Biblical Interpretation : Dobson vs. Obama

If I actually take the time to read the bible - or any book for that matter - I'm not going to NOT think about the meaning of it while I'm reading it. You gather your own interpretations from your previous experience, your knowledge of the world, your education. You don't just regurgitate what someone else tells you and claim that you 'know' unequivically that THAT is the truth - a verifiable fact.

If that is the case, how can you prove anything. If you rely on what another person(s) says about the 'meaning' of something, that doesn't make you an individual, it makes you a sheep.

Enter James Dobson. Self-styled consevative-icon, religious zealot and 'leader' of Focus On The Family.






From Rocky Mountain News:

Dobson reserved some of his harshest criticism for Obama's argument that the religiously motivated must frame debates over issues like abortion not just in their own religion's terms but in arguments accessible to all people.

He said Obama, who supports abortion rights, is trying to govern by the "lowest common denominator of morality," labeling it "a fruitcake interpretation of the Constitution."

"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?" Dobson said. "What he's trying to say here is unless everybody agrees, we have no right to fight for what we believe."

Of course, Karl Rove ( wasn't he supposed to be leaving politics to go "spend time with his family"? ) has let people know what he thinks of Obama:

"Even if you never met him, you know this guy," Rove said, per Christianne Klein. "He's the guy at the country club with the beautiful date, holding a martini and a cigarette that stands against the wall and makes snide comments about everyone who passes by."

You know, there was a time where people like Rove - and even Dobson - would have gotten away with really speaking their minds, not glossing over them to make them appear 'untarnished' and 'virtuous'. It's not like they can come out and call him an "uppity nigger", but you can almost tell that they want to. And I'm not the only person that can see that.

So let Dobson pretend to be righteous, pius, or whatever it is he claims he represents. No one can tell you what the Bible ( or any book ) truly means. That's for you to find out.

Obama has surely won this round:

[That speech that Dobson criticized urged that] people of faith, like himself, “try to translate some of our concerns in a universal language so that we can have an open and vigorous debate rather than having religion divide us.”