The History and Beliefs of the Church of Universal Suffrage

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. 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.