Advocacy

Yesterday was “Lutheran Day at the Capital” where Lutherans from across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania came together to worship, to learn, and to do advocacy with state legislators. Yesterday we focused our attention on programs designed to alleviate hunger and the state budget.

Having been on three sides of government, I had many thoughts on the experience. Three sides, you ask? Yes. One side is as a citizen. One side was working for elected officials. And the last side having worked for a lobbyist.

Advocacy isn’t the same thing as lobbying. There are certainly things about lobbying and advocacy that overlap. Both try to influence how legislators will vote. Here’s a way that I define the difference between advocacy and lobbying: who’s it about? Lobbying is about getting something for yourself or the group your represent. Advocacy is about getting something for someone else. That is a simplistic definition, but it works.

Advocacy is also an extension of faith. This is important. Faith isn’t just a private matter. Some religious folks (and some denominations) try to tell their followers that faith is only a private matter. Except it’s not. Jesus never said it was. Our faith should have a public impact. It should impact policy. I’m not arguing for a theocracy though. If your faith causes you to advocate for policies that force people to conform to your religious belief, that’s moving towards theocracy. That’s about you and what you believe and how it benefits you ultimately. That’s not advocacy according to the earlier definition — that’s…