James Dobson Criticizes Obama

Traditionally, Republicans are the ones to court evangelical voters, who undoubtedly carried Bush to victory in 2000 and 2004. Now, however, the Republican Party’s perceived monopoly on morality is running out, and Barack Obama has a legitimate chance of gaining ground in the race for evangelical votes.

In his 2005 book, How the Republicans Stole Christmas, Bill Press argues that the Republican Party is on the wrong side of the moral issues that it puts at the forefront of its campaigns. Furthermore, he argues that it is time for Democrats to stop being afraid to talk about religion in public, and to frame the moral issues in such a way that better comport with Jesus’ teachings, instead of sitting idly while the Republican party lectures the electorate on its distorted view of morality.

There is no evidence that Barack Obama read Mr. Press’ book, but he is certainly taking the message to heart. He recently met with evangelical leaders in Chicago and, according to the Associated Press, his campaign is planning thousands of "American Values House Parties," where participants can discuss Obama and religion.

Also, as far back as two years ago, in a speech to the Christian group, A Call to Renewal, Obama perfectly highlighted the problem with putting religion in our public schools—a traditional Democratic viewpoint—when he asked the question, “Even if we did have only Christians in our midst, if we expelled every non-Christian from the United States of America, whose Christianity would we teach in the schools? Would we go with James Dobson’s or Al Sharpton’s?”

He didn’t stop there, later taking a stab at Focus on the Family’s notion that the Bible should guide public policy, saying that the current Defense Department wouldn’t be able to survive the application of Jesus’ teachings in the Sermon on the Mount.

Not used to political candidates attacking him on the very issues on which he claims there can be no moral debate, James Dobson, head of Focus on the Family, is quite upset. In a radio announcement that spanned more than 18 minutes, Dobson took issue with Obama’s statements, saying that the senator is “deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own worldview, his own confused theology.” He also claimed Obama had a “fruitcake interpretation” of the Constitution.

First, it should be noted that Dobson has no legal training and really has no place talking about the interpretation of the Constitution to Barack Obama—a lawyer—any more than he should be lecturing Stephen Hawking on theoretical physics. Secondly, Republican leaders who are self-proclaimed Christians—such as George Bush—have too long gotten a free pass on avoiding the question of exactly how their policies comport with Jesus’ commands in the New Testament. Perhaps it’s because those policies are not even close to anything Jesus would have condoned.

Even a cursory review of morality as it relates to Jesus’ teachings shows the utter failure of the president in conforming his time in office to the Christian religion that he says guides him in his everyday life. “Blessed are the peacemakers,” “Love your enemies,” Turn the other cheek,” and “Do to others as you would have them do to you” are all hard to reconcile with starting a war that has killed over 100,000 people. There are other moral issues, of course, that could spawn an endless discussion on how the president has been a horrible ambassador of Christianity.

So, if James Dobson wants to lecture Barack Obama on morality, he should think twice. Obama is apparently ready and willing to talk to the American people about morality. That, in turn, will leave Dobson in an awkward position—trying to defend the morality of nearly ten years of Republican policies that are increasingly becoming indefensible.

James Dobson

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