Christocentric

Get ready for some fireworks from Dr. Dobson of Focus on the Family! The Drudge Report already has their Monday evening heading shown as:

The Associated Press received an advance copy of Tuesday’s (June 24th) Focus on the Family show. On this program, Dr. Dobson highlights parts of Obama’s past speeches, and the comments he makes just makes me wanna SHOUT!

Dr. Dobson addresses concerns that many of us have about Obama. His apparent lack of belief in the inerrency of God’s word, his lack of understanding of simple biblical passages, and his overall ignorance of the Christian faith and Constitution of the United States.

Here are a few excerpts from that program:

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.

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.

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

More tomorrow after the show comes out. Be sure you all catch the program on Focus on the Family, or go on their website (see my list of family resources).

Update after listening to the show (Links: Dr. Dobson’s audio program here):

Dr. Dobson was just getting wind of a speech Obama gave to the Call to Renewal’s Building a Covenant for a New America conference on June, 2006. Dobson was taking great offense to the statement Obama made:

And 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? Would we go with James Dobson’s, or Al Sharpton’s?

Dr. Dobson felt he was being equated with Al Sharpton. Maybe I misunderstood him at this point but I felt Obama was merely asking which type of “Christianity” would one choose, the conservative or liberal Christianity. I thought that was a pretty good question to pose though…hmm. But it was that statement that brought Dr. Dobson’s attention to this entire message.

Dr. Dobson continues with Obama’s statement breaking down the percentages of religious participation in our country.

And if we’re going to do that then we first need to understand that Americans are a religious people. 90 percent of us believe in God, 70 percent affiliate themselves with an organized religion, 38 percent call themselves committed Christians, and substantially more people in America believe in angels than they do in evolution.

Dr. Dobson’s Vice President of Focus on the Family’s Government and Public Policy, Tom Minnery was in the studio commenting also and noticed that Obama didn’t acknowledge the fact that of the 70 percent who affiliated with organized religion, they were of the Judeo-Christian belief.

I agree with Mr. Minnery at this point because what Obama was doing, was minimizing the Judeo-Christian tradition of our nation. This was made evident when Obama later points out in his speech the following:

Moreover, given the increasing diversity of America’s population, the dangers of sectarianism have never been greater. Whatever we once were, we are no longer just a Christian nation; we are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers.

Now if these statistics prove true, then how on earth can Obama claim that we are no longer a “Christian” nation? Are we to abandon are Judeo-Christian principles because of other beliefs that are in the minority? Obama thinks so. He goes on to say,

This brings me to my second point. Democracy demands that the religiously motivated translate their concerns into universal, rather than religion-specific, values. It requires that their proposals be subject to argument, and amenable to reason. I may be opposed to abortion for religious reasons, but if I seek to pass a law banning the practice, I cannot simply point to the teachings of my church or evoke God’s will. I have to explain why abortion violates some principle that is accessible to people of all faiths, including those with no faith at all.

Democracy demands that we translate our concerns into universal values rather than “religion specific” values? Obama clearly does not understand values especially when values contradict one another. This is a clear example of what happens to “Christians” when they begin to cease pleasing God, then go after pleasing men. What a ball of confusion!!!

But the ultimate hypocrisy was pointed out by Dr. Dobson and Mr. Minnery when Obama says in his 2006 speech of the millions of Americans:

They don’t want faith used to belittle or to divide. They’re tired of hearing folks deliver more screed than sermon. Because in the end, that’s not how they think about faith in their own lives.

Enough said. All we have to do is remember the Rev. Wright fiasco.

Is McCain any better than Obama? According to this broadcast, Dr. Dobson and Mr. Minnery both noticed that Arizona is trying to get a marriage amendment placed on ballot. But the Republican party appears to be cowering over the issue and the people are wanting their hometown senator, McCain, to put in a word of support for what would be the third state to place this amendment on ballot.

But not one word from McCain as of this writing. More Republican cowardice? No wonder so many conservatives are ready to bolt the Republican party!

I find myself back to square one on this whole issue. Like Dr. Dobson, I may find myself voting for NO president come November.

See also La Shawn Barber’s excellent breakdown of today’s program:
Barack Obama Enrolls in John Kerry School of Biblical Intrepretation