Cal Thomas and Ed Dobson wrote a thought provoking book several years ago called Blinded by Might: Can the Religious Right Save America? Recently, Tom Minnery, the Vice President of Focus on the Family, has published somewhat of a rejoinder entitled Why You Can't Stay Silent: A Biblical Mandate to Shape Our Culture.

Also, John Green, professor of political science and director of the Ray C. Bliss Institute for Applied Politics at the University of Akron, completed a national survey for the Ethics and Public Policy Center, sponsored by a grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts, on how evangelical leaders and evangelical laity view political and civic involvement. He presented these findings to aid the discussion.

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Political Power: "Not Inherently Evil, but Inherently Corrupting"

While evangelical Protestants strongly support civic engagement, they disagree about the form it should take. Opponents and advocates of political involvement faced off on May 22, 2002 at a Center discussion entitled "Evangelicals and Political Engagement: Assessing the Past, Scouting the Future," moderated by Center vice president Michael Cromartie.

The first speaker, John Green, of the University of Akron, remained neutral. He simply offered "some evidence relevant to the debate froma survey of evangelical elites" taken during the presidential campaign of 2000. Few of those surveyed want a complete withdrawal from political engagement, he said, but after the last two decades of political activity, most recognize its limitations. They now prefer to try to influence American culture through various nonpolitical means, though "a large minority sees active citizenship as a complement to cultural engagement."

Syndicated columnist Cal Thomas seconded the notion that lay citizens should be involved in politics but insisted that the clergy should not. His experience as a vice president of the Moral Majority in the 1980s convinced him of the truth of Charles Colson's observation that "world power is not inherently evil but is inherently corrupting." Lobbying for cultural change, moreover, "doesn't work" and is "a waste of money," Thomas said. Government lacks the power to solve the real problems of society, which can be addressed only through moral and spiritual renewal from the ground up.

Thomas charged those who criticize his current position on these matters, on which he and Ed Dobson elaborated in their book Blinded by Might, with failing to understand his unwavering adherence to the objective of "restoring righteousness in America." He has simply changed tactics. We must not deceive ourselves, Thomas declared, "that anything short of the regeneration of American will produce a change in America."

Expressing a very different point of view, Tom Minnery, vice president of Focus on the Family and the author of Why You Can't Stay Silent, challenged several assertions in Blinded by Might. He faulted Thomas for his pinched understanding of citizenship and defended Christian political activism. From the Emancipation Proclamation to Roe v. Wade, "society has been changed from the top down morally," Minnery argued. He said that pastors can and should discuss how the Gospel applies to contemporary moral and political issues.

An animated exchange about what is and isn't appropriate political engagement followed the formal presentations.