There are many places throughout America where you may be forced to vote in a church. That's right, exercising your secular right to vote in a secular election can only happen if you're willing to enter someone else's church and be exposed to their religious symbols, beliefs, and ideology. In Wisconsin, a Jewish man has objected to being forced to vote in a church; the elections board doesn't care.

Dr. Zeev Bar-Av of Middleton said issues on Tuesday's ballot such as gay marriage and the death penalty "are essentially on the national divide on religion and non-religion."

The 65-year-old Middleton man said, "If there is a place where church and state should be separated, the polling place should be it."

Source: KOAT

Wisconsin was one of the states that passed a constitutional “gay marriage” ban and it's not unreasonable to think that forcing people to vote in churches may have had something to do with this. As I wrote about not too long ago, studies show that putting polling stations in churches has a measurable effect on how people vote. It's unlikely that atheists and non-Christians would be affected, but Christians themselves will be and that is a legitimate concern.

There are two main problems with putting polling stations. First, it's wrong to force people to enter a house of worship which is not their own in order to exercise their civil, secular right to vote. Atheists shouldn't have to enter any house of worship for that, but Jews shouldn’t have to enter churches, Christians shouldn't have to enter mosques, Muslims shouldn't have to enter synagogues, etc. This is a concern which, in theory, we should all share.

Second, putting polling stations in churches places those churches in a difficult position because they cannot deny others the right to put up signs on behalf of candidates or issues which the church opposes. They must, for example, allow signs supporting abortion or gay marriage even if the church opposes abortion or gay marriage. They can't like that, so why aren't they on the forefront of efforts to find secular alternatives?

The addition of evidence of how churches influence votes only helps solidify the case against allowing them to host polling stations. It's probably true that influences of some sort are unavoidable — after all, it's not like the churches here are deliberately working to affect votes during the election process (at least we can hope they aren't). This cannot mean, however, that we should abandon any effort to minimize or eliminate such influences, especially when we have clear evidence that they exist and that they can make a difference in an election.

 

Separation of Church & State:

• Separation of Church and State 101
• Secularism 101
• What is the Separation of Church and State?
• Religion's Place in the Public Square
• Myths About Church/State Separation
• Church and State News
• Church & State Polls