All You Need to Know in Questions and Answers)
CAVEAT: This paper is neither a response to the recent appeal from the President of the Republic of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to the SDA Church to consider voting on December 7, nor is it intended to reinforce or contradict the media presser which was issued subsequently by the leadership of the Church dated July 20, 2024. It is an extract from the writer’s long research into the subject of SeventhDay Adventism, Politics and Voting in Ghana.
- Who are Seventh-Day Adventists?
Ans: Seventh-Day Adventists, SDAs are Christians who hold the Bible as the ultimate authority making central to our beliefs the Ten Commandments of God as found in Exodus 20:1-17, and hoping for the second advent of Jesus Christ to end sin and suffering forever.
- What is the Seventh-Day Sabbath?
Ans: It is Saturday, the seventh-day of the week on which God rested from creation and invited humanity into fellowship to mark; creation, redemption, salvation, liberty, and a holy communion from sunset to sunset where, possibly, all secularism is shelved.
- What is the place of voting in the doctrine and theology of the SDA church? Ans: Voting is both a secular and a sacred duty, be it for religious or nonreligious purpose. The Church holds the expression of conscience on a ballot as a sacred duty, albeit secular, that must be governed solely by a total surrender and commitment to the love of God and fellow human beings.
- Is there a history of Sabbath voting in Ghana?
Ans: Yes! It happened in 1996. As was done this year, the leadership of the church tried a to get a date change but failed.
- How did the Church and her members approach the subject back then?
Ans: The matter went up to the General Conference Committee on Public Affairs and Religious Liberty (PARL). Discussions held led to the following conclusions:
- Sabbath keeping and loving obedience to God’s commandments, are foundational principles of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church.
- Exercising an educated vote in favour of “temperance and virtue,” justice and the welfare of society is both a civic and patriotic duty.
- Voting is a matter of conscience, and the church will not legislate regarding this matter, nor can it provide dispensations.
- It is the duty of Government to pay thoughtful attention to conscience and legislate accordingly. The Seventh-Day Adventist Church, representing a sizeable segment (about one million now, but we were less than that in 1996) of the Ghanaian society, with a massive contribution to socio-politico-economic contributions to the nation through the establishment of schools at all levels, support and relief for farmers and deprived communities, is disappointed by the decision of the responsible Government Authorities not to make provision for Seventh-Day Adventists and their understanding of the Biblical day of rest. (italics mine)
- Following this, some Adventists voted while others abstained because the State failed to offer any special dispensation for a church that has contributed so much to the development of this nation in diverse ways. In the end, it is the principle of majoritarian democracy that suffers. The State owes it to democracy to grant the Adventists a special dispensation to vote. That is not too much to ask.
- What has the Church Leadership in Ghana done with respect to the present challenge?
Ans: The leadership of the SDA church in Ghana consulted and built consensus with the Office of the National Chief Imam on March 13, 2023; the leadership of the National Democratic Congress, NDC (April 17, 2023), New Patriotic Party, NPP (April 18, 2023), Convention People’s Party, CPP (April 26, 2023), and People’s National Convention, PNC (May 2, 2023) as major stakeholders ahead of a meeting with the Electoral Commission, EC on June 7, 2023 to propose an elections’ date change from December 7 for the year 2024 and beyond. Sadly, there was a breach of faith and the process was abandoned. If this remains unchanged, it will recur in 2052 and 2080.
- What option is available to the Adventist who wants to remain faithful to God and also perform his or her civic responsibility?
Ans: Having failed at the second attempt to get the elections’ date changed to reflect the attempts by the Constitutional Review Commission (2011), Government White Paper on the Constitutional Review Commission Report (2012), Electoral Reform Committee Report (2015), Electoral Commission recommendation for Amendment (2016), and the failed Amendment of 112(4) by the Executive and Parliament in June/July, 2016; the only avenue left to the citizen Adventist is to get a special dispensation to vote at an extended time after sunset on Saturday, December 7, 2024, say 6 – 8 pm.
- Can, and/or should, the Adventist vote on Sabbath day?
Ans: Yes! If the expression of choice will be devoid of petty partisan, filial or parochial consideration but centred on the love for God and fellow human beings. No! If the vote is to be cast following a bandwagon fashion thereby denying the free expression of conscience and individual thought.
- What is my personal appeal to the State and the SDA Church in Ghana? Ans: The State should as a matter of urgency amend Article 112(4) to allow for the EC to change our elections date from December 7 to the first Monday of November from 2028 onwards, God willing. Secondly, the time for voting should be extended for two hours after sunset to allow for SDA members to cast their votes without compromising their faith or civic duties.
- To the SDA Church, I appeal that we suspend group or corporate worship on December 7, 2024 in respect of the above plea to the State to avoid any possible friction or collision between our sabbath worship and voting, especially in the use of our church premises as polling stations.
- It is my wish to conclude this piece by quoting the long-held position of the worldwide SDA church on politics and/or voting as an expression of thought:
“The Seventh-day Adventist Church does not seek to dictate to its members as to how they shall vote or whether or not they should vote at all. It is left for each one to act on his/her own judgment in the fear of God. We have been told by the servant of the Lord that we should not link up with political parties, that we should not agitate political questions in our schools or institutions. On the other hand, we have been instructed by the same authority that when certain moral issues, such as prohibition, are involved, the ‘advocates of temperance fail to do their whole duty unless they exert their influence by precept and example – by voice and pen and vote in favour of total abstinence. This instruction is not mandatory, it is still left for each one to determine for her/himself what s/he shall do.
While an individual member of the church has a right, if s/he so likes, to cast his/her vote, the church as such should hold itself entirely aloof from politics. It is one thing for the individual members of the church to vote, and another thing for these same individuals in their church capacities to endeavour to influence political measures.” (An Editorial of Review and Herald, September 13, 1928 under the hand of Elder F. M. Wilcox. This view remains the position of the church to-date.)
James Kwabena Bomfeh* Jnr., Ph.D. (Development Studies)
(*A Seventh-Day Adventist, Activist of Constitutional Democracy, Political
Practitioner, longstanding member of IPAC and Chief Executive of CenCES)
