, “Each of us must keep faith in the future. Let us not despair. Let us realize that as we struggle for justice and freedom, we have cosmic companionship. This is the long faith of the Hebraic-Christian tradition: that God is not some Aristotelian ‘unmoved mover’ who merely contemplates upon Himself. He is not merely a self-knowing God, but an other-loving God forever working through history for the establishment of His kingdom.”

And here we are, 60 years later, still fighting to preserve the right of Black Americans and all American citizens to have unfettered access to vote for their candidates for office.

As was true for the Israelites, it is not just voting for a candidate, it is also about expressing our communal voice and belief in the values, policies and leadership of our great nation. For King and for clergy, the right to vote was not just a secular issue. It remains a religious value at the heart of being an American citizen and a human being.

Let that voice which said in the Torah, “We will do and hear everything that the Lord has said,” ring true for all Americans when it comes to casting that sacred ballot.