{"id":13210,"date":"2008-06-24T06:53:03","date_gmt":"2008-06-24T13:53:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2008\/06\/24\/nuttier-than-a-fruitcake.html"},"modified":"2008-06-24T06:53:03","modified_gmt":"2008-06-24T13:53:03","slug":"nuttier_than_a_fruitcake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/06\/24\/nuttier_than_a_fruitcake.html","title":{"rendered":"Nuttier than a “fruitcake”?"},"content":{"rendered":"

James R. Dobson, of “Focus on the Family,” is ticked off at Barack Obama<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

The conservative Christian group provided The Associated Press with an advance copy of the pretaped radio segment, which runs 18 minutes and highlights excerpts of a speech Obama gave in June 2006 to the liberal Christian group Call to Renewal. Obama mentions Dobson in the speech.<\/p>\n

“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?” Obama said. “Would we go with James Dobson’s or Al Sharpton’s?” referring to the civil rights leader.<\/p>\n

Dobson took aim at examples Obama cited in asking which Biblical passages should guide public policy \u2014 chapters like Leviticus, which Obama said suggests slavery is OK and eating shellfish is an abomination, or 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.<\/p>\n

Dobson and Minnery accused Obama of wrongly equating Old Testament texts and dietary codes that no longer apply to Jesus’ teachings in the New Testament.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

A few things.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. There are some Christian groups who believe that the dietary laws in Leviticus do apply. Not a lot of them, mind you, but the basic point Obama is making applies: whose “Christianity” do you apply?<\/li>\n
  2. Especially when some folks cherry-pick which Old Testament rules and regulations should be paid attention to. The Ten Commandments still seem to be in play for Dobson — as do Levitican injunctions against homosexual behavior. Dietary laws and which festivals to keep are no longer of interest to him. Certainly he has reasons behind this — but are they so self-evident to everyone that they needn’t be discussed?<\/li>\n
  3. And, finally, does Dobson really argue that the Biblical passages that he would support as a basis for a “Christian nation” are all the same — and are interpreted the same — as Al Sharpton would support?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    \n

    Dobson reserved some of his harshest criticism for Obama’s argument that the religiously motivated must frame debates over issues like abortion not just in their own religion’s terms but in arguments accessible to all people. He said Obama, who supports abortion rights, is trying to govern by the “lowest common denominator of morality,” labeling it “a fruitcake interpretation of the Constitution.”<\/p>\n

    “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.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    No, what he’s saying is that someone like, say, James Dobson making arguments solely on the basis of his own religious beliefs doesn’t necessarily trump all other arguments — especially among people who believe differently. “It’s in the Bible” doesn’t hold much if any weight for Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, even some Christians, without something more than passage and verse. Imposing religious beliefs on others by way of law, compelling and forbidding behavior based solely on majority — or even minority — moral codes, is not useful or healthy in a pluralistic society. Something more, something we can reach consensus on, is needed.<\/p>\n

    Is that the “lowest common denominator”? I really don’t think so. At the very least, though, it means that those who wish to see their morality enacted into legislation must persuade, not act from authority — or it must be an authority that is recognized, if not by denominational hierarchy, than by acclaim for wisdom and holiness.<\/p>\n

    Obama isn’t arguing that you can’t, or even shouldn’t, use your religious beliefs to inform your arguments. He’s calling on people to recognize that those beliefs aren’t universal, and that to rely solely upon them to persuade others is unlikely to get much traction. And to treat them as the primary grounds for legislation is as likely to be divisive as anything else. Fight for what you believe in — but recognize that more than your belief is needed to affect the beliefs of others, if what you actually believe in is <\/em>a democracy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    James R. Dobson, of “Focus on the Family,” is ticked off at Barack Obama. The conservative Christian group provided The Associated Press with an advance copy of the pretaped radio…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[54,9,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-elections-2008","category-politics-law","category-religion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13188,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/06\/26\/james_dobson_doesnt_speak.html","url_meta":{"origin":13210,"position":0},"title":"James Dobson doesn’t speak for me","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 26-Jun-08 3:26pm","format":false,"excerpt":"This is the most positive thing about religion -- and religion and politics -- I've seen in\u00a0a long time: James Dobson Doesn't Speak For Me\u00a0 Dr. James Dobson recently attacked...","rel":"","context":"In "Elections 2008"","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2008","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2008"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13198,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/06\/25\/he%e2%80%99s_not_close_to.html","url_meta":{"origin":13210,"position":1},"title":"“He\u2019s not close to our understanding of what the Christian faith is, by any means.”","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 25-Jun-08 1:49pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I think Senator Obama should take that as a tremendous complement. 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