Happy Thanksgiving

So we had Lee (from the room downstairs), Mark (from the bedroom upstairs), Jerry, Gloria, Kristy, and Becky over for Thanksgiving dinner. A lot of bird was consumed, some arguments over the shootout were made, and some turnips were eaten. It was a nice time of friends, foes, and family. One thing that came up was about Francis Shaeffer as Becky called him scary in relation to his fundementalist Orthodox son Franky Schaeffer. I had to ask why is Francis Shaeffer scary and she responded with that his writings helped form dominionism. I had never heard of dominionism (but almost everyone else in the room had). Wikipedia has this…

Dominionism is a term used by some social scientists and critics to describe a trend in Protestant Christian evangelicalism and fundamentalism that encourages political participation in civic society by Christians through appeals to their religious beliefs. The term Dominionism is used to describe a full spectrum of such appeals, ranging from a duty as stewards to vote, to the desire to subjugate the political system for a Christian religious cause. Politically active conservative Christians rarely use the term dominionism as a self-description; many feel it is a loaded or pejorative term. Use of the term is primarily limited to liberal and left critics of the Christian Right. The term emerged in relation to the Christian Right in the mid-1990s, but became more widely known due in large part to the U.S. presidential election, 2004 where the media attributed Republican wins to “Evangelical voters in “Red states” who voted for “moral values;” although most poll analysts call this claim oversimplistic.

Schaeffer‘s writings contibute to this as

Schaeffer is sometimes called one of the founders of the Christian Right movement, which some have labeled a Dominionist movement. Schaeffer was influenced by the writings of R. J. Rushdoony, the intellectual founder of Christian Reconstructionism, a postmillennialist form of Theocratic Domininism. Schaeffer and Rushdoony read each others’ writings, and even met. Schaeffer led a study of Rushdoony’s writings at Schaeffer’s institute in Switzerland. Schaeffer and other premillennialists picked up themes of dominionism from the postmillennialist Rushdoony, and adapted them to premillennial theology. Some commentators emphasize Schaeffer’s differences with Christian Reconstructionism, and with R.J. Rushdoony. A systematic difference was his rejection of theocracy. In the book, A Christian Manifesto, Schaeffer writes, “There is no New Testament basis for a linking of church and state until Christ, the King returns.” Critical writers however, emphasize the similarities and overlapping influence of Schaeffer and the Reconstructionists, on the formation of the Christian Right.

Wikipedia does defend Schaeffer…

Christian Right leaders such as Tim LaHaye have credited Schaeffer for influencing their theological arguments urging political participation by evangelicals (LaHaye, Battle, p. 5). But it is possible that LaHaye and others who cite Schaeffer’s influence are extending their ideas well beyond what Schaeffer himself suggested.

This has nothing to do with anything and definately not Thanksgiving but I thought it was interesting and worth posting, if only to expose my own ignorance.

Back to Thanksgiving. Too much turkey, I defended Grant Devine, an admission that
Janice MacKinnon may be the greatest leader in Saskatchewan, I bashed Peter C. Newman, we complained about the NHL shootout, Gloria ignored the conversation and read Kester Brewin’s book, The Complex Christ, and there was some turnips. We also all found out that Becky was smarter than I am.