Tuesday, April 17, 2007



What The Religious Right Wants

Back in January, James Dobson gave an interview where he said that there was one candidate whom he could absolutely not vote for in the Republican primary, and that was John McCain.
"Well, let me say that I am not in the office. I'm in the little condo so I can speak for myself and not for Focus on the Family," Dobson said in rejecting McCain's leadership.

He noted that legislation he'd just been discussing on the program, regarding an attempt by Democrat leaders in Congress to create obstacles for ministries such as Focus to reach constituents with action messages about pending legislation, is being supported by McCain, too.

"That came from McCain, and the McCain Feingold Bill kept us from telling the truth right before elections … and there are a lot of other things. He's not in favor of traditional marriage, and I pray that we won't get stuck with him," Dobson said.

The gay marriage thing is a dodge. McCain flipped back to the far right side on that. In fact, on issues other than campaign finance, McCain is basically a hard right conservative. He is anti abortion, he is strongly in favor of the war, yet he is unacceptable to Dobson mainly because of campaign finance reform.

This is the apostasy that can not be forgiven. Dobson has forgiven Newt Gingrich for serial adultery, hypocrisy and has given him a quasi endorsement if he runs. That is ok. Not allowing Dobson to blast spam churches with his endorsements for congressional seats and ballot propositions and now you are talking about a rift that can not be mended.

This is exactly why campaign finance reform, as flawed as it's execution has been, is the one really good idea that McCain has signed on to during his career. Dobson is trying to mix his pulpit with the electoral process, in effect saying that through Jesus, James Dobson is telling you who to support. The fact that Dobson is so interested in becoming a king maker, in effect the man behind Caesar is reason enough to not allow him to mix politics and religion in such a blatant way.

As much as people want to bring up examples on the left. There is not such a strong message of vote Jesus, vote for my candidates among any vocal person on the left at least with any kind of reach that Dobson has. He has a radio show syndicated across the country, and a copy machine ready to fire up millions of pamphlets ludicrously trying to explain to us how Jesus thinks Newt Gingrich is swell.

I suspect this is not what Christ intended.