To help understand what’s going on between Focus on the Family’s Dr. James Dobson and Presidential Candidate Barack Obama, we have assembled the raw materials and news stories about the subject. 1. Read Obama’s Speech from June 28, 2006 “Whatever we once were, we are no longer just a Christian nation; we are also a…
Category: Current Events
“A Call To Renewal” – Barack Obama on the Role of Religion in Public Life
BARACK OBAMA TRANSCRIPT: ‘Call to Renewal’ Keynote Address Wednesday, June 28, 2006 Washington, DC Good morning. I appreciate the opportunity to speak here at the Call to Renewal‘s Building a Covenant for a New America conference. I’ve had the opportunity to take a look at your Covenant for a New America. It is filled with…
Dobson says Obama has “fruitcake interpretation” of the Constitution and is distorting Bible; still won’t vote for McCain
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO – In a soon-to-be-aired episode of his non-profit, tax-exempt radio program “Focus on the Family,” Dr. James Dobson accuses Barack Obama of pandering to the “lowest common demoninator of morality” with his “fruitcake interpretation” of the U.S. Constitution and distortion of the Bible. “Am I required in a democracy to conform my…
Marriage Amendment: In California, your state constitutional rights are in the hands of your neighbors
There has been much discussion about the California ballot initiative that would ban same-sex marriages from a moral / social / religious perspective, but not much about the concept of overturning court decisions by majority vote. Vikram David Amar at Findlaw writes in a post entitled, “The California Supreme Court’s Gay Marriage Opinion: The People…
Associated Press reports: Everything seemingly is spinning out of control
Alan Fram and Eileen Putnam today published an article through the Associated Press that has perhaps the most dire headline I have ever read from a mainstream newspaper. Sure, conspiracy theorists often spin these kinds of stories, but the Associated Press? Gas prices, the housing market, Iran building nukes, the war in Iraq, a heat…
Manifest Destiny and the Momentum of Empire: Making Sense of America’s Global War on Terrorism
By Gregory W. Hamilton Today there are two significant global movements that enjoy a symbiotic relationship. The first involves America’s accelerated role as the world’s propagator of democratic values, and as a matter of national and international security the world’s enforcer of those values. The second is the not-so-obvious rapid global expansion of Christianity, a…
Pastors Challenge the IRS: Using the Pulpit to Promote Candidates
During this hotly contested election year, some church pastors are deliberately promoting candidates, knowing that the Internal Revenue Service could remove their tax-exempt status as the result. In Minnesota, Pastor Gus Booth, of the Warroad Community Church, not only promoted a candidate, but wrote to the Internal Revenue Service, told them what he was doing,…
California Supreme Court to Decide A Case Where Medical Rights v. Workplace Religious Freedom
Soon after issuing its opinion that gay marriage cannot be prohibited under the Constitution, the California Supreme Court is about to issue a ruling in a case where a physician declined to provide fertilization services on a lesbian (unmarried) couple, but referred them to another clinic that did provide the service on the basis that…
Religious Freedom Problems Growing in Indonesia (UPI)
Although the Constitution of Indonesia provides for the freedom of religion and belief since 2000, these freedoms have been increasingly restricted. In an article published today, Dr. Philip Setunga, a staff member of the Asian Human Rights Commission in Hong Kong, reports on Indonesia’s issues at: http://upiasiaonline.com/Human_Rights/2008/06/10/religious_freedom_not_secure_in_indonesia/8244/
OPINION: Courtship of religion complicates McCain and Obama campaigns
In an opinion piece published June 9 by Robert Novak, Novak describes the difficulty McCain has had winning the votes of religious right icons such as James Dobson and John Hagee and Catholics. Hagee, of course, has alienated Catholics with his description of Catholicism as “Godless theology,” something that McCain couldn’t abide, and Hagee has…