Should the Local Church Say Thank You to the Government?
My church recently passed around a resolution for its members to sign. It thanked our local government for switching to single stream recycling—a simplified recycling system that’s much easier to use. My church puts a special emphasis on creation care, and welcomed the new recycling program as a very positive change. As an experiment in being good neighbors in our community, my pastor encouraged us to publicly thank the local leaders who decided to switch to the new recycling system.
It’s trivially easy to find reasons to complain about the government. I can’t count the number of times someone has asked me to sign something condemning a government decision. But few of us take the time to thank them for doing the right thing.
I signed my church’s resolution, but not without some hesitation. How far we should take the healthy separation of church and state. On one hand, this resolution is a clear example of the church involving itself with the government. On the other, it’s a one-time thing and largely amounts to simply saying “hey, thanks!”—a fairly trivial issue.
What do you think? Should the church ever thank the government for doing something right? When is the last time—if ever—you thanked your local leaders and politicians?
