Focus on Dobson
Or, “Liberal” ain’t no swear word…
James Dobson has fired the first evangelical salvo of the upcoming national campaign between Barack Obama and John McCain.
Sen. Obama was recently named the most liberal U.S. Senator, based on the annual voting analysis by the non-partisan and highly respected National Journal. If he emerges as the Democratic nominee, one of the critical jobs of Focus Action will be to uncover the real Barack Obama—not the feel-good orator who speaks of “change” and “hope,” but the man who would be the most left-wing president in our nation’s history.
Throughout our history, great Americans have stood up to grave challenges of all sorts. As this latest wave of secular liberalism threatens us, I look forward to standing shoulder to shoulder with you in prayer and action – in defense of the family.
These are really scary words coming from a pastor who is practically canonized by the Religious Right. Focus Action is their attempt to keep the tax exemption in place for Focus on the Family by pretending that the actions of this group have no impact on the tax-exempt group. Here are some more notable excerpts:
On the Judiciary
Activist judges who manufacture new constitutional rights out of whole cloth and legislate their own social policy preferences from the bench have infuriated Americans for far too long, bringing the subject of selection of judges to the forefront of the current culture war and political debate. This section will explore the selection of our state and federal judges, from state judicial voter guides to Senate confirmation proceedings. It will discuss judicial philosophies such as “living Constitutions” and “originalism” that guide judges in making their decisions, and highlight specific judges, good and bad, in an attempt to educate and inform.
On Abstinence/Public Policy
There have always been elements within society that have wanted an anarchic, ungoverned social approach to sexual behavior. From the 1960s?the dawn of the ?sexual revolution??until the late 1990s, the sexual anarchists largely had their way in influencing society through legislation and education. Sexual anarchists controlled congressional purse strings for sex education funding. The results were disastrous.
Notably missing from this website is any kind of “moral” or biblical defense for waging war on a nation that did not attack us, lying in order to do it, spying on the citizens of this country, and torturing prisoners, all of which are antithetical to the message of Christ.
Yet, Dr. Dobson would have us think that the term ‘liberal’ means some sort of craven, wanton, out-of-control political bent that will forever corrupt the morals of our country. In fact, liberals are much more in line with the biblical principles that Dr. Dobson has forgotten in his zeal to become the moral guardian of our country; namely, caring for the poor, the sick, the elderly, reaching out to the disenfranchised and bringing them into society’s mainstream, according them rights and respect.
Liberal values are not craven. They are formed out of a compassionate desire to meet the needs of those who are in need, and to form a society that is much more compassionate and tolerant. Folks like Dobson would sacrifice compassion for dogma, love for judgment.
Moreover, Dobson does not reflect true conservative values. His organization doesn’t advocate for limited government; it advocates for MORE government, set in place to enforce the Dobsonian moral agenda. True conservatives believe the first place for education is within the family, not within the schools, and they don’t rely upon the government to provide that education, yet Dobson would like to control the courts, the schools, the curriculum, and the agenda of our schools, which I view as a lack of effectiveness in his efforts to use his pulpit to educate families and churches.
Dobson is simply a theocrat. Look no further than his endorsement of Mike Huckabee during the primaries for evidence of it. He is as anti-conservative as he is anti-liberal. In an election which will pivot on the question of whether we are willing to continue to wage a war we had no business beginning, losing even more young men and women in the process, the question of Barack Obama’s ‘liberalism’ is moot.
If this is the best he can do to smear Barack Obama, there’s not much to worry about.
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