Dobson V. Obama: The Battle Begins
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.
- 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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Tyler Braun.
Well, let me first say that I haven’t heard the entirety of either the Obama speech or Dobson’s comments, only bits and pieces of each. I’m going to listen to both and then maybe I’ll have more to say.
That being said, I did want to touch on your 1st point. I disagree that most young Christians don’t know who Dobson is. I don’t know what your definition of “young” is, but I’m 20 and I know who he is. I just checked with my 16 year old sister and so does she. Most of my Christian friends do. Obviously, that’s a really small sample and not the least bit scientific. But my point being, most young-ish Christians I know are familiar with Dobson.
I took an American federal government course my freshman year, and for one assignment we had to read two opposing arguments on gay marriage from on-line articles. The “conservative” argument was from Focus on the Family’s web site. So I’d argue that a lot of young non-Christians are at least a little familiar with him as well.
I do, however, agree with you that most young Christian’s couldn’t care less what Dobson has to say. I don’t care. I grew up listening to these Focus on the Family commercials on our local Christian radio station, and even as a really young girl I didn’t think anything he had to say was particularly interesting or helpful to say. Other people might disagree, but I don’t think he has a lot to say that is particularly relevant or helpful for me.
I like what Laura had to say here: http://texasinafrica.blogspot.com/2008/06/couldnt-have-said-it-better.html
Maybe I worded that wrong Lindsey. What I meant was that I thought most young Christians either didn’t know him or didn’t care what he said. I do think a lot of “young” people know who he is, but many of those (like you) who do know him, don’t think he has much that applies to how they think. Hopefully that makes sense.
i think anyone who knows who dobson is probably could have guessed what he thinks of obama.
good point.
What floored me was that he told the news he was going to be talking about Obama. He should have planned what he wanted to say a lot better. I agree Dobson twisted much of what was said. He chose his words poorly.
While I have my concerns this didn’t do anyone any favors.
Tyler,
Great post. I’m so glad people are talking about this issue.
I’m pretty tired of some major evangelical figures acting as if they speak for all of evangelicalism.
Those who listen to Dobson weren’t going to vote for Obama anyways. And those who were going to vote for Obama, don’t even know who he is, or care what he has to say…as you put it.
rhett
[...] Tyler has a good post on Dobson v. Obama: The Battle Begins, and besides some of the posts I found on this issue, Tyler has some pretty good links to the back and forth arguments. [...]
[Saw this shocking thought-provoker on the worldwide you-know-what. Shane]
OBAMA SUPPORTS PUBLIC DEPRAVITY
(& supports the “rights” of little kids to view it!)
Google “Americans for Truth,” click on “Zombietime” [or go directly to: http://www.zombietime.com, then click on “Up Your Alley Fair.” After recovering from the uncensored photos (!), Yahoo “God to Same-Sexers: Hurry Up” on the “ucmpage” or “clericalwhispers” listings (even Jesus told Judas to hurry up – John 13:27). Also Yahoo “Dangerous Radicals of the Religious Right.” See all of this before the predicted California earthquake happens a la Rev. 16:19 (“the cities of the nations fell”) – and before hurricanes and other conscience-stirring disasters occur elsewhere! The fast-moving agenda of Gaydom is to quietly sneak its depravity on to every Main Street on earth while normal folks stay asleep and do nothing! PS – Here’s a new pro-life slogan: “Unborn babies should have the right to keep and bear arms – and legs and ears and eyes etc.!”
(Obama and his porn-protecting collaborators, Pelosi and Newsom, did NOT approve of this message.)