Excluded voices …

Christian Century, July 12, 2003 by Robert A. Arbogast

IN "PRAY AND VOTE" (June 14) Garret Keizer attempts to explain low voter turnout, even among those who pray. I appreciate his analysis and challenge, including the summons to responsible political action. However, I want to suggest another explanation. Perhaps those of us who pray yet fail to vote do so because we expect our prayers to be heard, even to make a difference, while we are not so sure about our votes. Given a "winner take all" political system dominated by two parties that craft the rules to exclude oilier voices, it is no wonder that many of us do not vote. If we are not "party-line" Democrats or Republicans, there is no place for our votes to fit, no place for our votes to make a difference. Or so it seems. I admit that this too is a form of political sloth, in this case born of that ugly root of sloth, despair.

Robert A. Arbogast

Olentangy Christian Reformed

Church,

Columbus, Ohio