James Dobson Blasts Barack Obama

James Dobson, a leader of the religous right, on his Tuesday, June 24 broadcast of Focus on the Family, for 18 minutes blasted Barack Obama for distorting the Bible and for presenting a "fruitcake" intepretation of the U. S. Constitution. At issue was a June 6, 2006 speech that Mr. Obama gave to a meeting of Call to Renewal. In the speech Mr. Obama declared that faith had a place in political discourse. But he also said that any faith that sought to implement its agenda had the obligation to present it, not in its narrow sectarianism, but in a universal way that would appeal even to secularists.

Mr. Dobson took offense. He declared, “What the senator is saying is that I can’t seek to pass legislation that bans partial birth abortion because there are people who don’t see that as a moral issue. Now that is a fruitcake interpretation of the Constitution. … We don’t have to go to the lowest common denominator of morality which is what he is suggesting. Am I required in a democracy to conform my efforts in the political arena to his bloody notion of what is right with regard to the lives of tiny babies?"

In my estimation I'm surprised it's taken the religious right so long to respond to Mr. Obama's 2006 remarks. (See my February 15 post about this remarkable speech in which I opined that these were the most important contemporary remarks regarding the place of faith in American political life.) Mr. Obama's rubric regarding narrow sectarianism versus a universal outlook is akin to what was once known as "suasion versus coercion."

Suasion stands in opposition to coercion. Suasion prevails over time because of the moral truth that drives it. (Truth outs!) It's axiomatic that faith groups should be committed to suasion in contrast to coercion, if only for the realization that coercion inevitably fails.