“And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and you shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.” Deuteronomy 6:6, 7

In this democracy “we the people” represent the bottom-line of government. Public policy-making begins with us. This has been the experience of Americans from the very beginning. The policies by which a free people are governed are incubated among the people, beginning in homes, workplaces, social gatherings, and neighborhoods all across the country.

In colonial America, “committees of correspondence” provided a primary setting for engaging in lively conversation concerning political matters. These committees – a combination of reading, discussion, and action group – existed up and down the Eastern seaboard. In these small gatherings people met to read and discuss political tracts and sermons, to argue for consensus about what it means to be a free people, and to take action locally in matters designed to assert or preserve their freedom. The conversations engaged in these settings helped to chart the course of the colonies toward independence.

Conversation remains the most important setting for public policy-making today, beginning in the homes of the land. What parents teach their children to believe, the priorities they inculcate in them, the values they instill – these will have long-term implications for and effects on the policies government enacts. Believers in Jesus Christ must make the best use of this duty to talk with their children about issues of ethics, morality, and culture, and to explain to them how to think about such matters in a manner consistent with God’s good and perfect will. In this they should be assisted and encouraged by local church leaders, as well as by Christian leaders in all facets of society. The better acquainted we are with the Law and Word of God, the more firmly these are hidden in our hearts, the more our conversations on matters of public policy will reflect that focus and orientation.

T. M. Moore

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