{"id":15978,"date":"2008-06-24T11:11:58","date_gmt":"2008-06-24T15:11:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/15978.html"},"modified":"2008-06-24T11:11:58","modified_gmt":"2008-06-24T15:11:58","slug":"obama-gains-among-evangelicals-so-dobson-pushes-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/obama-gains-among-evangelicals-so-dobson-pushes-back\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama gains among evangelicals, so Dobson pushes back"},"content":{"rendered":"

Barack Obama’s efforts to reach out to religious voters have been well documented in recent months, and there’s ample evidence that the efforts are paying off. Mark DeMoss recently suggested<\/a> Obama was positioned to win about 40% of the evangelical vote, and the Obama campaign has unveiled the “Matthew 25 Network<\/a>“, a religious outreach initiative spearheaded by Mara Vanderslice, who was director of religious outreach for the Kerry-Edwards campaign in 2004; <\/p>\n

After Obama met with a group of high-profile, ecumenical leaders in Chicago two weeks ago, David Brody, the national correspondent for Pat Robertson’s network, noted<\/a>, “Folks, this is an important development. It shows that the game has changed. Old rules don’t apply. We’re in uncharted territory.”<\/p>\n

This, not surprisingly, is started to generate some consternation in religious-right circles. Obama’s goal is not only to gain support, but also to expand the definition of what constitutes a “religious issue” beyond just gays and abortion, to include matters like poverty, the environment, social justice, and AIDS\/HIV. And so far, it’s a strategy that’s having some success.<\/p>\n

Focus on the Family’s James Dobson has seen enough<\/a>. (via Ron Chusid<\/a>)<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That, in and of itself, is rather remarkable — an Obama aide thought it would be worthwhile for Dobson to actually talk<\/i> to Barack Obama. There’s no entirely apt comparison, but it’d be a bit like John McCain stopping by the offices of MoveOn.org for a courtesy call.<\/p>\n

Dobson apparently won’t visit with Obama, and feels strongly enough about Obama’s appeal to evangelical voters to leak his anti-Obama diatribe to the AP in advance of his broadcast.
\n<\/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

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

“… He is dragging biblical understanding through the gutter.” … 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><\/blockquote>\n

First, if anyone<\/i> is dragging Scripture through the gutter, it’s James Dobson.<\/p>\n

Second, the fact that Dobson is pushing back this aggressively only bolsters the notion that Obama’s efforts to rewrite the religio-political rules are working. Dobson isn’t attacking from a position of outrage; he’s attack from a position of panic.<\/p>\n

And third, the irony is Dobson helped create this opportunity for Obama in the first place. It was Dobson, after all, who issued a statement<\/a> in February, insisting he would not vote for McCain in the general election and would stay home if McCain is the GOP nominee.<\/p>\n

This, not surprisingly, sent a signal to a whole lot of evangelicals that a) McCain isn’t a reliable ally; and b) maybe that nice outreach person from the Obama campaign deserves a moment of their time.<\/p>\n

Now, Dobson’s left to scramble, left with a message that effectively sounds like, “Wait! I hate McCain, but I really<\/i> hate Obama!”<\/p>\n

It may be too late, Jim.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Barack Obama’s efforts to reach out to religious voters have been well documented in recent months, and there’s ample evidence that the efforts are paying off. Mark DeMoss recently suggested Obama was positioned to win about 40% of the evangelical vote, and the Obama campaign has unveiled the “Matthew 25 Network“, a religious outreach initiative […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15978\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}