Palmetto Family Policy

The Lord is at work in the Palmetto State, the land of sweet tea, shrimp and grits. Dr. Steven Pettit is right in the middle of it.

He's the president of the Palmetto Family Council, former president of Bob Jones University, an author, an evangelist. I love hearing this man preach and I'm standing next to him right now. We're doing a little lunch for our Christian Radio, 96.9 great affiliate here in the upstate of the Truth Network and Truth Talk. Dr. Pettit, just good to catch up to you, my friend.

Thank you, Stu, and it's always good to see you. Well, the Lord is working. And in government, everyone's like, hey, let's just stay out of that. Let's do our camp meetings.

Let's do our revivals and our Awanas and our stuff. And let's just like leave the government to the pagans. But that's not so much your philosophy, is it? No, because it's unscriptural.

That's not the way to do it. Proverbs 14, 34, righteousness exalts the nation, but sin is our approach to any people. And so Solomon gives us a promise. And when I say us, it's to the Gentile nations.

And righteousness always refers to God's character revealed in God's Son through God's truth and salvation. So the power of God is not just in the church house, but God intends for it to be in the state house. And Dr. Pettit, you know, some decades ago, the church in Canada, they kind of decided to take a little bit of a, I wouldn't say left turn, but a little bit of an away turn away from politics.

They say, you know, we're gonna let legislators legislate, we're gonna do our own thing. Well, we saw the fruit of that, because then Christians stopped engaging. And then all of a sudden, things like abortion, gender stuff.

And then even during COVID, people got put in jail for even meeting as a church. And so now they're waking up and saying, wait a second, we need to be in the process. What happens to a nation who decides, hey, we're gonna leave that to the secularist, and the Christians all saying, and there's no more Christian politicians standing in the gap, you've seen it happen.

You've lived long enough to see this happen. Well, it's, it's, it's neglecting is a sheer neglect of responsibility. First, Timothy two, one says, first of all, we are to pray for kings and all that are an authority that we would lead a quiet and peaceable life and all godliness and honesty, for God is not willing that any should perish, but all they should come to the knowledge of the truth. And so actually, our duty is to pray for spirit is to pray for leaders in government. Secondly, in the Bible, there are two shepherds, there's a shepherd of a church of a church pastor, and there's a shepherd of a state that's a governmental leader, because David was called a shepherd of Israel. And so what we're trying to see is shepherd on shepherd relationships, senators and legislators coming together to influence each other, because they both take care of sheep.

And so this is crucial for our nation. Now, but what has emerged is this other extreme of people that are, you know, and you know, the label, the disparaging label on believers now is Christian nationalism, you know, as though true believers think that our hope is in the flag and not the cross, which we know the truth on that we're not that naive and dumb, but there are believers who, who have asked Donald Trump into their heart, you know, they, they're like, they're so into that side that they conflate the faith and like, you know, Cal Thomas said it well, Jesus Christ isn't coming back on Air Force One. Speak to that side too, and talk about how to get to the balance. Yeah, I think the balance is the church and the gospel. Where do you stand on the gospel? If you get the gospel, right, you understand the gospel, right.

And you understand the church, right? We're to be salt in the midst of corruption. We're to be light in the midst of darkness. We are to love and serve the community and preach the gospel to them. And so Christian nationalism almost is a mixture of church and state. And we'll keep that separated from the context of a state run church. But but but as far as influencing the government, that is what we are called to do as Christians. Yeah, and really going back to our founders and going back to all the misunderstanding of the fact that separation of church and states not even in the Constitution, it was a little letter Jefferson wrote to the Baptist. But the whole premise of all of that is not to keep the church out of the state, but the other way around.

Absolutely, 100%. Yeah, the state is not to run the church. But to say that we don't influence the state is nonsense because everybody comes to the state house or they come to leadership or they come to the government with a worldview. How do you see the world? How do you understand the world? How do you view the world?

What shapes you? And of course, we come at it with a biblical worldview. And that's the influence that we're seeking to make in the state house. Tell us about the the Palomino Family Council, how we can pray for you because you know, you're speaking as I talked to you, you're speaking on behalf of all the family councils, the North Carolina Family Council, so many family policy councils that are standing in the gap, praying for really politicians on both sides trying to do Bible studies trying to influence Christ in those areas. Talk about what that involves here in South Carolina and everywhere. Yeah, our mission is that we're the voice for biblical values in the centers of influence in South Carolina. We're a nonpartisan and non denominational group. We are evangelical Bible believing in our positions. And so we're seeking to minister both to those that are legislators and also in influence good policy to bring in good laws that are good for the state of South Carolina. I love that and you're you're also preaching and you're picking and grinning. You got to talk about that part. Yeah, so we're on the road traveling, you can follow us online at Steve Pettit.com or on all of our our social medias.

And we got a crackerjack bluegrass band that travels and we do services all over the southeast and even into the Midwest. Dr. Pettit, give us a rallying call people listening. So many people feel like God was merciful on us this last election. And again, I don't want to over spiritualize anything when it comes to politics.

But God is Lord of everything. Like you said earlier, what's your call to believers now? What what is what is your what are you talking when you're when you talk to there'll be a state senator in this luncheon. He's he's loves Christian radio and he wanted to come and meet some other folks. What's your challenge to both the rank and file of politicians and just to listeners out there who are voters but on how to pray for our country and how we should be more gospel centric than ever? Yeah, I think the number one is simple as it sounds, it's profound.

I just came back from Iowa. And there's a family policy council there called the family leader and the church ambassador network. And they have seen the state of Iowa transformed in the last decade, primarily because people are going up there every day meeting with legislators and they're reading scripture, and they're praying and now the Bible is the go to book for direction in making decisions about life is the grassroots influence that makes the difference.

It's not the fellow at the top, but it's the people at the bottom that are making the difference. So we need to be praying we need to pray that our pastors would be engaged. We need to pray for our legislators. And we can engage with them.

You can engage with them in South Carolina through our our website and go to our voter voice and state your opinion. And you needs prayer you need support for what you're doing because you're on the front lines talking about Oh, yeah, we're in 501 c three, which means we're dependent on givers. And and we're just excited to see that people are giving because people care.

Amen. And you know, you see those signs on the road, you hear these you see these annoying TV here, those annoying radio commercials, but maybe those are prayer reminders to pray for that person because they've got a family whether they're on the right or the left, what you know, whether they're they're hardcore evil, or whether they're they're doing some right things. They need the Lord, and they have families and that's a great prayer reminder to pray for them. Because, because your legislators are very similar to pastors, and that they're in the public eye, they're influencing people's lives.

They have families and families feel the pressure just like a preacher's kid feels pressure. So does the legislators kids so we want to be able to serve them love them and see God work in their lives. Dr. Steven Pettit, your website for your ministry so folks can watch some of the best music and hear some of the best preaching they've ever heard. And then the website for your Palmetto family policy ministry here in South Carolina.

Palmettofamily.org, StevePettit.com, follow us. God bless you. And how about your favorite Bible verses we get out of here? What verse is the one you Steve Pettit likes to hang his hat on? I know there's so many, but what's one that comes to your heart? Philippians 1 21, for me to live is Christ and to die is gay.