Blinded by Cal Thomas

https://calthomas.com/2026/05/to-the-complainers/

Readers will know I do not hold Cal Thomas in high regard but I do remain frequently baffled by the fact that his name is associated with 'retreatism' or Christians getting out of politics. Because he (kind of sort of) disavowed the Moral Majority, people act like he's a Two Kingdoms guy or almost like Anabaptist or something.

He simply warned against the Church selling out to a political agenda because as an insider he saw what it did to people and the kind compromise it generated.

And so his solution is to sound the warning - and then proceed as if he said virtually nothing. He continues to this day (now in his 80's) advocating Right-wing positions and with great vigour at that. The obvious conclusion is that despite whatever he said, he has not been able to connect what he found in Scripture with how to live and think.

In fact, his thinking demonstrates the kind of seared-conscience and hypocrisy that I associate with those under judgment. His thinking is unethical and unbiblical at almost every turn.

For example, this recent editorial appeared in a local paper. Thomas lambasts the

whiners and complainers and argues that there should be more unity among Americans.

Ultimately the editorial was little more than a defense of Trump and Trumpism and his deceitful and murderous war against Iran. Thomas repeats the lies and the propaganda-talking points.

Of course when Democrats are in power and there are national struggles or a need to suffer through some episode of difficulty, does Thomas start talking about the so-called Greatest Generation and the struggles of the Depression and how people came together and suffered patiently? Hardly. Like the FOX personalities, he goes after them, attacking from every angle.

Does Trumpism support neighbourliness when we have a bunch of people half unhinged and armed with F-word flags in their yards?

If he wants to decry the breakdown in social consensus and the crudity of today's relations - then by all means do so. But he needs to start with the FOX channel and the Christian Right who are as guilty as anyone else. I don't seem him doing that.

There was no imminent threat from Iran. This war was started by the United States and Israel. They are the aggressors and it hasn't gone well and so Cal Thomas is coming to the rescue by spinning events and doing damage control. Trump tore up the JCPOA. There was no immediate threat that Iran was going to acquire a nuclear weapon. Thomas is lying and simply repeating the Trump-FOX talking points. The Strait of Hormuz was not shut down until Trump started bombing. Iran is defending itself and its interests wielding the only weapons it has.

And as previously stated, all the fools who thought that US energy independence would somehow exempt US energy prices from global market forces have now found out they were completely wrong - as many tried to tell them.

Thomas falls into a curmudgeonly denunciation of American society - fine, American society is in a state of deterioration. Who's going to argue with that? But again - who is to blame? I blame the Right just as much as the Left, if these distinctions even matter on this point. Though he's in his eighties, he hasn't been able to figure out the problem with US society is that America is a militarist empire and its ruled by mammonism. It's ideology has collapsed under its own weight and its great wealth and power has produced decadence and is now highly self-destructive. The economic system he and others within the Christian Right continue to advocate for is not Christian and is in fact subversive to the Christian faith - especially when it is (in heretical fashion) synthesized with Christian theology and ethics.
This point is further emphasized by his wistful remembrance (and fantasy) about the end of World War II and 'good' defeating 'evil' as well as the supposed virtue of 1950's suburban culture and its prosperity. It demonstrates the meagerness of his thinking and the shallow nature of his reflection. In addition he seems to miss the spiritual implications and dangers of that culture - and it's something we are still living with today.

Does he want to talk about punky teenagers and young people?

Sure, there's some bad actors in the inner city but I also see plenty of trouble-making types that are MAGA to the bone. It goes both ways.

There are fraudsters at every level in society and some of the worst are in the Church and running para-church organisations. He should know that but has chosen not see what's right in front of his face.

Is Anti-Semitism on the rise? Well, most of the true ideological and historic types of Anti-Semitism are rooted in Right-wing ideology. I don't consider Anti-Zionism and Anti-Likud sentiment to be Anti-Semitism. Do some Islamic protesters also exhibit some Anti-Semitic tendencies? Perhaps, but again this is largely inseparable from Israel and its genocidal policies.

If the police have lost respect (and thus standing) in terms of their authority - they are to blame. I find most 'conservative' Americans to be pretty clueless about the true nature of the police and how they (and the judiciary) operate in this country. It's a complicated situation that also involves the flawed way in which US civil and constitutional law operates and relies on lawsuits and litigation. This has unleashed the lawyers which in turn creates a nightmarish bureaucratic labyrinth and endless attempts to block and circumvent procedure. It ties hands and everyone is frustrated.

Thomas blames the 'modern' values of the 1960's and thus demonstrates his obliviousness to the real sociological meaning of World War II and the watershed it represented, as well as the crisis of hypocrisy it spawned. People like Thomas don't seem to understand that wars change things and lead to the redress of fundamental questions. He thinks everyone just came home and started living the good life. He also thinks in the short term and fails to grasp how ideas take a little time to work themselves out and into circulation and application.

The rebellion of the 1960's didn't just emerge at the end of the decade. There was a great deal leading up to it (decades of tensions in fact) and that generation was wrestling with what America was and represented as well as the meaning of World War II - and all while they were watching the atrocities being committed by the US in Vietnam and eventually all of Indochina. They saw their parents wallowing in the golden cages of suburban decadence while their nation was segregating and lynching Blacks as well as killing Asians. These things are (it would seem) too deep for the likes of Thomas and his pedestrian commentary.

He pays lip service to 'civil rights' but has no context for anything he says. All he really wants to do is shame people into standing by Trump and his evil wars and to shut up about the economic effects of his illegal and reckless policies. This is (according to Thomas) the Christian way to think - as if he knows what that is or can distinguish it in any real sense from American values and culture.

He wants people to stop whining. What we need is for people like Cal Thomas to stop speaking. Go celebrate your empire and your worldly glory but don't darken the door of the Church. You have no business assembling with the people of God.

His commentary has no wit or wisdom and never has. This latest installment was little more than a smoke and mirrors effort to detract from the wicked deeds and consequences of the fascistic ruler Evangelicals like Thomas have sold their soul to.