RAW MATERIALS: This week’s Obama / Dobson broughaha

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 Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers.”

2. Listen to Dobson’s June 23, 2008 broadcast about Obama’s speech here.

“Obviously, that is offensive to me,” Dr. Dobson says. “He’s deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own worldview, his own confused theology.”

3. Read the news reports and blogs. Some of the hundreds that hit the web are listed below with some key paragraphs.

Focus on Fruitcake: Dr. Dobson’s Half-Baked Recipe for Theocracy by Rob Boston
Americans United for Separation of Church and State

“Dobson’s broadcast makes one thing clear: He remains a “my-way-or-the-highway” guy. Dobson is as dogmatic as they come. On this morning’s broadcast, he comes dangerously close to saying that the views of Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus and other non-Christians can be safely discarded because they are in the minority.”

Deborah’s US Liberal Politics Blog – Deborah White

“But as brilliant Obama’s speech was, Dobson’s larger concern is decidedly not words uttered two years ago by the junior senator from Illinois. It’s about the political inroads Obama is making in 2008 with Republicans and younger evangelical Christians disenchanted with Bush administration dishonesties and failed policies, and with the narrow focus of older religious-right leaders as Dobson.”

US News and World Report Blog Buzz: Dobson, Obama – by Robert Schlesinger and Johannah Cornblatt

James Dobson tears into Obama, making WashMo’s Kevin Drum think that irking Dobson really isn’t very hard. Andrew Sullivan seems to think it’s not anger as much as fear, and other liberal bloggers agree. Hot Air’s Allahpundit manages to both brush off Dobson and criticize Obama. And Taylor Marsh thinks it’s the latest reason to bring back the Fairness Doctrine.

“James Dobson Rips Barack Obama” David Brody
Christian Broadcasting Network

During one part of the show Dobson said of Obama, “I think he is dragging biblical understanding through the gutter.”

Obama has spent a considerable amount of time reaching out to Christians. He has held conversations with everyone from T.D. Jakes to Max Lucado. His message has been warmly received by some and shunned by others who agree with Dobson.

‘Fruitcake’ Obama under fire from Christian right leader (AFP)

Hitting back at Obama’s courting of evangelical voters, Dobson highlighted a speech two years ago to religious leaders in which the Democrat said he could not outlaw abortion based on his own Christian beliefs.

“That is a fruitcake interpretation of the constitution,” Dobson said on a radio show aired by his Focus on the Family group.

“This is why we have elections, to support what we believe, to be wise and moral. We don’t have to go to the lowest common denominator of morality which is what he is suggesting,” he said.

“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 also hit out at Obama’s oft-stated mention of Old Testament passages that call for the stoning of homosexuals, to illustrate his point that the Bible is not always helpful to political discourse.

“That kind of commentary drives me crazy,” Dobson said. “He is dragging Biblical understanding through the gutter.”

4. Your turn. What do you think? Post your thoughts below.

Or you can comment at http://adventistforum.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/174386/James_Dobson_accuses_Obama_of_#Post174386