Dobson accuses Obama of 'distorting' Bible

[Bjorn Against]

Source: Associated Press

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - As Barack Obama broadens his outreach to evangelical voters, one of the movement's biggest names, James Dobson, accuses the likely Democratic presidential nominee of distorting the Bible and pushing a "fruitcake interpretation" of the Constitution.

The criticism, to be aired Tuesday on Dobson's Focus on the Family radio program, comes shortly after an Obama aide suggested a meeting at the organization's headquarters here, said Tom Minnery, senior vice president for government and public policy at Focus on the Family.

The conservative Christian group provided The Associated Press with an advance copy of the pre-taped 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.

"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.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080624/ap_on_el_pr/rel_dob... ;_ylt=AlRcK5YtE7f8ALh1IKIwcwd34T0D

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My response to Mr. Dobson:

Dear Mr. Dobson,

I heard that you believe that Obama is distorting the Bible, and I must say that is a pretty devastating attack coming from a person like you who would obviously never distort the Bible. I mean everybody knows that the Bible is a book that is entirely focused on stem cell research, gay sex, and Sponge Bob cartoons. Look at Jesus, he was clearly a Republican. Never mind all that crap he said about peace and helping the poor and stuff, that is all outdated crap now. If he were still alive today he would clearly be calling to go blow some Iranian ass to kingdom come, and instead of giving aid to the poor there is no doubt he would be pushing to stop a minimum wage increase and working to ensure that our CEOs take home even more money. There is absolutely no doubt in anyone's mind that if Jesus were alive today he would be waterboarding people for America, and he would be singing along to a Lee Greenwood song while he did it.

We all know that all that liberal crap that Jesus spewed in the Bible is distorting what Jesus' position would be today so we ignore those parts people and focus on the parts that are important. Like the parts about Jesus hanging out with prostitutes, a tradition that many Republicans have followed him on.

You sure do have an interesting interpretation of the Bible, but I am sure that people will take you seriously when you criticize Obama for distorting the Bible. But that is not all you criticize Obama for Mr. Dobson, you also tell us he has a "fruitcake interpretation" of the Constitution.

You are completely opposed to those fruitcake interpretations though, you demand a barley cake interpretation. As Ezekiel 4:12-15 tells us “thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it with dung that cometh out of man." The dung that cometh of man Mr. Dobson, that is certainly a verse of the Bible that you have lived up to very well, and that is no distortion.

Sincerely,

A Citizen

[sakabatou]

1. *BOOM!*

Dammit, there goes my irony meter.

[Newsjock]

2. I believe the Rev. Ted Haggard

... already has dibs on the "fruitcake interpretation" of the Bible.

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Bjorn Against]

4. They sure don't hide their homophobia do they?

I don't know why Focus on the Family has not been labeled a hate group yet, but they should be.

[madeline_con]

26. I hereby proclaim Focus on the Family is a hate group.

There. Someone has leabeled them. Now go forth and spread the gospel.

[BlueStater]

25. I think you're reading too much into this

Fruitcake also means loonie, which is what Dobson is. I don't like defending these guys but I don't think he meant it the way you think he did.

[atreides1]

36. But

Can you really say that you knew what he meant? Or are you just guessing?

[spindrifter]

5. But most important, Mr. Dobson,

if the Reverend Jesus were among us today, verily he would head up a megachurch, complete with ATM's and iPod stations. He'd probably be competing with all of you other ministers of the Lord for top musicians to invite for Sunday and somewhere he would negotiate a golden wings contract to assure his eternal well-being in case there was ever any problem about who was running what in his church.

[Name removed]

6. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[ismnotwasm]

7. Great letter!!

So Dobson doesn't like ol' Leviticus out to see the light of day huh? They sure run for select passages when justifing hate.

[immigrant109]

8. PFJ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gb_qHP7VaZE

[Canuckistanian]

12. JPF

Splitter!

[defendandprotect]

9. Ah . . .wouldn't it be grand to actually have the brutality and cruelty of the Bible laid out . .

for debate ---

nice summations by Obama and commentor ---

[peoli]

10. My response to Mr. Dobson: Dear Mr Dobson, Go Fuck Yourself.

[silverojo]

11. I'll bet Dobson crapped himself when he read that

Evangelicals just can't handle truth and logic.

[DWilliamsamh]

16. That would presume that he has a conscience or interest in Jesus' real message.

[Wizard777]

13. When will Christian understand that Jesus was a Jew?

Possibly even Zoroastrian. The Magi (zoroastrian priests) could have performed Jewish rites instead of the Zoroastrian Navjote (nativity/induction ceremony.) Being the first practioners of monotheism. We tend to be fluent in the suceeding monotheistic religions. They're just paraphrasings of Zoroastrianism. But toward the end of His life. Jesus was undoubtedly a Jew.

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[DWilliamsamh]

15. BOO-YAAAAAA!!!!

Love the response... perhaps we could ALL send a copy of your letter to Dobson?!

[Old and In the Way]

17. Looks like Dobson getting a bit worked up with Obama'sability to poach his votes.

Dobson's influence is tied to the Republican Party. He's hemorrhaging evangelical votes that he used to control. Dobson's interpretation of the Bible, which reinforces the economic/political message, is being challenged. Obama's going for those evangelical votes and Dobson is going on the offense. Trouble is, he's walking a fine line between the divine and the secular...if he starts getting too overtly partisan, his tax-exempt status might be in jeopardy.

[Doctor_J]

18. Why doesn't that old raisin contract bone cancer?

God, the world would be better off without him.

[Kingofalldems]

19. Another hick TV preacher

How much money has this guy made off of religion? With his bouffant hair glistening.

[Tab]

20. James Dobson can shove it up his ass.

I'm tired of hearing about this guy.

I have seen so many hypocritical Republican asssholes that I can't even keep track of them anymore.

And if they're not hypocritical, they're "holier than thou". Either way, they can take a flying leap.

Dobson can be first.

[LiberalFighter]

21. Dobson is challenging Obama's reference to the Old Testament

that the text and dietary codes no longer apply to Jesus' teachings in the New Testament. Dobson does not understand the difference between the meal itself vs the hygiene that was referenced in the New Testament.

[LiberalFighter]

22. How many different interpretations of the Bible are there?

[Thor_MN]

34. How many people have read it?

Multiply by 5 or so, to cover the changes in their mindset over their life.

[54anickel]

55. True 'nuff - says something different to me just about every time I pick it up...n/t

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

56. That's coz it's schizo. -nt

[Fovea]

23. Dobson accuses Obama of 'distorting' Bible???

[AlphaCentauri]

24. Focus on the Family but not poor families

[trusty elf]

27. Hey Dobson,

you make me puke.

[DeSwiss]

28. The ignorance and the arrogance of this numbnuts....

...piece-of-work still astounds, doesn't it?

So tell me Dobs, is "love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you" -- ummmm, sort of like what your doing to Obama right now -- is that the sort of gutter talk you're whining about???

- Boy, what an asshole.....

K&R!!!

[truthisfreedom]

29. The code words Dobson has selected indicate he's arrestable.

He's probably sleeping with a 12-year-old.

[and-justice-for-all]

30. Sounds like back in 2006...

Obama nailed the Dobson nutters to their own cross.

"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?"

Well said. Dobson makes me

[no_hypocrisy]

31. Easy. Tax his organization. Let him loose his tax-exempt status.

Then Dobson can have his "free speech" rights restored.

[tomg]

32. The only good thing that can be said

about Dobson ( and "good" only in the most strained sense of the word) is that he has said he will not vote for McCain and will sit out the Presidential. I mean he really hates McCain. Seems McCain is too liberal.

[tanyev]

33. Who's distorting the Bible?

I don't remember reading "Thou shalt beat the family pet into submission" or "Men must shower with their sons to keep them from turning gay" anywhere in the Bible.

[Mad_Dem_X]

35. Perfect response

Dobson is a lunatic.

[knixphan]

37. zing!

[LibertyLover]

38. Talk about distorting -

Dobson excoriates Obama for quoting Leviticus on food prohibitions and claiming that they no longer hold any sway because Jesus came, while continuing to use Leviticus to call for the proscription and prosecution of homosexuality is the height of distortion as far as I'm concerned.

[ryanmuegge]

39. Who cares about the stupid fucking Bible? What nonsense.

Dobson only cares about controlling other people's lives and getting an individual income tax cut. Period. He's a conman, just like the rest of those religious cocksuckers. He's just trying to distract votres from the real issues and mobilize the fundies around stupid bullshit so he doesn't have his taxes raised and so we'll keep killing civillians in the Middle East (fundamentalist religious types have an incredible lust for blood).

[HughBeaumont]

40. Aaaaand he advocates beating toddlers with rods. So fuck him.

[AwakeAtLast]

41. This cannot get enough recs today.

Wake up and smell the hypocrisy. <snif> Ahhhhhhhhh!

[brooklynite]

42. The FUN will start...

when John McCain is asked if he agrees with Dobson's criticisms or not. There's no answer he can give that won't cause trouble.

[marshall]

43. Will Al Sharpton be far behind in pouncing on this?

He surely wouldn't like being compared to Dr. Dobson. I'm sure he will weigh in on this sooner or later.

[Bjorn Against]

44. Sharpton isn't being compared to Dobson, he is being contrasted with him

Obama was making the point that not all Christians think alike, and he was using Sharpton and Dobson as examples of two religious figures who were very different from one another. I don't think Sharpton would have any problem with Obama's statement.

[marshall]

45. True, Sharpton might find the comparison/contrast useful

If he can find common ground with Pat Robertson and make a commercial about conservation of the earth's resources he can undoubtedly make something beneficial out of this.

[minnesota_liberal]

46. Dobson: Babbling Nut Case

Hundreds of newspaper, radio and television outlets reported today that James Dobson accused Barack Obama of deliberately distorting the Bible to justify his own world view.

But few if any of them mentioned that Dobson is an evangelical nut-job.

Yes, it’s the same wacko who has supported political candidates who expressed support for murdering abortion providers, deliberately skewed the findings of psychologists to support his own view that same-sex parenting is harmful to children, defended sexual predator Mark Foley (R-FL) by saying that the scandal must have been a prank by former House pages and claimed that the animated penguin flick, “Happy Feet” contained a pro-gay subtext.

So when James Dobson says something, who gives a shit – and why does the mainstream media cover Dobson as if he has any credibility?

[depakid]

47. Impressive that one of America's most delusional pharisees gets so much uncritical press

He'd be laughed at and relegated to the fringe in every other western nation- yet here, his word seems gospel.

[and-justice-for-all]

48. Someone needs to accuse dobnuts of..

distorting reality.

[ravencalling]

49. The biggest crime here

is the media allowing these complete nutjobs any credibility. It is the Media that has committed the crime. Dobson otherwise would be relegated to the back fields of some community tent where he could spout his stupidity without challenge.

To give any of these whack-o evangelicals media credible air time is the strangest twist I have seen in the last 10 years. I used to sometimes see them on the tube and I would watch from sheer fascination and shock, the hair and clothing and strange words of these guys as if they were from an alien race. Especially the lady with the Easter pink bee-hive hairdo, whose husband looked exactly like the modern representation of Satan without the horns and red skin.

These are side-show carnies .. representatives of a strange and foreign sub-culture, preying on the most vulnerable in society.. These are the types of people you DON'T want to run into when you are on a camping trip in the wilds. They belong in those slasher B movies, not in mainstream media. These are the people whom you wrest your poor grandmother away from with a family intervention because she has decided that sending money to them will ensure she is not sent to hell. The fact that they are given voice by the media is one of the best examples of fact one can point to, proving that the media has lost all credibility and has more in common with the dime-store magazine where you see headlines like an alien ate my mother-in-law.

I have no worries regarding Obama's response, and am glad he IS responding. I am just embarrassed for our country that he feels he even has to respond.

It is time we put these sub-culture, mega-phone, nut cases out of business. If there is a cause or organization that has this specifically as their goal, please sign me up!

[boilinmad]

51. Perfectly put !!!...

...but you should have touched on the fear factor that keeps these idiots in business. Poor little scared Americans listening to fools who promise them eternal life ( safety ) in exchange for their money. If i hear one more time, "The American people aren't stupid.....blah, blah, blah "

[winston61]

50. Dobson is accusing someone else of distorting the Bible?

Sweet Jesus, here I come the end is indeed near!

[eagleswing963]

52. Not that it will happen

But lets see the IRS tax this pile of crap "godly man"

I bet if we taxed EVERY minister and church that even spends one minute talking politics on the air or in their church service, we could pay for healthcare for the whole damn country!

[Critters2]

53. Am I required in a democracy to conform my efforts

in the political arena to Dobson's bloody notion of what is right with regard to the lives of Iraqis and other non-Americans?

[Overseas]

54. I was also aggravated by Dobson accusing others of using an "a la carte" interpretation

of the Bible when his whole movement is based upon doing just that.