Jehovah's Witnesses canvass for God instead of votes

As Election Day draws near , James Brooks is putting in 70 hours this month canvassing neighborhoods, passing out literature and chatting up strangers.

If you ask him, he’ll tell you: He’s not voting for anyone.

As a Jehovah’s Witness who regularly proselytizes door-to-door with faith-based publications, Brooks hasn’t voted in an election since casting a ballot for Richard Nixon 40 years ago.

At the time, he thought voting was his American duty. “I can remember telling relatives that if they didn’t vote, they didn’t have any right to complain.”

Since his religious conversion at age 30, Brooks holds the Witness viewpoint – that not voting emulates Jesus Christ’s example of avoiding political involvement.

It’s not a policy of isolationism. “I keep up with politics,” he said. “Take the war record of John McCain: This man is sincere. And how can you help but love Obama? I think they’re both sincere.”

Brooks’ faith compels him to keep politics at arm’s length, however. “We do stay neutral in the affairs of the world,” said Brooks, a former Methodist and retired insurance agent who is the Witness overseer for Portsmouth.

Political candidates more than ever are pursuing “values voters” and people of faith as important electoral blocs.

Some faith groups see themselves in similar terms. White evangelicals have a history of supporting Republicans, while black churchgoers and Jews typically lean toward Democrats.

This year, many Hampton Roads churches were particularly active in promoting voter registration and reminding congregants of a civic, even religious, duty to vote.

In contrast, Witnesses typically do not vote, run for elected office, help with political campaigns or volunteer at the polls .

The denomination counts 1 million members in the United States, including about 25,000 in Virginia. There are 31

Jehovah’s Witnesses congregations in South Hampton Roads.

“We’re not against worldly government and certainly not against the American government or its democracy,” said Jerrold Housner, a retired engineer and Witness convert. He last voted in 1964 – “for Lyndon Johnson, I think.”

Housner, like many Witnesses, thinks the only perfect government is God’s kingdom, which ultimately will reign over humanity, he said.

That kingdom’s approach will be augu red by signs that the world is in its last days, said Derrick McCraw, a property manager and Witness in Norfolk.

“Items that are on the front page of the newspaper parallel what the Bible says about our time: food shortages, war, disease,” he said.

In addressing the current global financial crisis, McCraw said, “Being in the last days, people will be lovers of money .”

Nonetheless, “God allows governments to function in the meanwhile, before his kingdom comes,” Housner said. “We need to have some form of government – otherwise, it would be anarchy.”

By avoiding politics, Witnesses avoid a source of internal division and escape being beholden to any politician, he said. The global, 7-million-member Witness community also avoids friction caused by nationalism.

“We’re not divided by political barriers,” Housner said.

Nor is he tempted to weigh in on a race many commentators and voters call historic, with a black man as a presidential candidate and a woman running for the vice presidency.

Indeed, as he’s evangelized people at their homes, “many, many of them also have no confidence in either one of the candidates,” especially in a time of national anxiety, he said.

Their attitude reminds Housner of his own when he was still a voter.

“When I did vote, it was choosing the better of two evils,” he said.

Steven G. Vegh, (757) 446-2417, steven.vegh@pilotonline.com