Doctrinal Correctness
My car is now working, thanks to Freon. As he is a wiseacre, he arranged the car radio so that when I turned the ignition, there would be preaching.
According to the preacher, Christians don't need to get involved in politics, because if they convert people, those people will control their fellow Americans' lifestyles with the voting decisions that the preacher thinks God wants them to make. They will become Doctrinally Correct. This will come as news to the millions of Americans who say they're Christian. Apparently according to this preacher, they inaccurately believe they are in a salvation relationship with Jesus. (Otherwise, Jesus would speak to their hearts and tell them the error of their ways. After all, is God going to hand out a thousand inconsistent messages to his followers and tell them all to correct each other on these points?)
I have to give the devil his due here. If someone claims to be Christian, but bases this on some vague popularized notion floating around the culture, involving whatever they happen to personally think is goodness and love, and ignoring most of the truly awful teachings of Jesus, then it's just a nominal label. (They should really call themselves "loveists". I recall at PCC when my friend Jason said he thought the school was "Communist", and I said no, it's "totalitarian", because Communism is an economic system. Words are not very useful without meanings.)
On the other hand, the preacher is wrong, because "getting people saved" doesn't result in getting people Dominionist saved. God doesn't respond to the Sinner's Prayer by magically making you believe that you deserve eternal torment for casual drinking, rock music, and premarital sex. In order for conversion to work the way Dominionists want it to, where they go off the deep end and become insufferably doctrinal, the convert must already be pathetic and desperate enough to sincerely believe the Sinner's Prayer. They can't just casually experiment. There has to be at least some dependency, maladaptation, loneliness, irrational anxiety, or self-loathing. In that case salvation is not changing much, it's just fitting into where one already belonged.
Supernatural intervention is not necessary for that to happen. Anyone who is paying attention to Christians can tell that they are so seldom transformed by the salvation experience, that when they seem to be transformed into a soldier of the Lord, it can be explained as someone who was already messed up in the head.
Comments
uplinktruck on Sep. 21, 2008 8:34 PM
Now that was really good. I am impressed.
That phrase "supernatural intervention," tell me where you heard it and I'll tell you where I heard it last.
matt-arnold on Sep. 21, 2008 8:38 PM
The phrase "supernatural intervention" is too common among atheists and christians for me to pin down to any single source.
uplinktruck on Sep. 21, 2008 9:19 PM
OK...
I heard it last New Year's Eve during the last day of transmission for The International House Of Prayer from the convention center in Kansas City, MO.
I don't remember the man's name, but he used that phrase. It was during the part of the sermon he gave where he held his hand high in the air (possibly clutching his bible), closed his eyes tight and said words to the effect of, "Dear lord, please use your supernatural power to bring a supernatural intervention to release the congress of the United States of America from the demonic hold it is under right now. And Dear Lord, we pray that you use your supernatural power to bring a supernatural intervention to stop the passage of 747." (747 is some bill in California supporting gay life choice decisions for minors if I remember right. Not sure of the number, but is was some aircraft model number.)
That was a hoot. What is scary is I think these people are serious about that...
Anonymous on Sep. 22, 2008 1:53 PM
Maybe you're not doing this, but it almost seems like you're trying to make a dichotomy between the loveists and the Dominionists, and implying that every Christian fits in those two categories. Of course, not everyone who self-identifies as Christian fits into those categories. Jim Wallis is just one example of someone who espouses traditional Christian doctrine and thinks his Christianity has very particular consequences for his politics, but could not be considered a Dominionist. On the other side of the political spectrum, see also George Weigel's "Religious Conviction and Democratic Etiquette".
jonzeartist on (None)
matt-arnold on Sep. 23, 2008 8:16 PM
Thanks for writing. Please email me using the other email address on my profile. I have MSN, but the hotmail email address is not an email account, just a MSN username. I've removed that from my profile now.
matt-arnold on Sep. 27, 2008 1:23 PM
I still haven't received an email from you. Is there any other way I can help you?
jonzeartist on (None)
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