I just finished reading a blog post that has a really interesting scenario.
Senator Obama just took another giant step toward winning the presidency. Actually, someone who considers himself a sworn enemy of Senator Obama took the step for him. Dr. Dobson of the Focus On the Family radio program (and evangelical media empire) has aired a program in which he attacks Senator Obama, the Senator's theology and his credentials as a Christian. With enemies like this Senator Obama doesn't need friends.
Over on Huffington post Frank Schaeffer says that
Dr. Dobson Has Just Handed Obama Victory , and he describes how the Dobson radio rant yesterday provided the opportunity for Obama to align with the evangelical faction which is winning the power play versus Dobson (at the moment).
All that was missing to put the frosting on the Obama cake was for Dobson to attack him. For Obama to win all he needs to do is peel off a chunk of heretofore solid evangelical Republican votes. Dobson just handed Obama those votes.
Who are the Dominionists, and can we bury them before Dubya bombs Iran?
Poking around the tubes, many times I'm finding (over and over) the reference "Dominionism" in the same paragragh as Dobson. So, I dug out my wikishovel, a quickwiki overview of Dominionism is here, you can see the who's, the when's and the where's.
The "what is dominionism" can pretty well be summed up as:
In the early 1990s, sociologist Sara Diamond and journalist Frederick Clarkson defined dominionism as a movement that, while including Dominion Theology and Reconstructionism as subsets, is much broader in scope, extending to much of the Christian Right. In his 1992 study of Dominion Theology and its influence on the Christian Right, Bruce Barron writes,
In the context of American evangelical efforts to penetrate and transform public life, the distinguishing mark of a dominionist is a commitment to defining and carrying out an approach to building society that is self-consciously defined as exclusively Christian, and dependent specifically on the work of Christians, rather than based on a broader consensus.
According to Diamond, the defining concept of dominionism is "that Christians alone are Biblically mandated to occupy all secular institutions until Christ returns". In 1989, Diamond declared that this concept "has become the central unifying ideology for the Christian Right" In 1995, she called it "prevalent on the Christian Right." Journalist Chip Berlet added in 1998 that, although they represent different theological and political ideas, dominionists assert a Christian duty to take "control of a sinful secular society."
In 2005, Clarkson enumerated the following characteristics shared by all forms of dominionism:
1. Dominionists celebrate Christian nationalism, in that they believe that the United States once was, and should once again be, a Christian nation. In this way, they deny the Enlightenment roots of American democracy.
2. Dominionists promote religious supremacy, insofar as they generally do not respect the equality of other religions, or even other versions of Christianity.
3. Dominionists endorse theocratic visions, insofar as they believe that the Ten Commandments, or "biblical law," should be the foundation of American law, and that the U.S. Constitution should be seen as a vehicle for implementing Biblical principles.
Yesterday's Pew polling results about religious tolerance, diversity, adherence to creed are a shot in the arm.
Taking up the fight with Dobson looks to be a winning strategy, how much more reactionary he can become? We've been observing how the Freepers are grasping at anything anti-Obama, one can almost see Dobson mouthing the same absurdities. Is he just a step below making the "anti-Christ" claim???
And with these Dobson/Hagee/Apocalypse type characters having so much influence in the Bush administration, and the signals that war with Iran might just happen before November, it is time to analyze if $10 a gallon gas would achieve the Dominionist's aims.
While Bush/Cheney/Rumsfield and Rice could never have predicted what was going to happen in Iraq, $10 gas is my prophecy of what would immediately happen if we bomb Iran.
Schaeffer says Dobson is still feared in his circles, but losing influence.
In fact, ever since he tried to get Richard Cizik, vice president of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) fired last year Dobson has found himself painted into a reactionary corner. Many evangelicals still fear him and so won't denounce his posturing power-plays but they also despise him.
I'm of the mind that Dubya isn't as psychologically stable and self-assured after nearly eight years in office. Such is the reward for stealing an election and lying the country into the war in Iraq.
And I DON'T like the idea of some pseudo-Christian-psychology expert like Dobson having so much access to the Commander in Chief in his time of doubt.
Inroads into the evangelical part of the GOP base are needed and necessary to make the change more complete, and ripping up Dobson right now looks to be a good thing.
While Dobson wants to kick folks out of the Republican tent, we need to be waving them into ours !!!
UPDATE: insightful comment from NCrissieB here
and
miert has a diary about an anti-Dobson petition that could be helped along its way.
Shaeffer's complete bio, (here's the convenient clip).
Frank Schaeffer is a New York Times best selling author. He is a survivor of both polio and an evangelical/fundamentalist childhood, an acclaimed writer who overcame severe dyslexia, a home-schooled and self-taught documentary movie director, a feature film director and producer of four low budget Hollywood features Frank has described as "pretty terrible."