James Dobson believes that if you don’t agree with his interpretation of the Bible then you are distorting the Bible. Unfortunately, for Mr. Dobson, God didn’t give him the power of infinite wisdom or insight. I guess Love thy Neighbor means we all must think and believe what Dobson believes.
BTW, the speech that Dobson has his panties in a twist over was given over 2 years ago. The speech was on religious tolerance. No wonder Dobson is so upset. We (or rather he) can’t have religious tolerance because that would put him out of business. Focus on the Family is all about intolerance.
Update: I found this excellent post on Kos from a moderate Christian coalition called Matthew 25.
From WaPo:
Dobson’s comments, which aired today on his Focus on the Family radio show, come as Obama’s campaign plans to launch a broad appeal to evangelicals and Catholics.
Dobson and Tim Minnery, a senior vice president at Focus on the Family, spent about 20 minutes of the show harshly critiquing a speech that Obama gave in 2006 to a group of liberal Christian leaders.
In the speech, Obama argues for religious diversity and acceptance and prods liberals not to cede issues of faith to Republicans. (more…)
James Dobsmedinijad.
Clever. I like it!! He is unyielding.
One of the reasons that evangelicals have voted Republican when progressive policies are clearly in their own best interest is the conflict of the absolute authority of a person’s religion vs. the pleuralistic ideas of the Democratic Party. It is a complicated dilemma: if our God is always right, how can someone else’s God be right too?! The dual ideas of human faith and humane governance can be disturbingly hard to reconcile, especially for those like James Dobson who dismiss anyone who doesn’t believe as they do.
Last night at an Obama meet-up party here in conservative, rural East Texas, I heard people of strong religious convictions from all races, socioeconomic levels and walks of life say they are supporting Barak Obama because he is smart, intelligent, rational, makes sense, supports science, supports education, talks straight, understands the world. I was overjoyed to think that the anti-intellectualism, religious intolerance and rabid nationalism we have seen during the Bush administration might be coming to an end.
The task of putting our faith into practice rather than using it as a tool of exclusion is our most important work. God is bigger than all of this. It’s time to see things from a God’s eye view and recognize the values we have in common: kindness, family, children, health, hard work, sharing, education, Nature, research, the elderly, etc. I believe this election is our chance to make God–every God–proud.
Wow. Anne, that is remarkable. When I left East Texas, 3 years ago, I didn’t think I could find 4 liberals, total. I remember a black worker in housekeeping brag to me that he voted for Bush. I also remember seeing a MD who are making over million per year complian about taxes. He completely rejected the idea that the state had anything to do with his success. So, y’all have come a long way. Congrats!!!