Theophilus is talking about -well go see- his post on the direction of relgion + politics. I think he adds to the concept of “higher ground” that I sometimes try to define.
Jewell makes some good points about the dangerous brew of church and politics that have turned Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell into the Lenny and Squiggy of evangelicalism. I don’t know if I would be as hard on Dobson as Jewell was, though, only because I suspect that Dobson really does see what he’s doing these days as his new “calling,” or perhaps a slight tweaking and redefining of what he’s always considered his “calling.” And I can only imagine how horrendous Dobson’s experience was serving on President Reagan’s pornography commission in the 1980s and how that seared his consciousness.
But Jewell makes an outstanding point: “When the church presents its concerns as a laundry list of demands, we become a special interest group, and our price has been set. We lose our moral authority. Pay our price and we will be yours.”
I know Dobson is certainly impatient with the spiritual direction the country is drifting, as are many of my Christian friends (as am I, for that matter). But sometimes I wonder in the midst of all the blustering and bluffing (if it’s really bluffing) people realize that progress is being made.