LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

A friend of mine pointed me to a post on rec.music.filk that discussed a book that two well known Dominionist preachers have published, Blinded By the Might.

Two major "Moral Majority" bigwigs have, apparently, given up on
theocratizing the United States - and they urge their fellow Fundies,
too, to change their ways.

Specifically, these two have written a book telling their fellow
Fundies that no Christian should - EVER - have even *tried* putting
religion into the political arena:

BLINDED BY MIGHT (authors: Cal Thomas and Ed Dobson)

From the book site, the blurb reads:

From two respected conservatives: A call for "unilateral disarmament" by the Religious Right ...
Blinded By Might
by Thomas, Cal; Dobson, Ed

After 20 years of vigorous, sophisticated, and relentless political action by committed Christians, America has sunk even more deeply into the pagan mire. {Pagan mire??-ed]

... and re-armament with biblical weapons and strategies -- quickly. Time is against us. The homosexual agenda continues its relentless march forward. Language that would once have knocked a TV station off the air is now standard fare. Pornography stalks most hotels and the Internet. Many declared Christians divorce and commit adultery without shame.

What happened? Why have Christians failed to rescue America?

Now, Cal Thomas and Ed Dobson answer: we've been using the wrong tools and the wrong methods for the wrong reasons. As proof, the authors retrace their own steps, beginning with their leadership days deep inside Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority. Along the way they reveal their mistakes and the mistakes of others and use them to teach us valuable lessons -- and to point us to the only solution:

"We confess some of our own 'sins' for once believing that we could make things right through the manipulation of the political system. And we propose a better way -- a way that is largely ignored and untried by those who claim to be part of majorities, coalitions, and organizations that correctly proclaim the need to focus on the family. This way is written down in the very Bible which conservative Christians proclaim as the truth, but which in regard to political and societal restoration they have mostly overlooked. Instead, they have attempted to achieve success by shortcuts. We believe that our social maladies are not the cause of our decadence. They are a reflection of it. Our Founders believed in limited government. Those conservatives who argue that liberals used government to undermine what the Founders began should not now seek to grab the reigns of government from liberal hands in order to use government solely to fix problems that are beyond its reach and power to solve."

Dobson and Thomas's warning to America's faithful, and their new vision for a truly Christian activism

* * What the Bible says about God, government, and their relationship to each other
* * The subtle, destructive temptations of political activism for believers
* * Christian Coalition and other conservative Christian groups of the '90s -- still using the same failed strategies pioneered by the Moral Majority
* * The origin of the fundamentalist movement in America. Its 5 main doctrines
* * The Top 10 "theologically flawed statements" made by the Religious Right over the past 20 years. How many have you picked up on?
* * Pastors and politics, an unholy alliance. How the need to win votes and raise a political war chest undermines true gospel preaching
* * Important lessons from the failed temperance movement
* * How Christians have betrayed the Kingdom of God and knit themselves to the world through politics
* * The dangers of constant exposure to the press
* * Extra: Interviews with 10 prominent political leaders, past and present

H'mmm... I don't know if this is actually heading in the correct direction or not. I mean, they still have their homophobia, sex hate, pagan smearing, powermongering language in there, and still want 'temperance'. And they still hate 'the world'.

Still, it might be worth a read if only to understand how they think and view the world. One must know their adversaries in order to contain them. Notice that I used the word 'contain' rather than 'defeat'. They think it's a war, and the worst thing we can do is give them a war. Such a thing feeds into their persecution complex. Rather, we should entangle them in their own peculiar politics and theology, making them chase their own tails and stay out of the 'world' that they hate so much.