Posted on 04/10/2009 11:32:24 PM PDT by Schnucki
Edited on 04/12/2009 11:03:20 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
America's religious Right has conceded that the election of US President Barack Obama has sealed its defeat in the cultural war with permissiveness and secularism.
Leading evangelicals have admitted that their association with George W. Bush has not only hurt the cause of social conservatives but contributed to the failure of the key objectives of their 30-year struggle.
James Dobson, 72, who resigned recently as head of Focus on the Family - one of the largest Christian groups in the country - and once denounced the Harry Potter books as witchcraft, acknowledged the dramatic reverse for the religious Right in a farewell speech to staff.
“We tried to defend the unborn child, the dignity of the family, but it was a holding action,” he said.
“We are awash in evil and the battle is still to be waged. We are right now in the most discouraging period of that long conflict. Humanly speaking, we can say we have lost all those battles.”
Despite changing the political agenda for a generation, and helping push the Republicans to the Right, evangelicals have won only minor victories in limiting the availability of abortion. Meanwhile the number of states permitting civil partnerships between homosexuals is rising, and the campaign to restore prayer to schools after 40 years - a decision that helped create the Moral Majority - has got nowhere.
Though the struggle will go on, the confession of Mr Dobson, who started his ministry from scratch in 1977, came amid growing concern that church attendance in the United States is heading the way of Britain, where no more than ten per cent worship every week.
Unease is rising that a nation founded - in the view of evangelicals - purely as a Christian country will soon, like northern Europe, become “post-Christian”.
Recent surveys
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Has Dobson Thrown In The Towel? Not Quite (FULL AUDIO)
Religious conservatives aren't as monolithic as that, in spite of the "easily led" quote from the Washington Post.
But this is a "one step back" period. Whether it's followed by two steps forward or two more steps back, I couldn't say.
About 10% of the nation's children attend private schools. Of that 10% not all of them are conservative or religious. About 2 to 4% are homeschoolers.
So?...I am "painting with a broad brush"? I don't thing so.
That sooooo many of our nation's children attend government schools is a disgrace! Christians have NOT worked together to provide a tuition-free alternative to the government schools. They have and ARE failing to give their children, and others, the opportunity for an Christian education that is God-centered in its worldview.
If conservative Christians **were** doing their duty before God, EVERY child in this nation would have the opportunity for a tuition-free conservative Christian education.
Please remember that government schools are by law god-less in their worldview.
Conservative Christians are the mainstay of the home-schooling movement which I believe is still growing, and many of us have children who survived the secular onslaught of the public schools with conservative worldviews and Faith intact.
You were one of the lucky ones. It is STUPID for Christians to play the odds. When they send their children into government schools, and allow their congregation's children to do so as well, they are playing Russian Roulette with their children's souls! ( Except the odd on Russian Roulette are better!)
Whereas, the Southern Baptist Council on Family Life reported to the 2002 Annual Meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention that 88 percent of the children raised in evangelical homes leave church at the age of 18, never to return; and
http://www.hslda.org/docs/news/hslda/200406/200406030.asp
It is the deluded liberal parents who perpetrate child-abuse by role-modelling liberal depravity who are the worst offenders.
This is a stawman. I did not say that they were not. I can not defend an argument of your creation.
The teachers are largely impotent to spread the virus if it is not supported at home.
If the teachers are not part of the solution, then they are perpetrators of the problem. Shame on them too, for ***willingly** accepting a paycheck for pushing atheistic, Marxist, secular humanism on our nation's children.
But he hit the nail on the head,the Republican party is the lost cause,its his allegiance to it that has been their downfall,assuming a Christian downfall,I don`t buy that.However the Republicans are a different matter,maybe they can be saved but as they stand now they`re not much better than Democrats.Try gaging the feelings for them here,if not the country,many people don`t want to vote for them again until they return to Constitutional principles,and before you attack me for giving up its the sell out Republicans that have given up.Given up on the values of our founding fathers,namely the Constitution!But I know, there are still many Republican cool-aiders here who”love their party”,hey,cool-aiders,its the principles stupid!
Oh, I pretty much agree...Lost the culture, Won the Kingdom.
My wife works at Focus. Dr Dobson has not given up...he is devoting more and more of his time to ministry, and less to administration.
“Not when it appears on his website.”
I couldn’t find it. Would you be good enough to point it out?
Wherefore also God highly exalted him, and gave unto him the name which is above every name; that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:9-11
Well that doesnt sound like Jesus, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords concedes defeat...
Jesus, the Lamb of God, who is the Head of the Church...
NEVER DEFEATED...
Thank you FRiend!
LLS
You’ve observed poorly.
Looks like this article is 10 days late...
Their PR department is going at it day and night....
AMEN!
But...
Luke 18:1-8
1. Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.
2. He said: "In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men.
3. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, `Grant me justice against my adversary.'
4. "For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, `Even though I don't fear God or care about men,
5. yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming!'"
6. And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says.
7. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?
8. I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?"
Indeed. Thank you for sharing your insights, dear brother in Christ!
Good for him. He is an amazing man and he has toiled and poured out himself. He has endured a lot of persecution, but his love for others is Christ- given. I know the Left will see this as a victory, but they forget the cornerstone of our faith is almighty and the willing are simply vessels.
“I couldn’t find it. Would you be good enough to point it out?”
It was a long time ago.
Author lost all credibility at this point in the article. No need to continue reading.
“It was a long time ago.”
I’m sorry, then, but as with many quotations attributed by God-haters and other leftists to Limbaugh, Dobson, and other non-leftists, I must tilt toward the conclusion that Dobson never said it.
It is certainly not beneath the above-described malefactors to take a comment such as, “The Harry Potter novels are about witchcraft,” which is quite true, and distort it into something purportedly discreditable.
It is not, shamefully, beneath them simply to make the whole thing up.
Rule 1: All leftist thought, from the limousine liberalism of a George Clooney to the mass murders of Mao, Stalin, or Pol Pot, is of and from Satan. It is a contaminant in the human cognosphere, not a natural component of it. That being the case, all leftists lie all the time—even if they think they’re telling the truth.
“helping push the Republicans to the Right”
Seems like every time I am exposed to the noxious blatherings of a leftist, he produces this particular fewmet.
Considering that the far, far, mouth-frothing ultra-right wing of the Republican party is to the left of JFK, where in the world did this nonsense come from?
People can’t sing what they don’t know — which in this case, is easily over 95% of our populace.
This is taken directly from Focus on the Family Website.
Dr. James Dobson wants all friends of Focus on the Family to know about an error involving him that appeared on Page 1 of Wednesday’s Washington Post. In a story about Christians’ views on the Harry Potter books and films, reporter Jacqueline Salmon wrote that “Christian parenting guru James Dobson has praised the Potter books.”
This is the exact opposite of Dr. Dobson’s opinion - in fact, he said a few years ago on his daily radio broadcast that “We have spoken out strongly against all of the Harry Potter products.” His rationale for that statement: Magical characters - witches, wizards, ghosts, goblins, werewolves, poltergeists and so on - fill the Harry Potter stories, and given the trend toward witchcraft and New Age ideology in the larger culture, it’s difficult to ignore the effects such stories (albeit imaginary) might have on young, impressionable minds.
Ms. Salmon has not only acknowledged, but apologized for, the mistake and has promised the Post will correct it Friday. It seems she simply repeated misinformation that appeared in a less high-profile publication; she acknowledged she should have contacted us directly to make sure the assertion was true - and we appreciate her humility and professionalism in saying so.
The correction will also be offered to papers that subscribe to the Post’s wire service and which may have also published the piece.
Dr. Dobson and the entire Focus family thank you for your continued interest in and support of our ministry.
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