Rev. James Dobson
OBAMA ACCUSED OF TWISTING THE BIBLE TO CONFUSE US VOTERS
Taken from the Daily Mail – June 25th 2008
Barack Obama today came under fire from James Dobson, founder of the conservative Focus on the Family organisation, who accused the likely Democratic nominee of twisting the Bible to confuse people.
The attack from Dobson, a leading figure of the Christian Right, was framed as a wholesale rejection of Obama’s views on faith, and appeared intended to thwart his efforts to reach out to evangelical Christians.
It was delivered in Dobson’s regular radio programme as a line-by-line dissection of a speech that Obama gave to a liberal Christian organisation two years ago on the role of religion in public life.
Dobson’s organisation also emailed links to the programme out to news organisations.
“I think he is dragging biblical understanding through the gutter,” said Dobson. “I just don’t know whether he is doing it deliberately or accidentally.”
Dobson seemed particularly incensed that Obama had compared him to the Reverend Al Sharpton. He revisited the controversy over the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, whom Obama renounced as his pastor earlier this year.
Dobson also took issue with Obama’s suggestion that religious organisations opposed to abortion make their case in terms accessible to secular organisations. Dobson called that a “fruitcake” interpretation of the law.
“Am I required in a democracy to conform my efforts in the political arena to his bloody notion of what is right with regard to the lives of tiny babies?” Dobson said. “What he’s trying to say here is unless everybody agrees, we have no right to fight for what we believe.”
The attack on Obama comes at a time when some established evangelical leaders — especially those on the right like Dobson — are confronting the waning of their influence over American politics.
Religion remains a force in American life. More than 90% of Americans believe in God and more than half pray at least once a day, according to a study this week by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
However, the evangelical community has grown disillusioned with the performance of George Bush, who failed to live up to their expectations as a born-again president.
Evangelicals are also unenthusiastic about the coming elections.
