Pondering Minstrel

Saturday, November 13, 2004

ONE OF THE MANY REASONS I DON'T GO TO CHURCH ANYMORE

This Week on ABC
Aired November 7, 2004

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Dr. Dobson, you also have a problem with the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Patrick Leahy. I want to show something that was reported in "The Daily Oklahoman" during the campaign. In the "Daily Oklahoman," it quoted you saying, "Patrick Leahy is a God's people hater. I don't know if he hates God, but he hates God's people." Now, Dr. Dobson, that doesn't sound like a particularly Christian thing to say. Do you think you owe Senator Leahy an apology?

DR JAMES DOBSON: George, you think you ought to lecture me on what a Christian is all about? You know, I think -I think I'll stand by the things I have said. Patrick Leahy has been in opposition to most of the things that I believe. He is the one that took the reference to God out of the oath.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: But Dr. Dobson, excuse me for a second. You use the word hate. You said that he's a "God's people hater." How do you back that up?

DR JAMES DOBSON: Well, there's been an awful lot of hate expressed in this election. And most of it has been aimed at those who hold to conservative Christian views. He is certainly not the only one to take a position like that. But I think that that is -that's where he's coming from. He has certainly opposed most of the things that conservative Christians stand for.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: So no apology?

DR JAMES DOBSON: No apology.

I don't like church in my government or politics in my church. I used to have tremendous respect for James Dobson, but Dobson puts a LOT of politics in his sermons, and I find it unbearable. In fact, he's become the poster boy for the political Religious Right, and the perception in Washington is "that no one helped Bush win more than Dr. James Dobson." Bush even phoned Dobson personally to thank him for his support.

The Bloke in the Outer wrote a great post on the difference between Civil Religion and the Christian Church. He writes that "There is a real danger of the Church confusing the building of the nation with the building of the kingdom."

Maybe Stephanopolous doesn't know as much about Christ's teachings as Dobson, which would mean that Dobson should not have reacted to Stephanopolous' attack on his godliness (for lack of a better word) with condescension and self-righteousness. Perhaps Dobson does need a lecture.

Dobson's only human, and we all make mistakes, but for the record, Stephanopoulos' father serves as a Greek Orthodox priest, and Stephanopoulos received his Masters in Theology at Balliol College, Oxford University, England, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar.

"Christ would not vote for Barack Obama, because Barack Obama has voted to behave in a way that it is inconceivable for Christ to have behaved."

"It's about time we all faced up to the truth. If we accept the radical homosexual agenda, be it in the military or in marriage or in other areas of our lives, we are utterly destroying the concept of family."


Both quotes are from Alan Keyes during his Senate race against Barack Obama, another proclaimed Christian.