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Authors, sign in!While we're talking about wacko evangelicals, let's take a moment to discuss Dr. James Dobson, the homophobic, misogynistic founder of Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family. 
Dr. Dobson is not a friend of Senator McCain - some say that he loathes the republican nominee - but the good doctor took some time this week on his syndicated radio show to refrain from the usual topic of Bible-friendly child rearing advice and turn to presidential politics. Specifically, Dobson:
... took aim at examples Obama cited [in a 2006 speech] 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."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."Dobson's P.O.V. may be influential - if not entertaining. But Dobson has what my attorney friends call "a conflict of interest" for several reasons. Obama's 2006 speech on religious tolerance openly criticized Dobson and other so-called religious leaders:"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."
And even if we did have only Christians in our midst, if we expelled every non-Christian from the United States of America, whose Christianity would we teach in the schools? Would we go with James Dobson's, or Al Sharpton's? Which passages of Scripture should guide our public policy? Should we go with Leviticus, which suggests slavery is ok and that eating shellfish is abomination? How about Deuteronomy, which suggests stoning your child if he strays from the faith? Or should we just stick to the Sermon on the Mount - a passage that is so radical that it's doubtful that our own Defense Department would survive its application? So before we get carried away, let's read our bibles. Folks haven't been reading their bibles.Also, Dobson, as the founder and leader of a large for-profit entity, could earn big bucks by stirring up this mess - by writing books, taking donations, promoting and increasing interest in his lackluster syndicated radio show. He has said that he "could not in good conscience vote for McCain because of concerns over the Arizona senator's conservative credentials." So if he intends not to vote for president - as he has openly indicated - then this attack against Obama is purely for profit. Or power. Or both.
Regardless of this charlatan's hidden agenda, I am reminded of a bumpersticker from the early 1990s that advised right wing Christians to: "FOCUS ON YOUR OWN DAMN FAMILY."
Published June 26, 2008 by Henry Schwaller |
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Barack Obama
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