Blinded by Ambition?
Blinded by Might: Can the Religious Right Save America?
by Cal Thomas and Ed Dobson
Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1999.
(256 pages; $19.99, cloth)
by James Hitchcock
In the l970s many American Christians began a love affair with conservative politics, an affair that is now ending in disillusionment and even bitterness, leading to renewed calls to retreat within the fortress of the Church and the family and to eschew the wicked world. Unfortunately, some of these disappointed lovers are like the man in the Gospel who had his devil cast out—their last state is worse than their first; it would have been better had they never been reborn as political activists.
The prime text of this disillusionment is Blinded by Might: Can the Religious Right Save America?—written by two former staff members of the Moral Majority, Cal Thomas and Ed Dobson. There are reasons for suspecting a barely hidden agenda in this objectively mischievous work, but even if the authors are conceded unquestioned good will, the book is a mishmash of both religious and political confusion that, ironically, tends to prove the very point the authors are trying to make—that Christians should stay out of politics.
The possible hidden agenda may give insight into why the authors have moved in the direction they have. They claim that they have not changed their beliefs on any important issue but merely regret the style and tactics employed by groups like the Moral Majority.
The major criticism of the latter is the familiar one that conservative Christians are judgmental and unloving, and the authors go out of their way to be respectful, even gushing, towards certain secular liberals. (Remarkably, Cal Thomas boasts that Senator Edward Kennedy and Norman Lear are his personal friends.) But on the other hand, harshness is virtually required when addressing Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and, in particular, James Dobson. The authors complain that they have been falsely portrayed merely as disgruntled former employees, but their account shows that they had conflicts with the leaders of these movements that have left scars.
Thus the authors easily fall into the familiar habit whereby tolerance includes the right to be intolerant of those deemed to be intolerant, love is practiced towards one’s ostensible enemies but need not be wasted on one’s erstwhile friends, being judgmental is forbidden except when directed at those who are themselves (allegedly) judgmental. These are now ingrained liberal habits, in and out of the churches, and it is a measure of how far the authors have traveled that they fall into those habits so comfortably.
Whether consciously or not, Ed Dobson, now a pastor in Michigan, appears to be in the process of training to be a liberal. Thus, while once again insisting that his moral beliefs have not changed in the slightest, he affirms that homosexuals are discriminated against and deplores the way Christians treat them, condemns acts of civil disobedience against abortion (he does not even condone picketing), and quotes a “non-political” sermon he preached during the recent White House scandals, the peroration of which was a criticism of those inclined to “throw stones” at President Clinton.
Cal Thomas takes obvious delight at revealing that he has warmer feelings towards Kennedy and Lear than towards Falwell and Dobson and, while deploring conservative clergy who allow themselves to be used by politicians, relates how he sat next to Clinton at a White House breakfast and dutifully reports how “hurt” the President was by criticism from some Christians.
While Ed Dobson gives the impression that he is learning to be a liberal, Thomas seems to have run successfully for the office of the liberal media’s favorite Evangelical, someone who can be counted on to pull his punches and periodically to issue public warnings to his fellow Christians. Reputedly he is now the most widely published “conservative” columnist in the United States, and readers who find him on their op-ed pages get his analysis instead of the vastly more perceptive (and bold) writings of George Will, Charles Krauthammer, or Linda Chavez.
Perhaps the most revealing signal as to the book’s purpose is the fact that the publishers have hired a public relations firm to stir up interest and arrange interviews. The flacks helpfully line up key passages from the book, every one of which is designed to discomfit conservative Christians and warm the hearts of secular liberals. Thomas and Dobson are clearly signaling to the liberal media that they are now available.
James Hitchcock is Professor emeritus of History at St. Louis University in St. Louis. He and his late wife Helen have four daughters. His most recent book is the two-volume work, The Supreme Court and Religion in American Life (Princeton University Press, 2004). He is a senior editor of Touchstone.
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