Lobbying

Lobbying is a practice that if you're not familiar you could miss it when reading scripture. Lobbyist work on behalf of special interest groups, that can rage from corporate entities, to ethnic groups to religious factions. It is a form of advocacy, which is not a modern day advent, but that has been long held. Tune in now to learn more.

Transcript

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Hello, this is Bobby Simpson with another episode of Yup It's an Air. And today we're gonna tackle lobbying. And yes, I can hear you now. Bobby, is lobbying in scripture? And my response is what it always is, and that is yeah, it's in there. So come on, let's take a deep dive into lobbying. And so what I'd like to do is kind of stick with the format that I've had uh previously and some of the other policy topics and issues that we cover. Because politics and policy is not known to everyone, I want to make sure that I clearly define the terms that I'm speaking about and how, in fact, in literation and in practice, they can be found in scripture. And so I'm gonna start with uh Miriam Webster's definition of lobbying. And she defines lobbying as to conduct activities aimed at influencing public officials and especially members of a legislative body on legislation, it can also be used in a transitive way to promote or secure the passage of legislation by influencing public officials. And so I had a lot of fun with this because as I considered the practice of lobbying and just what that looks like in scripture, what I thought about as a believer, I thought about how I lobby all the time in prayer. And you say, Well, how is that legislation? Well, some of the prayers that I make supplication concerning or I'm petitioning God for, it is in fact to change an exacting law or principle in the earth, and oftentimes to overturn what man has decided. But uh, you hear it said often that God is our lawyer in the courtroom, he is our judge in a courtroom, and so in many instances, as we go to God in prayer, that is a form of lobbying. And okay, okay, okay, I do have scripture for you, and I don't want to stretch you too far or want you to think that I'm reaching when I say that lobbying can in fact be found in scripture. And with the uh working definition that we used from Miriam Webster, the uh scripture that I'm going to read for you will help you to see just how clearly it is laid out in scripture, and so if you would please turn with me to the book of Numbers, and we're going to go to Numbers chapter 27, and we're going to go through verses 1 through 11. So, again, the scripture reference is Numbers chapter 27, verses 1 through 11. And I'm going to read this, and this is concerning the daughters of Zolopath. And if you listen to the women's rights podcast, you will have heard these same scriptures. So, what I want to do is for the sake of cohesiveness as it relates to lobbying, I want to really make sure that we have it laid out. We have a clear definition, as well as a clear scripture defining exactly what lobbying is. And so it reads, Then came the daughters of Zolophad, the son of Heifer, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the families of Manasseh, the son of Joseph, and these are the names of his daughters. Moah, Noah, Haldlaf, Milkoth, and Terzai. And they stood before Moses and before Eliezer the priest, and before the princes, and all the congregation by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying, Our father died in the wilderness, and he was not in the company of them that gathered themselves together against the Lord in the company of Karah, but died in his own sin and had no sons. Why should the name of our father be done away from among his family because he had no son? Give unto us therefore a possession among the brethren of our father. And Moses brought their cause before the Lord. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, The daughters of Zolaphat speak right. Thou shalt surely give them a possession of an inheritance among their father's brethren, and thou shalt cause the inheritance of their father to pass unto them. And thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a man die and have no son, then ye shall cause his inheritance to pass unto his daughter. And if he have no daughter, then ye shall give his inheritance unto his brethren. And if he have no brethren, then ye shall give his inheritance unto his father's brethren, and if his father have no brethren, then ye shall give his inheritance unto his kinsmen that is next to him of his family. It clearly delineates not only Merriam Webster's definition, exactly what lobbying is, but it also laid out how petition was made to the ultimate adjudicator. Moses prayed to God concerning what it was that the daughters of Zolophad brought before him. And so I'm going to let you know that I do have some even greater information as it relates to uh lobbying and where it starts, how it continued on, because it almost it's almost like we're in a position and we have lobbying almost as if it was in a silo, and that advocating or lobbying, you know, to have legislation changed is somehow left with a group of people who are assigned to that role, when in fact that is not the truth. And so what I want to uh discuss with you, many of you may or you may not have heard of Sojourner Truth. Sojourner Truth became a lobbyist, she was a freed slave, and she left the plantation because her the slave owner refused to let her go. And when she was challenged, they said, You are a runaway slave. She said, No, I didn't run away, I walked away. But as I'm speaking of Sojourner Truth, as I did study on Sojourner Truth, one of the things that really struck me was that even in the 1800s, she made up her mind to lobby for changes concerning how slaves were being treated. She lobbied on abolitionist things and, you know, setting policy in place that would secure equity for her children, her posterity, and even her community of people. She not only lobbied for freed slaves and uh abolition legislation, but she also lobbied on behalf of women's rights. And not a lot of people know that about Sojourner Truth. And I have an affinity for Sojourner Truth because I feel almost like she was a trumpet sounding the alarm of the announcement of my birth and the announcement of a coming deliverer. And so, Sojourner Truth, when she gave the popular speech, and Ain't I a Woman? She gave that speech in Akron, Ohio. Akron, Ohio is in fact my birthplace. And there is information, historic information, indicating that she in fact gave her an Ain't I a Woman speech on my birthday, which is in fact June 1st. And so I want to go into a little bit more information concerning Sojourner Truth. And you can look Sojourner Truth up if you go to N as in Nancy, P as in Paul, S is in Sam, nps.gov, and you can read up on Sojourner Truth her story. Many of us, the only thing that we ever really hear is the speech. And what brought her to the place of even having to give the speech was because of the vocation that she took up. Once she was a freed slave, she walked away, she was converted to Christianity. She then began to take her place legislatively and began to work in liberation for women and uh slaves. And so I just want to read a little bit about Sojourner Truth from nps.gov's uh website. It says here that she was born into slavery in 1797 with the name Isabella Bumfrey, who later changed her name to Sojourner Truth, and would become one of the most powerful advocates for human rights in the 19th century. Her early childhood was spent on a New York estate owned by a Dutch American named Colonel Johannes Hardenberg. Like other slaves, she experienced the miseries of being sold and was cruelly beaten and mistreated. Around 1815, she fell in love with a fellow slave named Robert, but they were forced apart by Robert's master. Isabella was instead forced to marry a slave named Thomas, with whom she had five children. In 1827, after her master failed to honor his promise to free her or to uphold the New York anti-slavery law of 1827, Isabella ran away, or as she later informed her master, I didn't run away, I walked away by daylight. After experiencing a religious conversion, Isabella became an itinerant preacher and in 1843 changed her name to Sojourner Truth. During this period, she became involved in the growing anti-slavery movement, and by the 1850s, she was involved in the women's rights movement as well as in the 1851 Women's Rights Convention held in Akron, Ohio. Sojourner Truth delivered what is now recognized as one of the most famous abolitionist and women's rights speeches in American history. Ain't I a Woman? She continued to speak out for the rights of African Americans and women during and after the Civil War. Sojourner Truth died in Battle Creek, Michigan in 1883. And for a little sidebar, she died in the state that in the state and city that my mom and dad met and began to date and would later move to Akron, Ohio when I was born. And so it says here, Sojourn of Truth, Ain't I a Woman, delivered in 1851 in Akron, Ohio at the Women's Rights Convention, Old Stone Church. And so there's a lot happening with women's rights and even the women's movement now. And it seems like the more things change, the more they stay the same. Because when you consider the daughters of Zolofad having to lobby to have some laws changed back then, still here in the 1800s, Soldier Truth had to do the same thing. And when you consider the most recent women's movement that we're having even now, I believe it started in 2015, the most recent movement, you know, we have that. But what I want to do is I want to make sure that I share her speech in Ain't I a Woman? Because number one, I am a woman. And when we consider or we think about lobbying, oftentimes we don't think about lobbying and associate that with women. We also see it, we all see it as a male-dominant profession, vocation, and to see not only the five daughters of Zolofad uh standing, but Sojourner Truth as well. I am saying again, come on, ladies, continue to take up space by way of lobbying for legislation that makes sense for us as women. And so I want to go ahead and read her speech. And Ain't I a Woman? It says, Well, children, well, there is so much racket, there must be something out of kilter. I think that twixt the Negroes of the South and the women at the north, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what's all this here talking about? That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages and lifted over ditches and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages or over mud puddles or gives me any best place. And ain't I a woman? Look at me. Look at me. Am I? I have ploughed and planted and gathered into barns and no man could head me. And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man when I could get it and bear the lash as well, and ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me. And ain't I a woman? Then they talk about this thing in the head. What's what's this they call? Member of audience whispers intellect. That's it, honey. What's that got to do with women's rights or negroes' rights? If my cup won't hold but a pint and yours holds a quart, wouldn't you be mean not to let me have a little half measure full? Then that little man in the black there, he says, women can't have as much rights as men, because Christ wasn't a woman. Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman. Man had nothing to do with him. If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back and get it right side up again. And now they is asking to do it. The man better let them. Obliged to you for hearing me. And now old Sojourner ain't got nothing more to say. And so that is the uh famous speech that she made. And ain't I a woman? There was a phrase that I found missing there because her retort, what I've heard in times past, was that she said, Not only did our savior come through a woman, but that men themselves came through women. And so I she is just a character in history that I am very proud of because of the stand that she's taken, that she lobbied for change. She petitioned not only other people who could change the legislation, but she had a relationship with God. And so, with that being said, you asked, is lobbying in scripture? And again, I say, yup, it's in there. This is Bobby Simpson with another episode. Yup, it's in there. Join us next time.