Obama: Dobson "Making Stuff Up"

LOS ANGELES — Barack Obama said Tuesday that evangelical leader James Dobson was "making stuff up" when he accused the presumed Democratic presidential nominee of distorting the Bible.

Dobson used his Focus on the Family radio program to highlight excerpts of a speech Obama gave in June 2006 to the liberal Christian group Call to Renewal.

Speaking to reporters on his campaign plane before landing in Los Angeles, Obama said the speech made the argument that people of faith, like himself, "try to translate some of our concerns in a universal language so that we can have an open and vigorous debate rather than having religion divide us."

Obama added, "I think you'll see that he was just making stuff up, maybe for his own purposes."

In his program, Dobson focused on examples Obama cited in asking which Biblical passages should guide public policy. For instance, Obama said Leviticus suggests slavery is OK and eating shellfish is an abomination. Obama also cited 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 in the speech.

"I think he's deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own worldview, his own confused theology," Dobson said.

Asked about Dobson's assessment, Obama said "somebody would be pretty hard-pressed to make that argument" that he was distorting the Bible.

Story continues below

advertisement

Obama supporters also responded to Dobson.

The Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell, a Methodist pastor from Texas and longtime supporter of President Bush who has endorsed Obama, said Tuesday he belongs to a group of religious leaders who, working independently of Obama's campaign, launched a Web site to counter Dobson at . The site highlights statements from Obama and Dobson and asks visitors to compare them. http://www.jamesdobsondoesntspeakforme.com

Caldwell said he has great respect for Dobson's advocacy for families, but said the criticism of Obama was "a bit over the top" and "crossed the line."

"There has been a call for a higher level of politics and politicking," Caldwell said. "So to attack at this level is inappropriate and I think unacceptable and we at least want to hold everybody accountable."

Tom Minnery, a senior vice president at Focus on the Family, responded: "Without question, Dr. Dobson is speaking for millions of evangelicals because his understanding of the Bible is thoroughly evangelical."

___

AP Religion Writer Eric Gorski in Denver contributed to this report.

Comments

[Binea]

part 2 (excerpt) "The end of the Church Age..and After"
....."As we will learn in this study it is the era of these local congregations and churches that has come to an end. The true believers who are included in the membership of these local churches have either already been driven out or are commanded to come out.

Thus, the local churches all over the world will finally have only unsaved people as members
However, the invisible eternal church will continue to grow and flourish outside of these local churches which for more than 1950 years have been the divine institution that God raised up to be the caretaker of Gospel. Since the beginning of the Great Tribulation, the eternal church no longer has any identification with the local churches.

Therefore, a better title for this book could be, “The End of the Institution of the Local Church and After.”

Obama should read this too.
Because the next thing they will probably be saying is that Obama is the anti-chris­t.I think he will be well armed with this study.

[obamajusrocks]

Dobson is a criminal posing with his holier than thou attitude as a man of deep virtues and honesty while we know full well that he is not. It's about time crooks like these who collect billions of dollars from gullible people are, at the very least, made to pay taxes, instead of being allowed to hide behind the cloak of religion.

[LCRover001]

That is the right wing plan, but the "religious" folks are to blinded by fear and hate to see it.

They have been draw more and more into politics and drawn father and father away from Christ's teachings.

The right has been baiting the trap for years and the church has gullibly followed the bread crumbs. They are almost to the point of no return. They are half way under the box and the string is pulled tight on the stick. Just a few more steps and it will be stew tonight. While the right dines on the tax dividends of the church they will pass what has been done off on the left and their so called war against religion.

The good thing for Dr. Dob is that he makes enough money so when they do decide to tax him he will be in a high enough bracket that Bushes tax cuts will help him out.

[Tropiholic]

another thug in a suit and tie pretending to be a "christian".

[LCRover001]

Let's see according to Dr. Dobber Obama is twisting religion to match his politics.

So what would Dr. Dob say about what the right has been doing for the past 20 years or more.

Obama is right people don't read their Bibles, they bobble head and listen to what others tell them the Bible says.

During the 2000 and 2004 election I had the displeasure of hearing that because of how I vote I was not a Christian. Never read anything like that in the Bible. I vote according to how I feel the person will govern. I can not vote for the right because I feel that their party doesn't follow the teachings of Christ nor do they look out for what is best for the country. I feel that the religious right is stuck in the Old Testament and the right wing politicians only look out for those who can afford it. I see very little of their “Christianity” in their policies or their actions.

Being against abortion and gays doesn't make one a Christian, no matter how much the talking heads want to make everyone think they do. Dr. Dob and the rest of the religious right should read their Bibles more closely, believe it and follow it, but leave politics out of it and stop trying to twist it to match their political views.

The founding fathers separated church and state for a good reason. The two combined can not nurture a free society.

[Plowboy]

Right wing "Christians" do not mind lying to achieve their political goals annd harm those they dislike.
Right wing "Christians" claim that the rich are blessed by God because they are good and He approves of them.
Right wing "Christians" have been among the chief supporters of torture.
Right wing "Christians" spout a lot of hate against anyone who disagrees with them.

IN FACT, Right wing "Christians" oppose most of the teachings of Jesus.

If they hate Obama so much, he must be representing something very right!

[Binea]

Google "The End of the Church Age..and after" - by Harold Camping.
Family Radio World Wide.
( excerpt)
" The phrase “The End of the Church Age” is in no way speaking of the end of the eternal church which is made up of only truly saved individuals. The eternal church which began when the first person in the world became saved will continue forever. As long as this world exists, God will be adding to it.

The church age that has come to an end is the external representation of the kingdom of God which exists as local congregations. We will earn in this study that more than 1950 years beginning with Pentecost in A.D. 33, the external representation of the kingdom of God was the local churches. Throughout the church age the true believers who are eternal citizens of the eternal church were to be members of these local congregations. This eternal church is an invisible church because only God knows for certain who the true believers are.

Examples of these local churches are the seven churches named in Chapter 2 and 3 of Revelation. These congregations consisted of both saved and unsaved individuals. For example, one of these, the church of Sardis, had only a few true believers within it (Revelation 3:4). Thus, while is was a local church externally representing the kingdom of God on this earth, in actuality it had only a few people who had become members of God’s eternal church.

[bluesoul]

Apparently Dobson has forgotten (or chosen to ignore) the ninth commandment. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

[Newsmonger]

{Part 1/3}

Agreed, I am opposed to Abortion and held some of the same views as James Dobson, but it is not Christ-like for us to force our beliefs and way of live on others or the nation.

We know it would have been easier and even quicker for God to change the mind of men and the policies of the earthly Authorities to conform to his divine will and purpose, but with all His powers, he choose not to. He instead choose to go about it by sending Jesus to the earth, who through Love, personal endurance, contacts with people of all ages, values & opinions converted them one after the other. He chooses to dine with Zacchaues, a Tax Collector who was reviled by the religious group of his days (the same treatment, the Zacchaues of today are receiving from some from the religious right). When he was faced with a difficult task and a question that will conflict his Authority with that of the Government of the day, or make him to enter into the political debate of his days, Jesus side-step the issue by saying…”Give unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar and unto God what belongs to God”. Jesus went about his mission and preached the Gospel in love, humility, patient, endurance, etc.

[Newsmonger]

{Part 2/3}

I am coming to the conclusion that Christians today, are becoming too lazy to hold intelligent conversations outside the biblical sound-bites to convince others of opposing views to become Christians. Paul the Apostle, one of the greatest Apostle is a good example of what the Senator was proposing; Paul argued before biblical scholars of his days, before lawyers, in courts etc..

He did not use the religious sound-bites to convince his opponents, he rather used what his opponents knew and the beliefs they currently held to convince them that Christ is the lord and died hard opponents of the Christian faith like King Agrippa said..”Pau­l though almost persuaded me to be a Christian”

Our mission as Christians is to reach others and bring them to the faith; we cannot do this by lording it over them, or changing the Government policies to suite the Bible; we have to go about it the old fashion way; by living examplenary lives; preaching with love; accommodative of others and their views. God created everyone including the ungodly and he have plans for all of them, Jesus said.”Othe­r sheeps I have, which are not of this fold, them I must lead also”.

[reggieb]

Well there you go. I get the heebie jeebie's when someone thinks their mission is to "bring me to faith" because invariably it's someone I would avoid like the plague.

[Newsmonger]

{Part 2/3}

I am coming to the conclusion that Christians today, are becoming too lazy to hold intelligent conversations outside the biblical sound-bites to convince others of opposing views to become Christians. Paul the Apostle, one of the greatest Apostle is a good example of what Obama is proposing; Paul argued before biblical scholars of his days, before lawyers, in courts etc..

He did not use the religious sound-bites to convince his opponents, he rather used what his opponents knew and the beliefs they currently held to convince them that Christ is the lord and died hard opponents of the Christian faith like King Agrippa said..”Pau­l though almost persuaded me to be a Christian”

Our mission as Christians is to reach others and bring them to the faith; we cannot do this by lording it over them, or changing the Government policies to suite the Bible; we have to go about it the old fashion way; by living examplenary lives; preaching with love; accommodative of others and their views. God created everyone including the ungodly and he have plans for all of them, Jesus said.”Othe­r sheeps I have, which are not of this fold, them I must lead also”.

[Newsmonger]

{Part 3/3}

Lets not make the mistake of despising what God have not despised and lets not hinder the Evangelical work of God by seeking to force people into adopting our Biblical value, lets win their understanding and acceptance by Love and with patient, that is the way Jesus did it and he said we should follow in his footsteps.

Lastly, to some extent I think Obama might be right, when he infer that some religious advocates today might not be entirely following the Bible. Jesus did not go to Rome, the seat of power when he was on earth to preach to the Authorities to change their policies, he instead went to the people in Galilee, Judea, Bethsaida, Samaria, Gadara, Jordan, etc, one small town after another, this was the model the apostles adopted after Jesus was gone, the Bible recorded that they were scattered in many villages. “Preaching the gospel” by trying to influence Washington today, the religious right are not following the Jesus play book.

To suggest that Government policies should conform to the Bible is idiocry and there is no democracy in that. That is pure Theocracy, except the religious right want us to adopt a theocratic government.

The only Theocracy that myself and many Christians believe in is the one Jesus will institute at his second coming, before then, any attempt by man or a preacher or minister to institute a theocracy will fail.

[vocalist]

So Dobson is the one who wrote the Bible ?
Obama, who is a regular church goer can interpret the Bible any way he wants to , he has every right to do so as much as Dobson.

Barack Obama is also running for the Presidency, to me religion and politics should be a separate entity, after all this is a country of immegrants, with multicultural people from so many religious backgrounds.

.....to name a few, Christians, Jews, Muslims,Buddhists, Hindus, Atheists, Agnostics.­......all of us will be voting in November .

Obama, will be representing all of us.

Here I go again, keep your religion private, raise your children well.

Vote in November, Ignore all the religious phanaticism, that is the root of all the wars to this day.

[AnotherTry]

The best way to argue against Dobson and his family values position against gay and lesbian equality:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qdz0NnqADdE

[JDHART]

James Dobson is an old man who fleeces gullible people out of their hard-earned money by telling them he can get them into heaven. Note to gullible people: Don't send him money. Note to America: Who cares what James Dobson says? He's irrelevant.

[MajorKong]

I wish James Dobson was irrelevant. Unfortunately he has enough political power that Bush had to get his OK for his Supreme Court picks.

[SouthernYankeeBelle]

This man is a phoney. I couldn't believe he isn't even a minister. How dare he talk about anyone else. When are those ministers on the left finally to an end to this idot. We have to shout that he is not a minister.

[Lautenberg]

Every corporate KingPin knows that all they have to do to STEAL from the midwest and south is to affect a redneck drawl and praise Jesus.

[Lautenberg]

Jesus gave the sermon on the mount and he mentioned nothing of James Dobson translating it to mean the opposite of what he said.

Anyone who collects cash for Limos and Private Jets, in the name of Jesus is a depraved criminal.

[SouthpawSass]

As a lark, I tuned into FOX & Friends this morning - just to see what it was they were "reporting­."

In the two minutes I was able to tolerate:

- They discussed the chapter in Dick Morris's book, "Fleeced" with how Obama is going to raise taxes on millions of Americans and how Brian what's his faces' father will be denied a heart transplant because a 27 year old illegal immigrant took it and if the doctor knows the son can pay out of pocket, the doctor loses his license.

- How Democrats who won't vote for Obama will be going for McCain.

- And a tidbit on Karl Rove discussing how Obama has taken the bible out of context...

All this in just two minutes!!! Imagine what they can do in a day...

[lornejl]

I'm sure the next 2 minutes would have been the pro dem part cuz Fox is fair and balanced.

[chriss0114]

Sure they're "fair and balanced" as they tip the scales to weight the "right" because their positions are so ludicrous it takes many weights to get the balance of more realistic, reasonable centrist and left positions.

[robynuva]

Wow, and K. R. is an admitted atheist! http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2007_05/011250.php

Whose dad was gay. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hilary-rosen/karl-roves-father-and-my_b_28830.html

Little bit of self-loathing going on? A psychiatrist could build a whole practice on this guy. Wonder how many Fox viewers know exactly who they are listening to? Oh yeah, they are immune to : Hypocrisy (or the state of being a hypocrite) is the act of preaching a certain belief or way of life, but not, in fact, holding these same virtues oneself.