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James Dobson Doesn't Speak For Me Print E-mail
Tuesday, 24 June 2008
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dobson_speaks.jpgFor whatever reason, James Dobson decided to comment yesterday on a speech Barack Obama gave in 2006. Not surprisingly, James Dobson doesn't speak for me. (Again).

From James Dobson Doesn't Speak For Me:

James Dobson doesn't speak for me.

He doesn't speak for me when he uses religion as a wedge to divide;

He doesn't speak for me when he speaks as the final arbiter on the meaning of the Bible;

James Dobson doesn't speak for me when he uses the beliefs of others as a line of attack;

He doesn't speak for me when he denigrates his neighbor's views when they don't line up with his;

He doesn't speak for me when he seeks to confine the values of my faith to two or three issues alone;

What does speak for me is David's psalm celebrating how good and pleasant it is when we come together in unity;

Micah speaks for me in reminding us that the Lord requires us to act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with Him;

The prophet Isaiah speaks for me in his call for all to come and reason together and also to seek justice, encourage the oppressed and to defend the cause of the vulnerable;

The book of Nehemiah speaks for me in its example to work with our neighbors, not against them, to restore what was broken in our communities;

The book of Matthew speaks for me in saying to bless those that curse you and pray for those who persecute you;

The words of the apostle Paul speak for me in saying that words spoken and deeds done without love amount to nothing.

The apostle John speaks for me in reminding us of Jesus' command to love one another. The world will know His disciples by that love.

Comments
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laryn - Wallis on Dobson     | 153.106.136.xxx | Jun 25, 2008 (13:04:51)
Jim Wallis:
Quote:

...
I haven't endorsed a candidate, but I do defend them when they are attacked in disingenuous ways, and this is one of those cases. You can read Obama's two-year-old speech, [audio link] which was widely publicized at the time, and you can see that Dobson either didn't understand it or is deliberately distorting it. There are two major problems with Dobson's attack on Obama.
...
laryn - More to faith than Dobson   | 153.106.136.xxx | Jun 25, 2008 (16:24:03)
Faithful America:
Quote:

The cable news networks need to learn there's a lot more to faith than James Dobson. Bringing up Dr. Dobson's controversial political attacks almost 200 times in one day is not responsible coverage of American religion.

As the new survey from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life shows, American religion is extremely diverse. MSNBC, CNN and Fox News must stop giving disproportionate attention to James Dobson's divisive comments and start portraying an accurate picture of faith in America.
laryn - McKnight on Dobson on Obama   | 153.106.136.xxx | Jun 25, 2008 (20:42:34)
Scot McKnight:

Quote:
...My big point is that Dobson is doing Christians, evangelical Christians, and the country a disservice in misrepresenting the intent of Obama?s comments.

Look, this is not about my defense of Obama for President; I still don?t know who I will vote for. This is about public civility and discourse, and we?ll never get anywhere if we don?t represent the other person accurately.
laryn - Dobson vs. Obama   | 153.106.136.xxx | Jun 28, 2008 (11:44:44)
Peter Wehner in the Washington Post:

Quote:

Dobson's judgment was based on Obama's keynote address at a "Call to Renewal" conference on June 28, 2006. In fact, this speech was impressive in many respects. As an evangelical and conservative who has deep concerns about Obama's policies and political philosophy, I nonetheless welcome such a statement by a leading Democrat.

For one thing, Obama took on liberals "who dismiss religion in the public square as inherently irrational or intolerant" and "caricature religious Americans ... as fanatical." He went on to say: "Secularists are wrong when they ask believers to leave their religion at the door before entering into the public square.... To say that men and women should not inject their 'personal morality' into public policy debates is a practical absurdity. Our law is by definition a codification of our morality, much of which is grounded in the Judeo-Christian tradition."
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So Obama was doing what people like Dobson have long urged: making the public square more hospitable for people of faith and calling for a halt to their demonization. Obama made his case in ways I found to be respectful and authentic.
...
There are certainly reasons for evangelicals to have concerns about Obama -- based on his extreme views on abortion, judicial nominees, Iraq (his plans for a precipitous withdrawal would probably trigger mass death and perhaps even genocide) and other issues. But critics of Obama have an obligation to provide a fair and honest critique, and the attacks leveled by Dobson fall terribly short of that standard.

If Christian conservatives want to be taken seriously, they need to make serious arguments and speak with intellectual integrity. In this instance, Dobson didn't. He has set back his cause and made some of us who are evangelicals and conservatives wince.
laryn - Is Dobson's Obama Hit Backfir   | 153.106.136.xxx | Jun 28, 2008 (11:59:40)
Is Dobson's Obama Hit Backfiring? (Amy Sullivan in Time)
Quote:

After years of attacking Democrats with relative impunity for their supposed moral failings, Evangelical leader James Dobson surely didn't expect to suffer much of a backlash when he trained his sights on Barack Obama. Over the years, the party had practically cowered in fear and gone into radio silence when the head of Focus on the Family targeted one of its standard-bearers. So in a campaign that has already proved to be anything but predictable, the counterattack on Dobson this week epitomized the new, fraught political climate that Christian Right leaders like himself face.
jeff     | 24.187.98.xxx | Sep 26, 2008 (15:58:10)
It's really annoying how people assume power and deem themselves as the one that talks for a group of people...great post
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Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved.

 
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