ClydeR
06-26-2008, 05:40 PM
Dr. James Dobson, head of Focus on the Family, called Obama a fruitcake earlier this week because of Obama's radical attempt to reinterpret the Bible to suite Obama's needs.
It all started back in 2006 when Obama said (http://obama.senate.gov/speech/060628-call_to_renewal/) that the United States is not an exclusively Christian nation. Obama's view on that subject is not consistent with the commonly accepted understanding of American history. Plus, the percentage of people in this country who follow a religion other than Christianity is miniscule. Compounding his heresy, Obama continued to misinterpret the Bible.
Obama
For some time now, there has been plenty of talk among pundits and pollsters that the political divide in this country has fallen sharply along religious lines. Indeed, the single biggest "gap" in party affiliation among white Americans today is not between men and women, or those who reside in so-called Red States and those who reside in Blue, but between those who attend church regularly and those who don't.
Conservative leaders have been all too happy to exploit this gap, consistently reminding evangelical Christians that Democrats disrespect their values and dislike their Church, while suggesting to the rest of the country that religious Americans care only about issues like abortion and gay marriage; school prayer and intelligent design.
Democrats, for the most part, have taken the bait. At best, we may try to avoid the conversation about religious values altogether, fearful of offending anyone and claiming that - regardless of our personal beliefs - constitutional principles tie our hands. At worst, there are some liberals who dismiss religion in the public square as inherently irrational or intolerant, insisting on a caricature of religious Americans that paints them as fanatical, or thinking that the very word "Christian" describes one's political opponents, not people of faith.
*****
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.
Dr. Dobson learned of Obama's 2006 remarks recently and wasted no time (http://www.citizenlink.org/clspecialalert/A000007665.cfm) in correcting the record. "I think he's deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own worldview, his own confused theology." That stuff in Leviticus was a Jewish dietetic law and has no relevance to Christians. Dobson also noted that there is no equivalence between him and Al Sharpton. Dobson has a Ph.D. in child psychology. Sharpton has a high school diploma. Dobson also forcefully objected to the idea that citizens cannot decide how to vote and what laws to support based on their religious beliefs.
Dobson
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? What he's trying to say here is, unless everybody agrees, we have no right to fight for what we believe.
What the senator is saying there, in essence, is that I can't seek to pass legislation, for example, that bans partial-birth abortion, because there are people in the culture who don't see that as a moral issue.
And if I can't get everyone to agree with me, than it is undemocratic to try to pass legislation that I find offensive to the Scripture. Now, that is a fruitcake interpretation of the Constitution.
Voters need to know about Obama's extreme views. The mainstream media is not showing it on their broadcasts.
It all started back in 2006 when Obama said (http://obama.senate.gov/speech/060628-call_to_renewal/) that the United States is not an exclusively Christian nation. Obama's view on that subject is not consistent with the commonly accepted understanding of American history. Plus, the percentage of people in this country who follow a religion other than Christianity is miniscule. Compounding his heresy, Obama continued to misinterpret the Bible.
Obama
For some time now, there has been plenty of talk among pundits and pollsters that the political divide in this country has fallen sharply along religious lines. Indeed, the single biggest "gap" in party affiliation among white Americans today is not between men and women, or those who reside in so-called Red States and those who reside in Blue, but between those who attend church regularly and those who don't.
Conservative leaders have been all too happy to exploit this gap, consistently reminding evangelical Christians that Democrats disrespect their values and dislike their Church, while suggesting to the rest of the country that religious Americans care only about issues like abortion and gay marriage; school prayer and intelligent design.
Democrats, for the most part, have taken the bait. At best, we may try to avoid the conversation about religious values altogether, fearful of offending anyone and claiming that - regardless of our personal beliefs - constitutional principles tie our hands. At worst, there are some liberals who dismiss religion in the public square as inherently irrational or intolerant, insisting on a caricature of religious Americans that paints them as fanatical, or thinking that the very word "Christian" describes one's political opponents, not people of faith.
*****
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.
Dr. Dobson learned of Obama's 2006 remarks recently and wasted no time (http://www.citizenlink.org/clspecialalert/A000007665.cfm) in correcting the record. "I think he's deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own worldview, his own confused theology." That stuff in Leviticus was a Jewish dietetic law and has no relevance to Christians. Dobson also noted that there is no equivalence between him and Al Sharpton. Dobson has a Ph.D. in child psychology. Sharpton has a high school diploma. Dobson also forcefully objected to the idea that citizens cannot decide how to vote and what laws to support based on their religious beliefs.
Dobson
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? What he's trying to say here is, unless everybody agrees, we have no right to fight for what we believe.
What the senator is saying there, in essence, is that I can't seek to pass legislation, for example, that bans partial-birth abortion, because there are people in the culture who don't see that as a moral issue.
And if I can't get everyone to agree with me, than it is undemocratic to try to pass legislation that I find offensive to the Scripture. Now, that is a fruitcake interpretation of the Constitution.
Voters need to know about Obama's extreme views. The mainstream media is not showing it on their broadcasts.