<p>Good post, mazatl. I am a conservative Christian, but do not feel much kinship with these groups. I have several comments.</p>
<p>First, analogies between spiritual struggle and warfare are Biblical, as is the concept of spiritual dominion; Dobson et al. didn’t come up with that symbolism themselves so I don’t think you should fault them for that. Second, I believe their ideological flaw lies not in this concept per se, but rather in the way they envision the battle being won and the “dominion” being achieved. They seem to think it will happen by overrunning secular organizations with people who think like they do. How do they propose to do this? Well, if they homeschool their children, the kids will be shielded from other viewpoints and religions and therefore will be more likely to become just like them. They can add new soldiers to the army, so to speak. Along that same line, some of these groups think they should have a dozen kids to further the expansion of Christian thought by biological means. They also think that by establishing religious organizations, or working to restore prayer to schools and the Ten Commandment plaques to courtrooms and other similar activities, they are staving off the encroachment of non-Christian thought and behavior. Also, they hope to change society by maneuvering Christians into positions of power and influence, including political power.</p>
<p>I see the process working differently. If Christians do the job God gave them to do, which is to tell everyone the good news of salvation through Jesus’s sacrifice, then God will work in people’s hearts to hear that gospel and believe it, and people’s lives will be changed as a result. When that happens to enough people, society will change too as a natural matter of course. Christians’ main job is not to fight secularism directly by picketing, petitioning, arguing or having lots of Christian babies, though those things can be fine. The battle is a spiritual one–it isn’t a fight against people, against unbelievers. The Bible says the war is not against flesh and blood, rather spiritual powers and dominions. So Christians don’t need to use earthly tools to force their viewpoints on anyone to carry out our mission. That’s not loving and it doesn’t even work.</p>