I consider myself a conservative Christian, but I can’t think of a single national conservative Christian leader with any influence that inspires me right now. Kinda disheartening with all of the dynamic voices out there on the religious left. Is the right leaving me or did I leave the right?

Thank you for saying this! Too often we become too arrogant and seem to think that God can and will only “favor” the U.S.

Kris and I listened last night to James Dobson’s criticisms of Barack Obama’s 2006 speech. I found it on the “Listen to Daily Broadcast”. I don’t know if it is archived, but I did my best to listen carefully and fairly. What to say?

The scuffle was made public yesterday on the internet, and I first read it on CNN. Essentially, Obama spoke about how to be religious and live out one’s faith in a pluralistic society and do so in a way that respects the views of others. Dobson essentially accused Obama of distorting the Bible and the Christian faith and how Christians ought to live in our society.

I hope you can listen to Dobson’s talk; listen to how he represents what Obama was saying. Listen carefully. Judge for yourself. Weigh in here.

Here’s my take: Dobson and his companion commentator routinely distorted what Obama was saying by rephrasing and capturing what he said in their own context and for their own agendas. For instance, Obama hypothesized (Dobson didn’t get this) what would happen if we moved all nonChristians out of our society. Even then, he was suggesting, we’d have diversity. Then, Obama asked, if we lived out the Bible which parts would we choose? Would it be Leviticus or Deuteronomy — and he brings up shell fish and stoning one’s son — or would it be the Sermon on the Mount, which Obama stated would be difficult for the Defense Dept to apply. Dobson and his guest got into how the OT laws aren’t for today.

What they miss here is that Obama is talking about how to live in a pluralistic society.

Here are the words of 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?”

Dobson’s response here was to use the word “equate” — as if Obama equated the two. Dobson’s show suggested that inasmuch as Sharpton was a racial bigot that he (Dobson) was being accused of that, which is filling in the lines with things Obama did not say. This was an unfair and uncharitable representation of what Obama was saying. Obama was giving two examples, two completely at odds versions of the Christian faith in our world. Obama doesn’t equate the two; he connects the two as two kinds, two ends of a spectrum perhaps. Diversity will still obtain is his point.

My big point is that Dobson is doing Christians, evangelical Christians, and the country a disservice in misrepresenting the intent of Obama’s comments.

Look, this is not about my defense of Obama for President; I still don’t know who I will vote for. This is about public civility and discourse, and we’ll never get anywhere if we don’t represent the other person accurately.

But this is certainly not the John McCain we are seeing this election year. This McCain has reversed his position on a massive number of principled stands he has previously taken: torture, the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, constitutional issues, bipartisanship. I certainly once would have been happy with McCain, but those days have evaporated as McCain has turned to pandering and politicking in their worst forms. He is now neither a centrist nor a maverick, and his election would mark a dark and unfortunate choice for the country.

For instance, he further writes in the piece Mike linked:

My determination to act with honor and integrity impels me to work in service to my country. I have believed that the means to real happiness and the true worth of a person is measured by how faithfully we serve a cause greater than our self-interest. In America, we celebrate the virtues of the quiet hero — the modest man who does his duty without complaint or expectation of praise; the man who listens closely for the call of his country, and when she calls, he answers without reservation, not for fame or reward, but for love.

I have been an imperfect servant of my country and my mistakes rightly humble me. I have tried to live by these principles of honor, faith and service because I want my children to live by them as well. I hope to be a good example to them so that when their generation takes our place, they will make better decisions and continue to pave the path towards righteousness and freedom.

qb - I’m again convinced that you and I were separated at birth.

Here’s part of it:

Years later, I saw an example of honor in the most surprising of places. As a scared American prisoner of war in Vietnam, I was tied in torture ropes by my tormentors and left alone in an empty room to suffer through the night. Later in the evening, a guard I had never spoken to entered the room and silently loosened the ropes to relieve my suffering. Just before morning, that same guard came back and re-tightened the ropes before his less humanitarian comrades returned. He never said a word to me. Some months later on a Christmas morning, as I stood alone in the prison courtyard, that same guard walked up to me and stood next to me for a few moments. Then with his sandal, the guard drew a cross in the dirt. We stood wordlessly there for a minute or two, venerating the cross, until the guard rubbed it out and walked away.