No Way To Run A Railroad…
Dan Gilgoff writes of what he calls “James Dobson’s Political Surrender.” He quotes Dobson’s radio show this morning:
I want to tell you up front that we’re not going to ask you to do anything, to make a phone call or to write a letter or anything.
There is nothing you can do at this time about what is taking place because there is simply no limit to what the left can do at this time. Anything they want, they get and so we can’t stop them.
We tried with [Health and Human Services Secretary] Kathleen Sebelius and sent thousands of phone calls and emails to the Senate and they didn’t pay any attention to it because they don’t have to. And so what you can do is pray, pray for this great nation… As I see it, there is no other answer. There’s no other answer, short term.
In an age of evangelical leaders like Rick Warren, Joel Hunter, and Richard Land, who’ve all expressed openness to working with the Obama administration, Dobson clings firmly to the culture war mentality: You’re either with us or against us. He elaborates on why Christians are powerless as long as Democrats are in power:
I’ve been on the air for 32 years and I’ve never seen a time quite like this. It just illustrates what happens when we don’t have what the Founding Fathers referred to as checks and balances, where the excesses of one party or one branch of government limit the reach of power hungry and self-serving people and keeps them form doing things that are harmful to the country. That’s the way the system was designed. We have 2 major political parties in this country, not one. And bipartisanship is a media creation that’s designed to promote one point of view instead of the debate that should occur. And that’s why media doesn’t talk about bipartisanship when conservatives are in power…
…[today] the radical left controls the executive branch through the president, and the Congress… and the Judiciary through the courts… now they control it all, including every department of government. As a result, the legislation that should shock the nation, if people were paying attention, is being rushed into law.
Dobson made headlines earlier this year when he said that conservative Christians had entered their “most discouraging period” and that “humanly speaking, we can say that we have lost all those battles.” He later explained that he meant that conservative Christians had lost many battles, but that the culture war was by no means over.
Gilgoff professes amazment at Dobson’s partisanship. I understand, but that is the least of my concerns. There is a movement afloat amongst those that have practiced the “God said so” brand of politics that I find truly astonishing. We see the roots of it in comments by Mohler. Where the work is going to to draw a hard line between religion and politics. Such allows for the level of political despair we see in Dobson’s comment, while somehow preserving the air of “victory.”
It is wrong to place our religious hope in political action. I cannot disagree with that. But we cannot abandon the political field of battle because we lost either – such truly does remove the final check and balance.
What these “Evangelical leaders” should be doing is learning from their losses and regrouping for the next victory, not pouting. To give up is to lose – ultimately. The seeds of this situation were in the last election and how these people played it. By insisting on “my way or the highway” what we got was the highway. Rather than (*shudder*) compromise with a Mormon, or a thrice divorced womanizer even, who shares their concerns and (for the most part in the case of Guliani) values, they split the party and sent us into this wilderness. And now, rather than find their way back, they appear to want to set up camp!
The big question is can the Republican party succeed without them? And more, if it does, will it be a party that shares their concerns – and frankly mine? Well, the first question is an easy one. Of course the party can succeed without them. That is what political parties do.
But the later question concerns me gravely. I care about social issues – as do, I think, most Americans – and conservatively so. I do think we need to restrategize and take a new approach, but social issues matter. Without strong activism by Evangelicals, Mormons, Catholics and others that share our values you can rest assured the Republican party will rebuild absent social conservatism.
That would be a huge loss for the nation as a whole. And if people like Dobson keep pouting like this, they will have only themselves to blame.
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Jerald on 15 May 2009 at 5:30 am #
Please correct me if I am wrong, but I have felt for a very long time that some portion of the Evangelical movement has wanted to be active in politics to legistate a “Christian environment” to promote Christian living.
I think religious people should be active politically to protect our freedoms and rights so that we can worship according to our conscious and freely share what we believe with those who are interested.
Of course, there will be issues, such as abortion, were being passive is not acceptable, but our main focus as religious people should be on changing hearts and minds through the free will of the listener, not through force of legistration.
While we must stand up to evil on every front, there would be no pornography or abortions if people did not want them.
Is it better to stamp out pornagraphy by legislating complete censorship and prohibition or by preaching the Gospel so that people will gradually turn away from evil on their own?
If we put all our eggs in the basket of legislative victory or behind a “one of us” candidate, then we are likely to become depressed as Mr. Dobson seems to be.
If, however, we focus on changing hearts, then each soul converted to the better way represents a joyous victory for us, the individual, and the Lord.
There will be increased happiness rather than depression that will strenghten us to continue the good fight.