Dobson v. Obama

Let the battle of the the Evangelicals v. the Presidential Candidates begin!

As Barack Obama broadens his outreach to evangelical voters, one of the movement's biggest names, James Dobson, accuses the likely Democratic presidential nominee of distorting the Bible and pushing a "fruitcake interpretation" of the Constitution.

Personally, I think Barack Obama is one of the wishy-washiest Christians I've seen in a long-time so I'm more than willing to listen to what Dr. Dobson has to say on the subject.

It seems Dobson's criticism surrounds remarks that Obama has made over the past 2 years, including the following remarks made during a speech in 2006:

"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?" Obama said. "Would we go with James Dobson's or Al Sharpton's?" referring to the civil rights leader.

... 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.

Seems to me that Barack hasn't been reading his Bible either. Just because Evangelical Christians believe in the literal interpretation of scripture does not mean we believe slavery is acceptable. However, slavery was ok in the old testiment. Slavery was legal in THIS country until 1865. Thankfully, one righteous President and thousands of honorable men gave their lives to end slavery in the United States and I'm even more thankful that Jesus came and shed his blood so that we don't have to live under the law of the Old Testiment, which permitted slavery.

Dobson agrees,

"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."

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."

You can read the rest of the article here or listen to Dr. Dobson's radio broadcast (for Tuesday, June 24) which discusses Barack Obama HERE (just click on daily broadcast).