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."
Ok. I get it now. I don't know either way whether works are required for salvation or not. I can argue either way. The literature supports both views.
But I do know it seems awfully convenient for sanctimonious hate-mongers and ignoramuses like Cal Thomas to deny works-based faith and/or salvation because if he believed otherwise, then he and those finger-pointers like him would be laid bare for the world to see what greedy, hateful hypocritical fear-peddlers they really are.
I think Cal Thomas and homophobes like him take that position precisely BECAUSE it gets them off the hook for NOT doing good deeds for others. They can bask in the glow of their own personal salvation, made warmer by the heat they can spew on those not so lucky in the salvation department, castigating all those do-gooders into the pit for all eternity. Meanwhile, they can wipe their own addled consciene clean, proclaim themselves "saved," while they drive their fleeced SUVs with the dual-well DVD players to their country clubs and McChickFil'a Kings and complain about how liberals are destroying America.
Like I said, I can argue works are required, I can argue they're not. Reasonable people can disagree on this point. Reasonable people can think that works are not required for salvation but are a necessary part of evangelization and/or a pretty good thing to do NO MATTER WHAT THE MOTIVE.
What reasonable people CAN'T do is liken the other guys, the guys with whom they disagree, to Satan. Then you'd be Cal Thomas ya see, and, well, it's pretty clear he's not reasonable.
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