Warning: My post today is more of a theological rant than it is any type of quasi-pseudo-scholarly examination. If that is what you are looking for today, you will not find it here.
Hello all:
I listen to several radio stations around the Portland area, including a couple of Christian music stations. Two of these Christian radio stations regularly play the James Dobson Family Minute.
Now, I don’t know about the rest of you, but growing up, I thought James Dobson was a member of the Church of Christ because he seemed to be very respected by our fellowship, even my parents. Listening to him now, I can somewhat see why that is… he fits decently into our worldview..close enough to be counted as safe.
I don’t typically care for most of the advice I hear from James Dobson and Focus on the Family. Most of it seems to be psychological and behavoral advice that they try to pass off as biblical or “approved by God,” but really just are human insights that may or may not be correct because of our fallen state.
Most of the time I can handle that, but then I heard this radio clip:
James Dobson Family Minute, 05/23/08 (59 Seconds).
Dobson says that “Any effort to destroy this great nation . . . has to be the ultimate assault on family values.” He goes on to describe how destroying this nation is to subject it to a foreign force that would endanger our freedom. Bill Maer then tells us that it is important to “be grounded in God’s word and to be involved in the Democratic Process . . .whether it is at home or abroad, any issue that threatens the family is one that needs to be faced head on.”
This clip makes several worldy assumptions: that the United States is a great nation, approved by God; that an attack on democracy or freedom is an attack on the family; that Christians have a duty to vote; that Christians have a duty to fight any aggressor that might threaten our nation, democracy, or our freedom.
This flies in the face of Jesus words recorded in Matthew 5:39, “But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.”
We equate the United States with Israel. Sometimes it appears that we have embraced Alexander Campbell’s Post-Millenialism… and believe that the Millenium is here, and that we are living in the renewed Earth, with our country as the renewed Israel, our President, no matter who he is, sitting on the throne of David.
Instead, we are living on a fallen Earth, in a Nation that is just as wicked before God as Babylon, believing that we are doing right by fighting anyone who attacks our freedom and our ability to buy whatever we want.
Our forefathers in Churches of Christ wouldn’t have bought into James Dobson’s Worldview, but we appear to have swallowed the line whole.
-Clarke