Careful Thought

UPDATE:  Several commenters have pointed out that there are indeed elements of evangelical Christianity that advocate dominionist or theonomistic approaches to government, but I would contend that these are fringe groups and do not represent Christianity, or evangelical Christianity.  Many who are opposed to Christianity use a fallacy of composition (i.e., some do this, so all do this).  But it is a phenomenon that bears watching - on both sides.

ORIGINAL POST:  There’s an interesting new twist on atheist slams against Christianity - dominionism.  The concept is not new, but the term has grown more popular of late.  The idea is that there is a massive conspiracy of evangelical Fundamentalist Christians seeking to take over the country and implement an Islamic-style theocracy.

The tactic is to latch onto isolated cases of ‘Fundamentalist oppression’ or faith-related pronouncements by public figures, and make them into something heinous.  Favorite examples are prayer before football games or at graduation ceremonies, overzealous military chaplains, presidential speeches invoking God’s blessing, any Fellowship of Christian Athletes activity, or just about any time God is mentioned in public.  The whole notion of winning a lost world to Christ (Matt 28:16-20) is seen as ominous and threatening.  Perhaps it is, if you’re lost.

The problem is that there is no conspiracy.

As someone commented on another post,

[All of these are professing Christians]:

- the president
- the vice president
- most of the Supreme Court
- a vast majority of both houses on Congress
- a vast majority of the governors and legislators in the 50 states

I don’t buy it.  There’s a huge difference between professing your faith and taking part in a theocratic conspiracy.  Presidents and statesmen in the past have been much more vocal in invoking God and his blessing on our country than President Bush and his eeeevil co-conspirators.  There is a significantly lower percentage of the general public that professes to be Christian than at any time in our past.  So how come the Christian Theocracy [cue ominous music] hasn’t risen in the past 250 years?

The whole idea is an atheist fever dream.  Unfortunately, the level of bile and vitriol is ratcheting up.  You’ll likely hear more of the eeevil dominionist conspiracy and its threat to free thought everywhere.

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