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News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbySeptember 8th, 2011
Evangelical Christian Warren Throckmorton has really taken this meme to heart, and he’s the only one I can think of who has. In his latest post on Crosswalk, Throckmorton takes fellow Evangelical opinion makers to task for developing mass amnesia with regard to the very real phenomenon of Christian Dominionism. And he has posted what amounts to a series of readings for Dominionism deniers on his own web site, and lays out why this new phenomenon matters:
The other issue for me is the erosion of the ability to dialogue with people of various viewpoints. The dominionists see their position as dictated by God. Thus, in a policy discussion, the dominionist can’t give up ground since it is holy. Opponents are not just incorrect, they are evil or as I quote in my article, one of the “enemies of God.” Who makes political deals with an enemy of God?
One can also substitute God for “patriotism” and make a damning indictment for the current state of political discourse as well, and I suspect that’s no accident. Dominionists aren’t alone among other Evangelicals more broadly who have conflated God with the Founding Fathers. So if questioning far right principles is heresy and makes one an enemy of God, questioning conservative orthodoxy today also makes one a traitor and an enemy of America. That’s how you reach the point where persistent accusations that the president is a secret Kenyan Muslim socialist hell-bent on destroying America with his terrorist pals is accepted as just another point of view by a major national “news” channel. Dominionists didn’t necessarily create that phenomenon, but they do dovetail quite nicely with the broader paranoia and self-anointing tendencies of the extreme right as keepers of pure American values. And it’s an extreme which is now becoming increasingly mainstream. That may explain why many voices on the political right can’t see Dominionists in their midst. They really don’t stand out anymore like they would have a decade ago.
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Timothy (TRiG)
September 8th, 2011
Warren Throckmorton is not the only one. I encourage you to have a look at the “church and state” tag on slacktivist, where Fred Clarke has had quite a bit to say about dominionist theology, including quoting you.
TRiG.
tavdy79
September 8th, 2011
There is another possible explanation. Many on the political right have every reason to not want to admit that Dominionists exist, because they have moved so far rightwards that it is now all too easy to compare them with Dominionists, and that’s not a comparison the political right wants to see made.
Timothy Kincaid
September 8th, 2011
Warren is a most unusual man.
He is unquestionably a sincere and devout evangelical Christian. He does not have a view of sexual ethics that allows for same-sex sexual behavior. He does not fall on our side of the theological divide (though he does, I believe, allow for each individual to ‘work out their own salvation’ and does not see homosexuality and Christianity as inherently mutually exclusive).
However, Warren has taken on the role of conscience of the evangelical community. This is, without doubt, a thankless job; no one wants to be told that they are lying about Teh Gheys or that their theology consists of a combination of malice and arrogance.
Yet he slogs on: speaking against Uganda; challenging when ex-gay claims get outside the realm of believable; debunking David Barton’s ‘Christian Founding Fathers’ historical revisionism, exposing the Seven Mountains theology and Dominionism for the theocratic movements that they are. And there aren’t too many folks in evangelicalism who really want to hear instruction about what God expects from those who claim to follow him or that God hasn’t given them the right to impose “God’s Law” on the rest of us.
Surely he must at times feel like Elijah. “God, couldn’t you have called me to say good happy things?”
But Warren has the credibility to be heard in that community. It is a unique position and I thank God for him.
BlackDog
September 9th, 2011
“…And there aren’t too many folks in evangelicalism who really want to hear instruction about what God expects from those who claim to follow him or that God hasn’t given them the right to impose “God’s Law†on the rest of us.”
As I have remarked many times on the blog where I moderate, I am of the opinion that much of American Evangelical/Fundamentalist/Pentecostal Christianity has gone so far away from what the Bible really says…and what centuries of (particularly Protestant) Christian Tradition teaches…that it might as well be counted as a new religion altogether.
If people DON’T want to hear instruction (from a Biblical perspective) about what God expects, or don’t want to be called out for being arrogant or lying…and WANT to follow all this man-made stuff that’s not even close to what has defined the Christian religion for centuries…then why bother to call themselves Christians at all??
If they’re going to basically use the Bible for toilet paper…why bother claiming it??
Timothy Kincaid
September 12th, 2011
BlackDog,
Be fair. They don’t object to ALL of the Bible; they are actually rather fond of Leviticus… or, at least, the parts that don’t apply to them.
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