I generally like Cal Thomas, and I believe that he is a fine, if sometimes misguided, Christian gentleman. That having been said, occasionally he is so monumentally wrong that it's mind-boggling. Case in point: this stinking, steaming little pile of column from a couple of days ago, wherein he waxes idiotic on the Judge Roy Moore situation. I can't even begin to count the errors (factual, historical, logical, and theological) in this column, and can instead only say that Christians can thank the Cal Thomas mindset for the horrid situation in which we find ourselves in 2003's America.

Thomas begins by taking aim at former Senator Mark Hatfield, who at the height of Watergate in 1974 proposed a Senate resolution for a "national day of humiliation, fasting, and prayer" in order to "repent of our national sins." This Thomas ridicules, saying:

It's worrisome when Congress thinks it needs to defend or proclaim faith, especially when it has difficulty solving the temporal problems members have been elected to address. And I worry more when people who say they serve a King and Kingdom that is "not of this world" call upon government to proclaim their particular faith.

Incredible. A Christian arguing against a call for repentance before God. Thomas then links this to the Roy Moore case, saying that the Chief Justice's case was merely a fundraising grandstand, and that there are bigger fish to fry:

My worry is not for the reasons stated by those bringing lawsuits to cleanse the public square of any reference to God. It is for the believers who are distracted from the main and more difficult task their heavenly Commander-in-Chief has called upon them to do. They are focused on trivialities and diverted from more important work.

Hey, Cal, tell it to Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, the authors of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, respectively. Each, as president, proclaimed national days of fasting and prayer. Or tell it to President George Washington, who in his Thanksgiving Proclamation said:

Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me "to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness":

Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation...

But evidently Cal Thomas knows better than the Founders of the country what propriety demands under our form of government. Knock it off, General Washington, you're being distracted by "trivialities" from your "more important task."

Thomas believes that a Christian's job is strictly evangelism, and that everything else is merely a "distraction." Meanwhile, he works towards a state (whether actively or through neglect) in which it will eventually be illegal to do even that. When the time comes that it is illegal to mention God anywhere outside of one's own home, Thomas will be wondering how we got there.

Thomas even helpfully offers the secular media some hints on how they could sandbag his fellow Christians protesting on behalf of Judge Moore at the judicial building in Mongomery:

Some reporter should have asked today's Alabama protesters how many of the Commandments they could recite. Probably not many. The protesters say American law is based on the Commandments. A reporter should have asked, "All of them?" There are only two commandments that relate to secular law (not counting the one about adultery, for which you cannot legally be deprived of life or liberty, property being a matter for divorce courts). One prohibits murder, the other outlaws stealing. The rest are about relationships between God and man and between humans. Do the protesters want laws that force people to honor their mothers and fathers, or not "covet" their neighbor's property, or "honor the Sabbath day and keep it holy," or worship only their God? Isn't state religion what we're fighting against in Iraq and Afghanistan?

Ugh. Tell me he can't be this thick.

A few years ago, Thomas co-wrote a book in which he excoriated many Christians (such as James Dobson, Jerry Falwell, and D. James Kennedy) for being too "political." He says we need to be doing God's "real work" (as though God's command to have dominion over the culture is not His "real work"). Odd for a man who makes his living solely via political punditry. To this day, I've never been able to discern his rationale. It seems to be something like "Christians ought to keep their noses out of politics. Except for me. I'm going to blather on incessantly about them."

American Christianity has been long infected with a strain of theology called "dispensationalism," which among other errors teaches a sacred/secular distinction that encourages Christians to abandon all efforts at applying the truth of God to every area of life and culture. I'm increasingly convinced it's a cancer, and dupes like Cal Thomas are only helping to spread it.