Dear Lou (part one)

Lou Dobbs wrote “A Call to the Faithful” recently and I’m pretty sure that he considers himself to be addressing religious Americans and Evangelicals in particular. So in the next two posts I take it upon myself to respond. Disclaimer: Please note - even though I may use the third person pronoun “we” repeatedly, I know that I can’t possibly speak for all of the faithful. If you think I get a few things (or everything) wrong feel free to let me know.


Dear Lou,

I’ve only watched your show a handful of times, but I did get your letter. It seems you aren’t too crazy about Christians in the public square. I can’t say I agree with you there, it is after all public, and, you can’t expect us to leave God out since we the faithful are after all faithful.
Truly, I don’t think your spat is with most of us, but really it’s more about Jim Wallis, who is speaking out against your stance on illegal immigration.
Come on Lou, this is really much to do about nothing. First of all, why wouldn’t Jim choose Jesus over you? We all want to choose Jesus over you. Shoot Lou, I want my wife to choose Jesus over me. I sin and He never has or will, He died for her sins and I didn’t, and He’s Lord and I’m not. It really is that simple.
Second, I find it very interesting that you make an appeal to Scripture even after you get all worked up about we the faithful encroaching on the state with our beliefs. So which is it Lou? Is it okay for us to look to the Bible to understand God and the world He created or isn’t it? I think by your own admission, you know it is perfectly legitimate for us to enter into these kinds of dialogues, but regardless of what you think we the faithful will continue to attempt faithfulness to God in all avenues of life.
Third, I think you got it right. This is something we the faithful like to consider part of “common grace.” In Abraham Kuyper’s important book, Lectures on Calvinism, he writes:

The highest duty of the government remains therefore unchangeably that of justice, and in the second place it has to care for the people as a unit, partly at home, in order that its unity may grow even deeper and may not be disturbed, and partly abroad, lest the national existence suffer harm.”

Now Lou, we know you’re a smart guy and you’ve pointed out that the issues in regard to illegal immigration involve both justice and the safety of U.S. citizens, what you may not know is that it is precisely because of Romans 13 that Kuyper writes in this manner. So read more Kuyper and less Wallis and you may find out that even though Kuyper would choose Jesus over you there’s still a lot of common ground.

Respectfully,

We the Faithful