Dobson's Excellent Point

Whether you agree with him or not, Focus on the Family founder James Dobson makes an excellent point.

Earlier today, Dobson took issue on his radio program with remarks delivered by Barack Obama in 2006 to the faith-based mission group, Call to Renewal, which publishes Sojourners magazine. According to this article at CNN.com, Obama implied that governing based on biblical principals is impractical because many of the outdated practices in the Bible are no longer acceptable.

Calling Obama's remarks a "fruitcake interpretation" of the Bible, Dobson argued that by denigrating the principals of the Bible because of its antiquated practices is akin to "dragging biblical understanding through the gutter" and distorts the Good Book itself.

I have to agree.

Responding to the criticism, Obama maintained later in the day that Dobson got it wrong, that he wasn't distorting the Bible. "Someone would be hard-pressed to make that argument," Obama said.

Actually, given the comments Obama made just two months ago at at a fund-raiser in California, it is very easy to make that argument. More and more, we're beginning to see a clearer picture of Obama's approach to religion. In April, Obama had this to say about blue-collar Pennsylvania workers:

You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton Administration, and the Bush Administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not.

And it's not surprising then [that] they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

A potential Obama presidency should give pause to those faithful to their religion, especially when these comments are juxtaposed with the ones he made in 2006.

While Dobson has said he won't support McCain, the religious commentator's radio remarks come on the heels of an outreach effort to evangelical Christians on the part of the Obama campaign. Dobson undoubtedly sees this outreach for what it is -- an attempt by Obama to pull votes out of a largely-Republican voting block. Without acknowledging Obama's recent effort, Dobson's criticism shrewdly parallels it with the Democrat's former statements and exposes the candidate's garish hypocrisy.

As he said today:

Evangelicals are people who take Bible interpretation very seriously, and the sort of speech [Obama] gave shows that he is worlds away in the views of evangelicals.

Point well made, Mr. Dobson.