When I told the Government that they needed Jesus
When you have an opportunity to keep playing the game . . . or just go for broke and preach the Gospel
2:15 AM-ish, May, 2017. I’m still awake. Tired. In a moment, I’m startled back into reality by a former colleague of mine, addressing me in front of 133 other members of the legislature, in a public debate taking place on the floor of the Minnesota House - which was being filmed and broadcast live on public television. Then this happened:
“Will Representative Whelan (my maiden name) yield to a question?”
“She will yield Representative XXXX.”
“Thank you Mr. Speaker. Representative Whelan, in light of what Representative XXXX just said, do you think benefiting people who are hiding money in Liberia is important? Is it worth raising taxes on your own constituents?”
Who would answer that question “yes”? But that is ‘the game’ - the political game, which at that point I was literally tired of playing. So instead of engaging the political spirit, I responded to a nudge from God and just went for it by sharing the gospel.
Jesus.
You may think my response was somewhat out of left-field, and to a degree it absolutely was. But I implore you to bear with me, and read to the end of this blog. Allow me to explain why I think we hear from, and why I heard from, God.
Government and God…
Before I begin please note: I’m going to be talking about hearing God’s voice at an unlikely time in and in an unlikely place. Now we all “hear in part” (1 Corinthians 13:9; also see John 10:27), it is an ongoing journey where we grow and develop in our ability to listen.
The question we often ask though is, how do we know when it’s God speaking? How did I know?
Now, back to the story. You may have put two and two together at this point, but just in case I will clarify: In 2017, I was serving as an elected official in the Minnesota House of Representatives. I was asked a question by a colleague, and responded by sharing the gospel first - and then answering his question. I have reflected on this a lot, as there was a lot of fallout (more on that below).
First of all, it is not uncommon for members of the legislature to ask other members questions. Usually, in these settings, the two main parties (Democrat and Republican) ask questions that are framed in such a way as to make the person replying look ridiculous. More often than not these questions are targeted toward members of the legislature who are in “swing” seats, that is, they won the election by a very slim margin and the party in the minority hopes that in the next election cycle they will be able to ‘swing’ the seat back to their side (get a candidate from their own party elected). The goal therefore is to get the other person to say something embarrassing that can be used down the line in campaign ads. Both sides of the aisle are guilty of this ‘political gamesmanship.’
…But I get ahead of myself. I only say that to say I was not elected to a swing district, I won my election by a large-ish margin (by God’s grace), and so I was rarely called upon by colleagues. In fact it was so rare for a member of the other side of the aisle to ask me questions (unless I was presenting a bill) that I often was bored during debates, and, at 2 something AM, I was tired and bored. So I had been talking to God and my seat mate (and mentor, friend, and fellow prayer warrior Representative Kathy Lohmer). I told her and Jesus that I was tired of the political games.
I also asked Jesus if I could share the gospel in the debate.
A 2am answer to prayer and the fallout that followed
Specifically, I prayed for an opportunity to share Jesus, with a condition: If I was called upon by name to answer a question (which as noted above never happened to me unless I was presenting my own bill), I would take it as an opportunity to share about Jesus.
I was not expecting this opportunity, it was a desperate - maybe an aspirational? - prayer, one that I wasn’t really expecting to happen. Then, out of nowhere, a colleague from across the aisle directed a question at me. Be careful what you pray for (1 John 5:14-15).
All I wanted to do was go home. To God and Kathy, I was venting, talking about how frustrated I was. And then my opportunity was presented. I answered as I did because I couldn’t not.
To be clear, I shared the gospel, and also answered the question. And then the fallout that I mentioned earlier happened.
A leftist group edited the video feed from the debate, removing the bit where I actually answered the question, and sent it around the country - making it appear as though I was a religious fanatic and did not care about increasing taxes on the people of my community. I received a flood of phone calls, emails, facebook missives and more from all around the country, which is very rare for a State Representative. People email their own representatives, or the federal ones, not state ones that don’t represent them.*
The emails and calls were from angry people. I even received a formal letter from an atheist group threatening to sue me if I did not stop speaking about Jesus on the floor of the House. (On this point, thankfully I had amazing help from Christian lawyers who basically laughed at the letter and reassured me I had not violated any laws.)
The emails and calls also came from some thankful people … and even a few from individuals who were actually curious to get to know more about this Jesus. It even seemed to endear another Representative to me who I was able to joke with about it. He served on the other side of the aisle but later on said something like “what about paying taxes to Caesar”? And chuckled. I simply smiled and said (something like) indeed, we should! (And we should!)
Did I do the right thing in end….did I hear right?
As you can guess the positive responses made it worth it all, but at the time, in the moment after speaking, when watching the video - and especially when a bunch of calls came with people shouting at me down the other line - indeed, before God’s peace descended on me to reassure me He was with me, I was confused and felt persecuted.
Thankfully God spoke very clearly to me via not only colleagues of mine who encouraged and supported me, but via His word. I remember asking God, questioning, “did I err?”
I opened the bible (because, everything that God says to us should be easily confirmed in His word) and it fell to the following:
“Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 10:33).
I knew then that the angry phone calls and emails were persecution, which Jesus said would follow us, (Mark 10:30, John 15:20) and though it was still hard there was great joy and peace from this revelation.
I will share more about hearing and sharing God in another blog (part 2) - what was God saying? What did I learn? But please be encouraged to pray ‘out-there’ prayers, believe God will open doors, and take the opportunities presented to you. He will be with you in the fire and bring forth gold (Isaiah 43:2, 1 Peter 1:7, Psalm 66:12, Zech. 13:8-9).
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*For fuller context regarding my comments on the floor, the following is an excerpt from a letter of response I wrote to those who questioned my comments
“…In the context of the entire debate (and for that matter most floor debates), Rep. XXXX was trying to "catch" people and play politics - I decided that I would not engage in the game. Notably I did answer the question at the end of my comments when I stated that I don't want to raise taxes on my constituents, but the question was about playing games and not about raising taxes (for full debate, which helps illustrate the games that were being played, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yo78z5CwwIw. For the specific exchange I shared with Rep. XXXX, start at 3:39:28).
While I am happy to discuss the issue that Rep. XXXX asked about (tax havens), that was not the point of Rep. XXXX’s question. He knew, as did everyone, there was an agreement reached on this bill between the House, Senate and the Governor's office (the Senate and House are Republican led, the Governor is a Democrat) that there would be no amendments altering the bill that was agreed to, thus any substantive amendments were “non-starters.”
Again, the issue of tax havens I would be happy to address further if you would like, but for a good summary on my views if you are interested, please see: http://www.cost.org/Page.aspx?id=92491.
Finally, on the topic of separation of church and state, it is important to note that this phrase is not found in our country's founding legal document, the Constitution. Nor is it the Declaration of Independence. Rather the phrase originated from a letter Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Baptists, and it is often taken out of context. For more, please see: http://www.allabouthistory.org/separation-of-church-and-state.htm.
While I recognize many people calling/emailing are not sincerely seeking more information, if you are really seeking more information and this email is helpful, and I would be happy to follow up, and thank you again for the sincerity you showed in your letter.”