Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Uh...what?!?


Update:
Scott and I have started a new site, Patriots & Tyrants, which is focused specifically on American politics. You can read about the premise here. We hope that you will find the site and the topics worthwhile enough to participate. Thanks.



You know that ever-so-tolerant, ever-so-loving evangelical Christian community? The one that would prefer to abolish all differences between the denominations? The one that believes that, as long as you believe in Jesus and hear him speak to your heart, that you're okay? The one that wants everyone to praise God and commit their life to Jesus? The one that wants to eliminate creeds?

Well...they have lines they don't cross, either. At least, James Dobson does, and he's going to use that line politically.

Talking about potential Republican Presidential candidate Fred Thompson, of whom I don't know much, and Newt Gingrich:

  • Dobson "has never known Thompson to be a committed Christian—someone who talks openly about his faith." (Emphasis is mine.)
  • "We use that word—Christian—to refer to people who are evangelical Christians...Dr. Dobson wasn't expressing a personal opinion," said Dr. Dobson's spokesperson.
  • Gingrich was the "brightest guy out there" and "the most articulate politician on the scene today." Huh? Gingrich has skeletons falling out of his closet, but I guess he's been forgiven.
So the left/right litmus test is abortion, and the inner-right litmus test is evangelicalism. I was floored, but I shouldn't have been. Oy!

7 comments:

Scott said...

"Nafta" Newt?

NO, Thanks.

Scottius Maximus said...

Quipper!

Believe it or not, my reaction was exactly the same, so that I uttered that word to myself- OY!

I am reminded of Charlie Brown's exasperated utterance of "I can't stand it!" Because that's how I feel. I can't take these people anymore. They fashion themselves as God's spokespeople on earth. This guy is not even a pastor, and I doubt he knows Mr. Thompson well enough to make such pronouncements.

We would all do well to denounce them and have nothing to do with them. They talk like works-righteous pietists.

Kelly said...

Interesting post.

Rick said...

I find myself growing more weary with someone "representin'" me. First, the left-wingers - Jackson, Sharpton, et al - were bad enough. Now I have right-wingers telling others whether they represent me or not, and acting like they can sway whole voting blocs with one little word. (Aye, we are lemmings, aren't we?)

What happened to me representing myself? If I remember correctly, I didn't elect Dobson to represent me, any more than blacks elected Farrahkan or others.

John said...

Dobson didn't mean to, but what he effectively did was to give a stirring endorsement to Thompson.

GDAEman said...

Hey Qipper. Glad to see you're still at it, and expanding. I've been toying with expanding too... currently learning video editing. But I digress.

I recently had a series of exchanges with some folks along these same lines. Here's one of my responses that speaks to this subject:
Matt 7:15

Rick said...

GDAEman,

Welcome back! Was thinking about you earlier this week as Scott and I were unleashing Patriots & Tyrants on the world. I figured there would be some areas of interest for you. Thanks for stopping by the site and commenting.

I read through the entire post and comment list regarding your link. Very interesting. It's funny how we can all see the problems with our enemy, but we can't see the problems in our own camp. That was one of the key issues that led Scott and me to start P&T.