(AP) COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - 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.
(But wait ... it gets better!)
Dobson took aim at 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.
Dobson accused Obama of wrongly equating Old Testament texts and dietary codes that no longer apply to Jesus' teachings in the New Testament.
"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."
(As opposed to the grand old tradition of selective literalism which allows the reader to declare some bits 'THE WORDS OF GOD' (like, oh say Leviticus 18 and Romans 1) and other bits "confused theology" (like the over 2000 passages about poverty.)
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I'm just stunned by those comments. Where is the love? I just watched the film "The Bible Tells Me So" and there too I was stunned by the viciousness of the attacks by those who oppose equality for all people....what is Mr. Dobson so afraid of?
ReplyDeleteOh, my. DOBSON is accusing ANYONE else of distorting the Bible?
ReplyDeleteMy head is about to explode from the force of the irony.
If I may paraphrase Still-President Bush, "Bring it on." This is a conversation this country HAS to have. Dobson and his ilk have gotten away for too long with just saying "The Bible says..." to a credulous, religiously illiterate media without offering any kind of substantive exegesis and deliberately ignoring all manner of context. The Christian mainstream has been trying to get our cry of, "Not so fast!" heard for years, but we haven't had a big enough bully-pulpit from which to shout it. Thank God we finally have a Democratic presidential candidate who can eloquently and accurately respond to the lunatic right's perverted, narrow assertions about the so-called "Christian worldview" and their spurious views of American history and government.
ReplyDeleteAnd amazingly, there are still people who insist Obama is a Muslim.
Great photo! I posted about this too.
ReplyDeleteIt blows my mind when I hear Dobson speak of "traditional" interpretation of the Bible.
Really now?!
Like Roberta, I too thought of "For The Bible Tells Me So" and so much other sad and divisive words that flows from that source.
It is so hard to pray for and attempt any kind of - well anything - in cases like they.
That whole loving my enemies is a challenging business indeed.
I didn't think my opinion of Dobson could go any lower - until I saw "For the Bible Tells Me So." Sadly, too many people think that all Christians believe what Dobson believes.
ReplyDeleteApt metaphor for Dobson, a fruitcake.
ReplyDelete