Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Jesus probably wouldn't want me to punch james dobson, but i still really want to

So Andi just forwarded this little tidbit from the AP my way. It's about a response from noted destroyer of the Christian faith James Dobson to some well-reasoned thinking out loud from Barack Obama.

"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.

Yep. Pretty much. But this is old news. Stuff people like me have been saying for years to those who want to teach hatred as a Christian value because that's how they interpret certain sections of the Bible while ignoring all of the passages where, say, Jesus calls on us to help the poor. Or treat one another with kindness. Or act on our faith through the display of compassion and love. Or not calling anyone profane when God has made them clean.

All that stuff must be "fruitcake interpretations" of the Bible, just like Obama's "fruitcake interpretation" of the Constitution which apparently has all kinds of stuff about abortion in it, according to Dobson. And he'd be right if he weren't so very utterly wrong. Again.

But that's not even the kicker. Here's the most offensive thing he said:

"I think [Obama is] 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."

This isn't even the pot calling the kettle black. This is the pot calling the kettle a #*@%ing pot. Dobson is the one hunting and pecking obscure passages out of their context for an agenda of hate. Dobson is the one distorting Christian values and traditions in the name of keeping women as property rather than people. Dobson is the one chasing a lot of people away from Christianity with his rejection of intellectual study and interpretation of the very book he's trying to beat us over the head with because that would challenge his worldview and his own confused theology(if you can call the nonsense that comes out of his mouth "theology.")

I'm literally ill right now. I'm so angry that my stomach has turned sideways and I might just throw up. This man has turned the Christian Faith, my faith, into a hate group and a punchline. In the meantime, not nearly enough of us are standing up to announce that this "preacher" doesn't speak for us or our faith. We have to start and start soon, because I can't take this much longer.

2 comments:

Lisa P said...

These people make me literally hopping mad. I have to remind myself to pray for them instead of judging them (or punching them).

Anonymous said...

Pete pointed me to you blog. I'm glad he did.