The Book of Universal Suffrage

Part I - Natural Law and Natural Rights

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all people are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. That the right of Universal Suffrage is a sacred extension of these rights. That voting is the primary right used to protect all other rights. That the purpose of government is to secure and protect the inalienable Natural Rights of all people. That unjust laws are human laws that are not rooted in Natural Law.

Living in the World without insight into the hidden Laws of Nature is like not knowing the language of the country in which one was born. It is evident that an acquaintance with Natural Laws and Natural Rights means no less than an acquaintance with the mind of our Creator therein expressed. The harmony of Natural Law reveals an intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it, all the systemic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection.

Many look to Athens, Greece as the birthplace of Democracy but, while this may be true for Democracy as a form of government, the Right to Suffrage is a Natural Human Right that predates human life on Earth. Not only have anthropologists identified forms of proto-democracy in small, hunter-gatherer groups of early humans pre-dating the inventions of writing or agriculture, but there is also evidence that many different social animals that live in groups use voting as a way ensure survival. One common property we see in animal groups from schooling fish to flocking birds to primate groups is that they effectively vote to decide where to go and what to do.

The struggle between voting rights and the sin of voter suppression is comparable to an evolutionary arms race. In nature, an evolutionary arms race is an ongoing struggle between competing species of living creatures that have evolved escalating adaptations and counter-adaptations against each other over eons. A species may evolve new adaptations to avoid being seen by predators, but those predators will likely evolve to become better at seeing them. This process will then repeat itself in a variety of ways over millions of years, each species becoming increasingly complex. The sin of Voter Suppression was once quiet simple, but after centuries of conflict with those fighting to protect this Natural Right, Voter Suppression today has become exponentially more complex. Those protecting Voting Rights have been forced to become exponentially more clever to circumvent voter suppression, but history has proven that if the right to Suffrage is removed, the removal of all other rights is soon to follow.

Learning and understanding the evolution of life on Earth gives insight into the Natural Laws and Natural Rights that impact every aspect of our lives. Natural Law and Natural Rights are self-evident in the survival instincts of all living things. Human Reason allows us and us alone to recognize and identify these Laws and Rights that dictate how our universe functions. All Natural Instinct drives living creatures to stay alive, stay free, pursue happiness. Countless generations of humans were told they didn’t deserve their naturally endowed rights, but natural human instinct and reason compelled them to fight for these rights even in the face of imprisonment, torture, and death.

            Some will ridicule the idea that all people are created equal when we are all born into wildly different circumstances and it is true that some are born into great wealth and opportunities while most are not, but we are all equal because we are all endowed with the same rights. The poorest person on Earth deserves the same respect as the wealthiest person on Earth, they both possess the same Natural Equality and the same Natural Rights. Their votes, and therefore their voices, are of equal importance.

Part II - The Church of Universal Suffrage

The Seven Suffrage Tenets

I.

One should always strive to promote and protect the sacred rights of all people. Protecting the rights and well-being of others is essential to the pursuit of one’s own happiness.

II:

One should always take Voting seriously, as it is sacred. The holy act of voting is a civic sacrament and one's first vote is a rite of passage. The act of voter suppression is a sin, as is the violation of any sacred right.

III:

The freedoms of others should always be respected, the right to freedom does not make one free to violate the freedom of others.

IV:

One should celebrate their sacred human rights and attempts to violate these rights should be studied and circumvented.

V:

It is our sacred duty to provide assistance and resources to ease the suffering of anyone on the pilgrimage to perform the civic sacrament of voting.

VI:

The struggle for Universal Suffrage is an ongoing and necessary pursuit that should prevail over restrictive laws.

VII:

Natural human rights cannot be taken away, even as punishment for a crime, they can only be protected or violated. Governments do not grant Natural Rights to people, all people are naturally endowed with these rights.

 History of the Church

The Church of Universal Suffrage was founded in Nashville, Tennessee on June 1, 2020 during the COVID-19 Pandemic on faith that all people are endowed with Natural Rights, including the right of Suffrage. The violation of the right to vote through voter suppression is a sin, as is the violation of any sacred right. These beliefs have been around for centuries, but the idea to codify these beliefs into a religion was inspired by a discussion on Reddit about how Tennessee was one of several States forcing citizens to risk their health and lives in order to exercise their sacred right to vote by denying them the ability to safely vote by mail during the pandemic. Protecting the rights and well-being of our fellow people is essential to the pursuit of our own happiness.

We hold regular, weekly Sunday Service in meditation on the nature of voter suppression and we observe every voting day in the United States to be an official holiday reserved the celebration of our sacred right to vote. Providing assistance and resources to ease the suffering of anyone on the pilgrimage to perform the civic sacrament of voting is a holy ritual that we perform for people in need. Our Church also holds a religious objection against felony disenfranchisement and people having to being photographed in order to exercise their right to vote.

Our Church is founded on beliefs grounded in the Natural Rights tradition. The religious belief that universal suffrage is a sacred Natural right endowed to all people by a Creator has existed for centuries and has had many famous believers, such as Frederick Douglass. The right to vote is the ultimate, sacred form of self-protection and it is the power by which all civil rights are obtained, enjoyed, and maintained.

While many religions are concerned about the true nature of our Creator and what happens after we die, the Church of Universal Suffrage is solely dedicated to the promotion and protection of the sacred rights and equality all people are endowed with. It is useless for us to speculate about the true nature of our Creator and more sensible to confess our ignorance in a question that evidently exceeds human understanding.

The Church of Universal Suffrage practices freedom of conscience and belief among our members. Anyone of any other religion may join and all members are free to be members of other religions as well. Our Church also does not support any party or candidate and we do not have an official stance on any political issues or policies. We are a neutral institution and we ask all members to contact us immediately if a Minister ever tries to pressure them to vote a certain way. This is a form of voter suppression and we do not allow it, we only support everyone's freedom to make these decisions for themselves.

Voting should always be taken seriously, we consider the act of voting to be a civic sacrament and your first vote is a rite of passage. Your sacred rights should be celebrated and attempts to violate your rights should be studied and circumvented. The sacred rights we are all endowed with should never be used to violate the natural rights of others, to do so would be a sin. The right to freedom does not make one free to violate the freedom of others.

Church Holidays

All voting days are holy days of celebration. Listed below are all non-voting day Church Holidays.

January 1 - New Year’s Day (Day of observance for all new laws and political changes going into effect)

January 6 - Day of Mourning (Anniversary of 2021 Attack on the U.S. Capitol, terroristic attempt to overturn Election Results)

February 1 - National Freedom Day (Anniversary of 13th Amendment/ Abolishment of slavery, except as punishment for a crime)

March 5 - 3/5 Day (Day of Mourning for all Disenfranchised Felons)

March 7 - Blood Sunday (Anniversary of the march for voting rights in Selma, Alabama)

June 1 - Foundation Day (Anniversary of 2020 founding of the Church of Universal Suffrage)

June 19 - Juneteenth (Anniversary of Emancipation of Enslaved African Americans)

July 5 - Young Voters Day (Anniversary of 26th Amendment)

August 6 - V.R.A. Day (Anniversary of 1965 Voting Rights Act)

September 20 - National Voter Registration Day (Day of Volunteer Work and Holy Registration Drives)

October 15 - Oath of Office Day (Day of recognition for the elected officials that actually uphold their oath of office and work for the people)

December 10 - International Human Rights Day (Anniversary of Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

December 15 - Universal Suffrage Day (Day in honor of all voting rights advocates throughout history that have fought against voter suppression)

Part III - The Struggle for Universal Suffrage

Shortly after the horrors of the Holocaust and World War II ended, the nations of the world came together and created what is known as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This declaration is a foundational text in the history of human rights that enshrines the rights and freedoms all human beings. No nations voted against adopting this document as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations. They declared universal and equal suffrage to be an inalienable right all people are entitled to. All that was declared a Natural Human Right on December 10, 1948 in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is in accordance with Natural Law.

The 1848 Declaration of Sentiments also declares that the right to vote is sacred and that it is an inalienable, Natural Right endowed to us by our Creator. This faith in Universal Suffrage as Natural Human Right has been recognized for centuries, but the violation of this sacred right through voter suppression has occurred since ancient times. At the core of voter suppression is the human emotion of fear. A fear of losing power. A fear of the people. Those in power that commit the sin of voter suppression are motivated by self-preservation. They are putting their own selfish human desires above the naturally endowed rights of all people. This fear leads to anger, the anger leads to hate, and the hate leads to suffering. For this reason, it is the duty of all people to ensure that they are electing leaders that prioritize Suffrage over Suffering.

This fear and hatred that motivates the sin of voter suppression is often the same fear and hatred that motivates the sin of white supremacy. White supremacy cannot co-exist with democracy. This has been proven throughout the entirety of American History and through countless events.

Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in North America, was founded in 1607. Soon afterwards the first white indentured servants arrived and eventually enslaved Africans would arrive as well. Initially, these white indentured servants and enslaved Africans could live together, interact with each other on a daily basis, and they could even marry each other. This all changed in 1676 when these indentured servants and enslaved people worked together to form an armed rebellion. Bacon’s Rebellion. The wealthy political elites responded to the rebellion by segregating the races and passing Slave Codes.

In 1865 the United States passed the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery except as punishment for a crime. Immediately following the abolition of slavery began a period known as Reconstruction, an era of great progress that was sabotaged a series of events such as the Wilmington Insurrection of 1898. This insurrection was carried out by white supremacists in Wilmington, North Carolina on November 10, 1898 and is known as the only successful coup in United States History, but this history was systematically covered up for over 100 years. The true number of events like this that have occurred in U.S. history will likely never be known as the evidence was hidden and destroyed by the victors of these massacres. Even in the early 2000s, the Wilmington Library denied the public access to any documents regarding the 1898 insurrection.

In 1867 no African Americans held political office in the United States, but within just a few years they held 15% of political offices, which was a larger percentage than even 1990. In fact, during this time period there were twenty-two African American members of Congress, two of which were Senators. There was also a Civil Rights Act past in 1875 and the 15th Amendment prohibited voter suppression against African American men. This was also a time before strict segregation and Jim Crow laws, allowing daily interactions between people of different races. These interacts eventually led to the formation of a new political party: The Fusion Party.

The Fusion Party became wildly popular and began flipping political office seats across the South. The policies of the Fusion Party were designed to increase the liberty of the working class, both black and white. The Fusionists supported polies such as capping interest rates, increasing public school funding, and expanding voting rights to people that couldn’t read or write. They also wanted to shift the burden of taxation to corporations and railroads and because they were so many offices, this was slowly beginning to happen.

The Fusionists had the most success in Wilmington, North Carolina. However, the wealthy political elites in Wilmington were not willing accept defeat, so they orchestrated an insurrection and massacred the Fusionists. Following the insurrection, their entire goal became to unite white Americans against black Americans. They ensured that news of what occurred in Wilmington was spread nationwide, but portrayed the black Fusionists of the city as the aggressors. The white supremacists that perpetrated the attack destroyed evidence of the true events of that day and were treated as heroes for decades. They began a propaganda campaign to convince white Americans that Black Americans were dangerous and that they should never associate with each other in any way, laying the foundations for the segregation, Jim Crow laws, and lynchings of the 20th Century.

Tremendous progress was made in the 20th Century with the number of Democracies and legal protections for voting rights both reaching their highest point in world history. All laws restricting the sacred Right of Suffrage due to reasons such as race, sex, or religion seemed to headed for their inevitable extinction. However, the 21st Century, so far, has experienced somewhat of an Anti-Democratic Renaissance, with many countries backstepping into Authoritarian Rule.

It is said that the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice. That the line of progress is never straight, it encounters obstacles and the path bends. Often it feels as though you were moving backwards and you lose sight of your goal, but in fact you are moving ahead. It is also said that freedom is not free, that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. Apathy and complacency have no place in the Struggle for Universal Suffrage. Voter Suppression has weaponized hopelessness. It is designed to make you feel apathetic about voting, to convince you that your vote does not matter, or that the Election is rigged. The powers fighting against change want you to become pessimistic and give up. Many believe that if voting truly changed anything that no government would allow people to do it, but the truth is that if voting did not change anything, then voter suppression wouldn't exist.

May Peace and Suffrage be with You.