Evangelicals and Political Seduction

For leaders in the arenas of faith, the seduction of political power is among the strongest and most insidious of the temptations. This is particularly true for evangelical leaders, who for many years have believed that conservative values and concerns were not taken seriously by those in power. The suggestion that evangelical voters were central to the presidential election has the brethren pumped up and ready to call the shots.



In my predictions for 2005, I suggested that evangelicals would overplay their hand and, as a result, lose ground politically. I couldn’t envision that the first news story I’d read in the New Year, Evangelical Leader Threatens to Use His Political Muscle Against Some Democrats, would report on James Dobson’s appeal letter to Focus on the Family supporters, in which he promises "a battle of enormous proportions from sea to shining sea if President Bush fails to appoint strict constructionist jurists or if Democrats filibuster to block conservative nominees.”

Dobson wags his figure at the president, names six Senate Democrats from red states and threatens to unseat them, as Tom Daschle was tossed out.



The only people who should be unnerved by this are evangelical Christians, for the only likely damage will be to the church and its voice in a pluralistic culture. While I have not seen the Focus on the Family appeal letter, if the New York Times story is somewhat accurate, there are several concerns.



Not Special Interest Group

When the church presents its concerns as a laundry list of demands, we become a special interest group, and our price has been set. We lose our moral authority. Pay our price and we will be yours. Chuck Colson warned his brethren in "an open letter to the Christian church" last month against listing demands of the president or other elected officials. “To think that way demeans the Christian movement," Colson wrote. "We are not anybody's special interest group."



Blurred Focus

I know James Dobson. I’ve spent time with him, and I have admiration for much he has done to help families. Focus on the Family (which by the way is one of the great organization names, because the name states the mission) is a powerhouse advocate for the family. The radio program and Dobson’s books have helped millions of parents raise their families.



To the criticism that strong-arm politics demeans the church’s message, Dobson may claim that he is a psychologist and organizational leader, not a church leader. That’s not the way media portray Dobson, however. He’s seen as evangelical’s most influential leader. But if, indeed, he’s just speaking for his organization, then why has he become a political heavy? Is the American family in good shape? Have strong willed children been corralled? Are American marriages thriving? Is the nation saturated with biblical models of marriage and family?



If James Dobson wants to head another political action group, he should resign from Focus on the Family and allow the organization to return to its roots. He built his mailing list providing family counsel. To use it for political strong-arming is a bait and switch that hurts Focus, and the image of the Christian organizations generally.



Lousy Politics

If the purpose of the Dobson’s letter (and evidently it was leaked or given to media in advance of its mailing) was to frighten the named Democratic senators, the strategy is wrongheaded. The correlation of the million people on the Dobson mailing list and the people who voted for Democratic Senators would not be, as they say in academia, statistically significant. The Dobson evangelicals are already in the Republican tent. Is anyone else going to join them? Belligerence will fire up the zealots, but it won’t attract potentially sympathetic fence-sitters.



Most evangelical leaders who have made political pronouncements since the election fail to recognize that the swing voting bloc was a values collation, not an evangelical majority. Evangelicals need to find common cause with the rest of the coalition to maintain their voice.



Sleeping with the Handmaiden

An evangelical leader tells privately of his days as a hardnosed political operative, prior to his conversion, when he had a plaque over his bar that read: “When you have them by the (male genitalia), their hearts and minds will follow.” While he was not espousing that philosophy for the church, in the early days of the New Year, it seems to be the Dobson strategy.



Evangelicals are dissatisfied and impatient with the spiritual direction of the nation, as they should be. As Christians, we are called to preach, and bear witness, and pray, and work for change. But we must guard against the error of Abraham, who when impatient with progress on God’s promise of an heir, slept with Hagar, the handmaiden. We struggle with the sons of Ishmael today.



As Christians, we have responsibility to remain active in the political process. But cultural change will come from the inside, by the truth being spoken in love, by the transformation of hearts and minds. Our Christian leaders must resist the handmaiden of political seduction.

--James Jewell