Cal Thomas: Just as "Satan tempts to do what seems good," liberal churches promote "doctrine of salvation through works"

Media Matters

In his March 14 column, nationally syndicated columnist Cal Thomas attacked the "religious left" for attempting to "sway evangelicals into embracing its social agenda" and drew a parallel between "liberal churches" who preach "a doctrine of salvation through works" and Satan's "tempt[ing] to do what seems good."

From Thomas's March 14 column:

There is no biblical expectation that a "fallen" world can, should or will be improved prior to the return of the One to whom evangelicals are supposed to owe their complete allegiance.

[...]


The first description of Satan [in the Bible] is that he is "subtle." (Genesis 3:1) Another translation says "crafty." Satan tempts to do what seems good. Liberal churches have long believed in a doctrine of salvation through works, as if helping the poor was the chief responsibility of government and an end in itself, rather than a means for individuals to communicate the love of God to poor people.


Thomas was one of the few conservatives in the media for whom the Rev. Jerry Falwell thanked God in a December 2004 televised sermon. In his column, Thomas likened liberal efforts to convince evangelicals to embrace a "social agenda" to the "doomed" effort of the Moral Majority, which Falwell founded and with which Thomas "was associated in the 1980s," because "it distracts and dilutes the primary calling of evangelicals."

A book Thomas co-wrote with former Moral Majority official Ed Dobson, Blinded by Might: Why the Religious Right Can't Save America (Zondervan, 1999), claimed that the Moral Majority "failed from a legislative and judicial perspective" and argued that conservatives should "abandon attempts to win the culture war through electoral politics" because political engagement "corrupt[s] the evangelical church," according to a review in The Christian Century magazine.

Thomas's column is syndicated by Tribune Media Services. It is published in more than 540 newspapers, making him the most widely syndicated political columnist in the United States.