Here are some relevant links that were brought to my attention regarding the Doc D and Obama thing.
Scott McKnight’s blog, Jesus Creed, is always good… his post on the issue is here.
CNN posted a good summary piece with updated comments from both sides of the discussion. Find it here.
Tom Minnery, Focus on the Family’s senior vice president for government and public policy, was quoted in the CNN online post. I found this interesting.
Minnery said he doesn’t expect Obama to make inroads into the reliably Republican voting bloc.
“Evangelicals are people who take Bible interpretation very seriously, and the sort of speech he [Obama] gave shows that he is worlds away in the views of evangelicals,” he said.
Minnery also said Dobson will probably continue his criticism of Obama.
“Given our fact that religion seems to be such a relevant topic in this election again, we will defend the evangelical view vigorously,” he said.
Please continue with your criticism of Obama, Mr. Minnery. I think that you may be instigating a discussion among evangelicals that has been a long time coming. As you say, Evangelicals ARE people who take Bible interpretation very seriously. By exposing the opinions and theological conclusions of people like Mr. Minnery and Doc. D to the same parsing analysis they use on Obama, we are watering a debate among evangelicals that has been germinating in coffee houses and bus stops for many years. God bless Doc. D. for making this discussion between left and right leaning evangelicals public. Kudos to Obama for having the courage to respond to the Doc in the public forum.
I expect that Obama wins this round. But, it will be a long summer with more debate to come. Watch out Doc. Obama has demonstrated to me an understanding of the gaps between our country’s many understandings of the Christian faith. And he’s not afraid to talk about it. Obama seems to know his Bible well enough to embarrass you if you approach this in a “we have the right answers” fashion. You might get burned by another eloquent response from the other end of the pew.
In the wake of the Doc’s antagonism and misrepresentation of Obama, I hope that we see more followers of Jesus willing to speak freely and courageously to the parts of our faith-body that have been co-opted by and complicit with the powers-that-be on behalf of our oppressed, under-resourced, and powerless neighbors. I pray that right leaning evangelicals (myself among them) have not become so blinded by political power that they can’t see the need for this vigorous discussion.