He was recently named "The Most Influential Evangelical Leader in America" by Christianity Today magazine. He thinks John McCain is too liberal. He also thinks that Spongebob Squarepants is gay and practices debauchery.
2 Peter 2
False Teachers and Their Destruction
1But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. 2Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. 3In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.From Jim Wallis in his blog, God's Politics-
"Older Religious Right leaders are now being passed by a new generation of young evangelicals who believe that poverty, "creation care" of the environment, human trafficking, human rights, pandemic diseases such as HIV/AIDS, and the fundamental issues of war and peace are also "religious" and "moral" issues and now a part of a much wider and deeper agenda. That new evangelical agenda is a deep threat to Dobson and the power wielded by the Religious Right for so long. It puts many evangelical votes in play this election year, especially among a new generation who are no longer captive to the Religious Right. Perhaps that is the real reason for Dobson's attack on Barack Obama."
Dear Ted,
ReplyDeleteI was very disappointed in your so-called cartoon bashing Dr. James Dobson. We need to be discerning about the things we embrace and also careful about what we bash.
Alice Masters
And Dr. Dobson has embraced political power. The current clash isn't between absolute truth and relativism. I see it as between legalism and grace, at worst it's between Calvinism and Liberation Theology, neither of which is as Christo-centric as they should be. Since we've all sinned and fall short (Rom 3:23) we all have logs in our own eyes (Matt 7:2-4) so none of us should judge. Let's face it, if Jesus were here today, he'd probably be cavorting with freaks and sinners (Mark 2:14-17), granted that's not to say that he'd condone any of their sin, but I for one think that His grace, love and forgiveness are messier than the movement started by Jerry Fawell's Moral Majority in the 1970's would've approved of.
ReplyDeleteObama's faith talk focuses on helping the community (Matthew 25:39-46), whereas the conventional Republican faith talk of the last 28 years ago have been much more focused on how America is going to Hell in a hand-basket (Romans 1:18-32). Maybe the religious right is more right and Christians of a more progressive political bent like me are wrong, but I prefer to think that Christianity should be pro-active rather than reactive and motivated by love- even of sinners- than by fear, even of sin being somehow contagious or of people mistakenly seeing our love of sinners as the same as condoning their sin (1 John 4:18).
Sorry to disappoint you and I hope we can agree to disagree. An editorial cartoonist's role is to throw rotten tomatoes at people we perceive as hypocrites. Sometimes we have to just hope that doing so doesn't get us burned as heretics.
Thank you SO much for reading, and commenting.
Ted, I like the comic. I don't doubt that Dobson has done some good things, but he has also done much harm. I think it is a shame that he is seen as "untouchable" by so many. He too often is viewed as an unquestionable authority. Yet, many of his behaviors, as well as his ideas, suggest that there needs to be some questioning and critical thinking about this man and his ideas.
ReplyDeleteLH