Dobson accuses Obama of `distorting’ Bible

Here they go again, those fundies making excuses when the reality of what the Bible (particularly the OT) says is brought up. Bible believers will say “it’s not what the Bible means”, or “that was meant for the people at the time it was written and times have changed” (except for those things they still choose to cling to that suits their own purposes and supports their own bigotry against other human beings, selfish imagined heavenly rewards, afterlife delusion, etc.).

(First, I want to make it clear before being accused of being a flip-flopper, I still retain my extreme skepticism of Obama and his promised "change" and that I feel those who consider him some sort of savior are going to be greatly disappointed. )

Obama makes nearly the same point we atheists have been making forever — Christians cherry-pick out of a book they most likely have never read. It will be interesting to hear what Obama has to say about Dobson's Focus on the Family broadcast criticizing him for "diminishing the idea that people of Christian faith have anything to say." That's just a bunch of bullcrap brought on my the Christian persecution complex kicking in after someone points out that their worldview isn't the only worldview. When fundies can't have it all their way, they start boo-hooing. Will Obama stand up to Dobson, or get all wishy-washy like most politicians do when doing anything to win an election?

James Dobson accuses Obama of `distorting’ Bible

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.

Dobson took aim at examples Obama cited in asking which Biblical passages should guide public policy — 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.

Then typical responses we have heard all too often. Christians totally deny the book of Leviticus:

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.

“I think he’s deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own worldview, his own confused theology,” Dobson said.

Umm, excuse me Mr. Dobson, but that is exactly what Christians do, picking and choosing and putting together a nice little interpretation for themselves according to what suits their own purposes. You’re theology, your Bible is what is confused and distorted, Mr Dobson! So much so that Christians cannot even agree amongst yourselves on what that “traditional understanding” is.

“… He is dragging biblical understanding through the gutter.”

Which is exactly where your evil Bible belongs.