Monday, June 23, 2008

Dr. Dobson's Guns A-blazin'

Dr. Dobson, a favorite of many Focus on the Family and Christian radio listeners (rock on Life 102.5!), had some harsh words about Obama.
Dobson took aim at examples Obama cited in asking which Biblical passages should guide public policy - chapters like Leviticus, which Obama said suggests slavery is OK and eating shellfish is an abomination, or Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, “a passage that is so radical that it’s doubtful that our own Defense Department would survive its application.”

“Folks haven’t been reading their Bibles,” Obama said.

Dobson and Minnery accused Obama of wrongly equating Old Testament texts and dietary codes that no longer apply to Jesus’ teachings in the New Testament.

“I think he’s deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own worldview, his own confused theology,” Dobson said.

“… He is dragging biblical understanding through the gutter.”
As a person of faith, I don't understand the Bile completely, and Lord knows I haven't read the whole thing. (Sorry, Lord.) But Dr. Dobson is busting out some serious criticism, and I wonder how much impact it will really have in the faith community.
Joshua DuBois, director of religious affairs for Obama’s campaign, said in a statement that a full reading of Obama’s speech shows he is committed to reaching out to people of faith and standing up for families. “Obama is proud to have the support of millions of Americans of faith and looks forward to working across religious lines to bring our country together,” DuBois said.

Dobson reserved some of his harshest criticism for Obama’s argument that the religiously motivated must frame debates over issues like abortion not just in their own religion’s terms but in arguments accessible to all people.

He said Obama, who supports abortion rights, is trying to govern by the “lowest common denominator of morality,” labeling it “a fruitcake interpretation of the Constitution.”

“Am I required in a democracy to conform my efforts in the political arena to his bloody notion of what is right with regard to the lives of tiny babies?” Dobson said. “What he’s trying to say here is unless everybody agrees, we have no right to fight for what we believe.”
Perhaps that argument fits in with Obama's "sitting down with terrorists at the table of diplomacy" idea. He's a people pleaser. And didn't that kill the Democratic party to begin with?

They can't be all things to all people. So quit being afraid to offend people. Dobson sure isn't!

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