Cal’s Fiery Nether Regions

Sorry to be so blunt, but Cal Thomas is a liar.

He may be a good guy.  He’s made as much in God’s image as I am.  But he’s still a liar.

I’m referring specifically to a column that Cal wrote on Hillary Clinton’s faith.  It’s a response to an excellent New York Times rundown of how Christianity has shaped Hillary’s life and political views. 

The purpose of the column is to expose Hillary’s faith as something less than truly Christian.  Too bad Cal has to distort reality to prove his point.

Cal’s first mistake (though presumably not a lie) is thinking he knows something about theology.  Because Hillary connects faith and social responsibility, Cal tut-tuts that she must be a heretical believer in “works salvation.”  He has no idea what he’s talking about, as actual (rather than make-believe) theologian Robin Lovin demonstrates here.

Cal soon sheds the plausible deniability of bad intentions, though.  To prove that Hillary is committed to a “strictly ‘social gospel’” — which, to Cal, means a gospel concerned only with public issues and not faith in Christ — he quotes a passage saying she was a guest speaker at an adult Sunday school class that often addressed nonreligious topics.  Too bad Cal omitted the sentences that immediately followed:

But [at these classes] Mrs. Clinton took on more spiritual concerns.  “She said, ‘I don’t want to talk about public issues,’” recalled Nancy Wood, a longtime friend from the church. “‘I want to talk about our faith and how it plays out in the every day.’”

Pants on fire, Cal.

He proceeds to define Hillary’s “liberal faith” in a false and insulting way, claiming it “jettisons the life-changing message of salvation, forgiveness of sins and a transformed life.”

Hillary’s faith jettisons all that personal stuff, huh Cal?  I guess he skipped the opening paragraphs of the article to which he is ostensibly responding:

Long before her beliefs would be tested in the most wrenching of ways as first lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton taught an adult Sunday school class on the importance of forgiveness. It is a lesson, she says, that she has harked back to often.

“We all have things that oftentimes we’re upset about, or ashamed of, or feel guilty over, and so many people carry these enormous burdens around,” Mrs. Clinton said in a recent interview. “One of the great gifts of faith is to let it go.”

It must be getting hot down there for Cal.

In building his case, Cal also pretends he didn’t see Sojourners’ recent forum on faith and politics (never mind that he wrote a column about it) where Hillary, in discussing her personal troubles, said: “At those moments in time when you’re tested, it is absolutely essential that you be grounded in your faith.”  Hillary expressed gratitude for the “prayer warriors” who “sustained” her in dark days.

Are these the words of a woman who doesn’t believe in the individual aspects of faith?  Of course not.  But inconvenient facts aren’t a concern for Cal.

Perhaps his most stunningly offensive comment comes when he responds to Hillary’s assertion that she believes in the resurrection but isn’t sure whether Christianity is the only way to attain salvation.  Behold Cal’s breathtaking rebuttal: “This is a politician speaking, not a person who believes in the central tenets of Christianity.” 

Kudos to Cal: he has successfully disproved the existence of Hillary’s faith — to anyone, that is, who lacks both a brain and access to Google, which shows that Cal’s blessed George W. Bush — whose faith he has never impugned — has said the exact same thing, though in even stronger terms:

Question: “Do we all worship the same God, Christians and Muslims?”
Bush: “I think we do. We have different routes of getting to the Almighty.”

Question: “Do Christian and non-Christians, do Muslims go to heaven in your mind?”

Bush: “Yes they do.  We have different routes of getting there.”

And look who else says the same thing: 68% of born again Christians, 83% of other Protestants, and 91% of Catholics.

So let’s see that column from Cal Thomas assailing President Bush as someone who doesn’t “believe in the central tenets of Christianity.”  Let’s see Cal Thomas express utter contempt for the majority of American evangelicals.

Of course, we won’t see such a column, because Cal doesn’t believe in fighting fair.  No, Cal Thomas is a liar.

Update: I just discovered Pastor Dan’s even more scathing response to Cal the Theologian’s column.  Definitely worth a read.

Jesse welcomes comments at jesse [at] faithfuldemocrats.com.