The Power of Petition Christians Engaging Government
Lesson Transcript
When you petition, you're a third party. You're asking a request. Joseph of Arimathea went up to Pontius Pilate and requested, "Could he have the body of Jesus to bury it?" You aren't the government. When you are asking the government, you are acknowledging, "I'm not part, I'm not you. I'm asking this as a favor." And so, yeah, I think it's always all right for a Christian to ask the government, particularly for godly things, not for political things.
I don't know if the term lobby would be the right word to use with regards to the Mennonites talking to the government about conscientious objector status. That was a request, a petition. Lobby, I mean, you might get technical on this, but normally that word is used to mean trying to influence political legislation, to influence how a congressman or woman is going to vote or something like that. I think I'd be afraid of crossing the line into lobbying, but making a petition, "Hey, we don't believe in going to war.
We think it is wrong to kill. Could we get some kind of exempt status? We're willing to do alternative service," whatever. And the Mennonites did that. They did it with all due respect, and it was successful. I think God blessed that. So I do see a big distinction between being part of the government and being a third party asking the government for a favor. I think that's really well said. Yeah.
And also, there is something also, and it kind of usually gets tied up into this discussion, is the church should always have a prophetic voice. And it is okay for us to call, as John the Baptist did, you know, the government's to repentance. Now, that usually doesn't come out right for us as far as the life that we live here. But I don't think we are supposed to lose the prophetic voice.
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