Getting left out in the cold is the best thing that could happen to the evangelicals at this juncture in history. The “Christian Right” has gotten a little too accustomed to, dare I say a little too drunk on, its political power over the last twenty years. It’s awfully hard to reconcile such pride with the followers of a Savior whose earthly life ended on a cross.

The main player in this tragifarce, of course, is James Dobson, who felt called upon to announce to the world that he’d boycott the polling booth if it came down to a choice between Clinton and Giuliani. This is the height of irresponsibility and hubris, and, it’s just plain dumb.

Irresponsible, because he’s encouraging the faithful minions who hang on his every word to pull the same cop-out on election day that he plans to (and give the election to Hillary, who’ll accomplish loads for the “Christian Right” agenda, naturally).

Hubris, because, while the man has every right not to vote, he presumptuously assumes that his decision not to vote should matter - indeed, be decisive - to the rest of us (I keep asking myself: so who is this guy, anyway?).

And dumb, well, for a raft of reasons: for one thing, we’re voting for president, not the next pastor of your local church; Dobson doesn’t seem to know the difference (I wonder if he asks for a statement of faith before he lets the plumber touch his kitchen sink…). Moreover, if he really cared about the abortion issue, then you’d think he’d listen to what Giuliani is saying about a “federalist” approach and the appointment of “constructionist” justices. That’s the most promising “pro-life” policy to issue from a Republican national campaign in, well, ever.

And, this time around, it’s quite possibly do-able. Especially if the Christian-Right-kingmaker-wannabe’s don’t grab their political football and stomp off the field in an almighty infantile huff, because nobody let them be captain of the team: “If we can’t play, nobody can! So there!”

I hate to say what I’m going to say, but my gut tells me there’s an even baser element in this whole thing: could it just be that Dobson and the other self-appointed elders of evangelicaldom don’t like the Italian Catholic Giuliani because he’s “not one of us”?

It would be very interesting to know who these men voted for in ‘68, ‘72 and ‘76. It’s a safe bet they voted Republican, even though Nixon and Ford said nary a word on the abortion issue. It wasn’t even on their radar screen. On any practical level, they were both “pro-choice” (Mrs. Ford volubly so). Did Dobson vote for Nixon and Ford? If so, why can’t he bring himself to vote for Giuliani in ‘08? What makes it different now from then? Quite clearly, what makes it different now is that Dobson and Company expect to anoint the Republican candidate.

An expectation like that needs to be exorcized from the heart of anyone who calls himself a follower of Jesus Christ, anyone whose citizenship is in heaven, who seeks a heavenly city whose Architect and Builder is God.

My gut sense is that the days of the peculiar American phenomenon called the “Christian Right” are chokingly and splutteringly expiring. And, that that is a good thing. All things pass away, yet God remains on His throne, His purpose is not thwarted, and the Great Commission hasn’t changed a jot or tittle. There is Life, and a Kingdom, after the Christian Right.

Ken Sears
Zaporozhye, Ukraine

[…]In today?s New York Times, Focus on the Family founder James Dobson confirmed reports that the religious right has agreed to support a third party candidate if the GOP nominates pro-lifer Rudy Giuliani.[…]…

Nick Kasoff
http://www.thugreport.com