One of the top news stories of the past couple days has been Dobson’s attack on Barack Obama’s speech from 2 years ago. This whole thing has intriguiged me for 2 reasons:
- I would say a majority of young Christians either don’t know who Dobson is or they could careless about what he has to say. At the same time, many Christians value the opinions of Dobson greatly.
- Obama has a 50% chance of being the next President.
The news is that Dobson has accused Obama of dragging his confused theology into the political forefront. He also said that is he “dragging biblical understanding through the gutter.” Harsh words to say the least. In the speech, Obama was discussing how both liberal and conservative Christians can be a part of the political process without trying to mandate things illegal that they view as sin. The topic was and always will be a poignant one and I think Obama made a lot of great points.
Some great sources:
- Here is a good, informative, ABC News video on the story.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zyLrRr4FzQ&hl=en]
- Jim Wallis (undecided) has called Dobson’s words distorted.
- “The clear purpose of the show was to attack Barack Obama. On the show, Dobson says of himself, ‘I’m not a reverend. I’m not a minister. I’m not a theologian. I’m not an evangelist. I’m a psychologist. I have a Ph.D. in child development.'”
- Wallis said, “I have decided to respond to Dobson’s attacks. In most every case they are themselves clear distortions of what Obama said in that speech.”
- Scot McKnight (undecided) has also shared his thoughts and took part in a great conversation at Jesus Creed.
- “Dobson and his companion commentator routinely distorted what Obama was saying by rephrasing and capturing what he said in their own context and for their own agendas.”
- “What they miss here is that Obama is talking about how to live in a pluralistic society.”
My thoughts:
- Dobson’s criticism comes from a speech that Obama gave 2 years ago. It is one thing for a guy with no formal theological education to attack one man’s theology, but can’t we at least be current here. I’m not saying what Obama said 2 years ago shouldn’t count, but if he was truly upset about what Obama said then he should he said something earlier.
- One area where I will give Dobson credit is that he has come out with questions and areas that give him pause for both McCain and Obama. I don’t think he is being one sided which is nice to see.
- I don’t see how anything is accomplished here. Dobson has confused many Christians and put himself directly against the man who could be the leader of our country in 6 months.
- I think this whole thing is petty. It is fine for Dobson to not support Obama, but to nit pick on the details of a speech from so long ago seems very pointless.
I’d love to hear your thoughts, especially those who agree with what Dobson said.
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