Chapter 3—Three conclusions

Three conclusions seem clear from this historical study:RVSE 3.9

1. We are always to vote “on the side of temperance and virtue.”RVSE 3.10

2. The decision to vote for candidates is a personal decision. If you vote, “keep your voting to yourself. Do not feel it your duty to urge everyone to do as you do.”RVSE 3.11

3. We are to stand free from political strife and corruption.RVSE 3.12

Perhaps a surprising postscript on voting is that the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, giving women the right to vote, was not passed until 1920, five years after Ellen White’s death. It stated simply: “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”RVSE 3.13

Some States granted women partial suffrage earlier. Colorado did this in 1894 and California in 1911. But long before this, Ellen White evidently anticipated such a development when she wrote in 1875:RVSE 3.14

“There are speculations as to woman’s rights and duties in regard to voting. Many are in no way disciplined to understand the bearing of important questions. They have lived lives of present gratification because it was the fashion. Women who might develop good intellects and have true moral worth are now mere slaves to fashion.... Such women are not prepared to intelligently take a prominent position in political matters.... Let this order of things be changed.”—Testimonies for the Church 3:565.

From this statement we might properly conclude that (1) it is inappropriate for women (and men) to perform their “duties in regard to voting” unless they have been “disciplined to understand the bearing of important questions”: (2) such understanding should be acquired.RVSE 4.1

Next week we will consider politics and government, and the Christian’s relationship to it.RVSE 4.2