Why Should Christians Vote? A Plea for Biblical Citizenship
Oct 15, 2026 by Dr. Kent DelHousaye
The total US population today is estimated to be 350 million people. Of that number, 235 million self-identify as Christian. That’s 67% of America.
Eighty percent of American Christians are adults who are at least 18, which means that there are 188 million Christians in our country who CAN vote.
But here’s the shocker—ONLY 62 million of those Christian adults who CAN vote actually DO! That’s just 1 out of every 3 Christians!
That means there are 126 million self-professing voting-age Christians who DON’T VOTE. Why? Half of them aren’t registered to vote, and the other half just don’t care enough to do it.
It’s a stunning statistic that reveals most Christians in our country are busy doing church but having little impact on society.
Apathy is part of the problem. Too many Christians and churches are satisfied with sitting out the cultural milieu altogether and just hoping for the best.
Antipathy is the other. Certain Christians and traditions instead hasten the cultural meltdown by circling the wagons in the church and wishing for the world to burn.
Whether it be apathy or antipathy toward culture, the church in America is willingly ceding kingdom ground rather than taking it.
And the inevitable result is cultural meltdown ON OUR WATCH.
The Bible warns us about being only one generation away from forgetting God (Judges 2:10), and this means each generation has a responsibility to pass on what we have to the next.
So, if we don’t steward what we’ve inherited from those before us, then we will leave nothing for those who come after.
There is simply no excuse for Christians to ignore or abhor the culture and letting it just deteriorate around us is an extreme dereliction of our duty.
It’s also a monumental failure in our calling as Christians who’ve been entrusted not just to hold the line with the kingdom of God but to also advance it.
At the least, every Christian can use their voice and vote for biblical values in the public square. It’s embarrassingly lazy and demonstrably apathetic not to.
To put it simply, if the other 126 million churchgoing Christians simply voted, we’d not only have a much greater influence in the world but also a much cleaner conscience before God.
According to Pew Research, 72% of the people in Tennessee are church-going Christians. This means there are 5.3 million Christians here, and more than 4.2 million of them are old enough to vote.
Sadly, though, 1.4 million Christian adults in Tennessee aren’t even registered to vote, and another 1.4 million are registered but don’t bother to vote—that’s 2.8 MILLION adult Christians in our own state who DO NOT VOTE!
This is embarrassing for the church here, and it’s a sad statement about the overall inactivity and disengagement of Christians in Tennessee. If Christians aren’t even willing to participate civically, then we have failed in basic biblical citizenship.
Our spiritual duty as Christian citizens in this world is to seek the welfare of our neighbors and communities, to support governing order and authority, and to shape the culture and civilization in which we live.
One of the most practical ways we do that is by stewarding our right to vote. Voting is about stewardship. It is a divinely delegated responsibility to use our authority to manage God’s created order.
And in a republic like ours, our right to vote is one of the ordinary means by which we exercise that responsibility. As such, it is one of the few but most important levers that we hold to actively influence our society.
To abdicate this fundamental responsibility is poor stewardship and unbecoming of biblical citizens. Therefore, it’s incumbent on us all to not only vote but to also vote our biblical values.
And if we truly did, then we would not only carry every election in the state of Tennessee; we would also radically change the landscape of our state—into the kind of place that feels more like heaven than it does like earth.
So, how can we do this? The answer is by mobilizing the church and Christians to vote with three simple and practical steps. First, get REGISTERED. Second, get INFORMED. Third, get ENGAGED.
Eighty percent of American Christians are adults who are at least 18, which means that there are 188 million Christians in our country who CAN vote.
But here’s the shocker—ONLY 62 million of those Christian adults who CAN vote actually DO! That’s just 1 out of every 3 Christians!
That means there are 126 million self-professing voting-age Christians who DON’T VOTE. Why? Half of them aren’t registered to vote, and the other half just don’t care enough to do it.
It’s a stunning statistic that reveals most Christians in our country are busy doing church but having little impact on society.
Apathy is part of the problem. Too many Christians and churches are satisfied with sitting out the cultural milieu altogether and just hoping for the best.
Antipathy is the other. Certain Christians and traditions instead hasten the cultural meltdown by circling the wagons in the church and wishing for the world to burn.
Whether it be apathy or antipathy toward culture, the church in America is willingly ceding kingdom ground rather than taking it.
And the inevitable result is cultural meltdown ON OUR WATCH.
The Bible warns us about being only one generation away from forgetting God (Judges 2:10), and this means each generation has a responsibility to pass on what we have to the next.
So, if we don’t steward what we’ve inherited from those before us, then we will leave nothing for those who come after.
There is simply no excuse for Christians to ignore or abhor the culture and letting it just deteriorate around us is an extreme dereliction of our duty.
It’s also a monumental failure in our calling as Christians who’ve been entrusted not just to hold the line with the kingdom of God but to also advance it.
At the least, every Christian can use their voice and vote for biblical values in the public square. It’s embarrassingly lazy and demonstrably apathetic not to.
To put it simply, if the other 126 million churchgoing Christians simply voted, we’d not only have a much greater influence in the world but also a much cleaner conscience before God.
According to Pew Research, 72% of the people in Tennessee are church-going Christians. This means there are 5.3 million Christians here, and more than 4.2 million of them are old enough to vote.
Sadly, though, 1.4 million Christian adults in Tennessee aren’t even registered to vote, and another 1.4 million are registered but don’t bother to vote—that’s 2.8 MILLION adult Christians in our own state who DO NOT VOTE!
This is embarrassing for the church here, and it’s a sad statement about the overall inactivity and disengagement of Christians in Tennessee. If Christians aren’t even willing to participate civically, then we have failed in basic biblical citizenship.
Our spiritual duty as Christian citizens in this world is to seek the welfare of our neighbors and communities, to support governing order and authority, and to shape the culture and civilization in which we live.
One of the most practical ways we do that is by stewarding our right to vote. Voting is about stewardship. It is a divinely delegated responsibility to use our authority to manage God’s created order.
And in a republic like ours, our right to vote is one of the ordinary means by which we exercise that responsibility. As such, it is one of the few but most important levers that we hold to actively influence our society.
To abdicate this fundamental responsibility is poor stewardship and unbecoming of biblical citizens. Therefore, it’s incumbent on us all to not only vote but to also vote our biblical values.
And if we truly did, then we would not only carry every election in the state of Tennessee; we would also radically change the landscape of our state—into the kind of place that feels more like heaven than it does like earth.
So, how can we do this? The answer is by mobilizing the church and Christians to vote with three simple and practical steps. First, get REGISTERED. Second, get INFORMED. Third, get ENGAGED.
