Obama's New Problem: Religious Leader Ends His Silence

Obama’s New Concern, Religious Right Leaders Ending Their Silence

There is no secret to the fact that John McCain’s moderate stances have turned away large segments of the Conservative Religious Right base. In poll after poll, McCain has only enjoyed 80% of the Republican vote, a number that all political analysts say he must increase. The McCain campaign has been sharply criticized for its failure to court evangelical support; creating a visible rift that the Obama campaign has realized and attempted to exploit by inviting evangelical leaders to a private faith-based meeting held last week.

One particularly quiet, yet extremely influential Christian leader is Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family. Dobson and Focus on the Family’s influence runs deep within the evangelical and religious right community. Since McCain became the presumptive nominee, Dobson has remained essentially quiet in large part to his past criticism and dislike of John McCain’s moderate posture and failure to cater to the full-text of the religious right’s platform. Today, all of that is about to change.

Dr. Dobson has apparently decided that now is the time for him and the religious right to put aside their differences with McCain, not yet openly supporting his candidacy, but working to defeat the greater evil. Today on his radio show Dobson launched an assault upon Obama for his distortion of the Bible and “fruitcake interpretation” of the constitution. Dobson slammed Obama for his cherry-picking criticism of biblical texts stating, “I think he's deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own worldview, his own confused theology…He is dragging biblical understanding through the gutter”

Dobson’s attack on Obama was relentless and perhaps the boost that McCain needs to start garner support from the so-called “religious-right”. Dobson has said in the past that he could not see himself voting for McCain because of McCain’s moderate credentials; but today’s show should send a clear message that although McCain is not their ideal candidate, the alternative is abominable.

The Obama campaign has banked on McCain’s inability to secure the full backing of the religious right and vocal conservative leadership of the party. But Dobson’s message today opened the door to what will be a steady procession of support moving toward the McCain campaign. Dobson’s show reaches millions of strongly religious Americans and his criticism of Obama will reverberate throughout the conservative religious community. McCain is certainly not the ideal candidate for the “religious-right” platform, but the question that the “religious-right” needs to ask is, “Are you willing to accept the alternative?”

I personally am opposed to single-issue or movement voters. I believe that in our lives and in our government, everyone must be willing to make concessions to protect and create prosperity within our future. I personally have reservations on some of John McCain’s positions, but I also realize the historical dangers presented by semi-socialist positions and over-pandering of Barack Obama. An electorate should not be driven by any single issue, let alone those that polarize our nation and split the electorate. Americans, including those that view themselves as part of the “religious-right”, need to remember that the greatest leaders of this nation all had one thing in common; they understood the necessity to prioritize the functions of government. The greatest leaders of our nation understood that first function of government was to protect ours and our ally’s sovereignty, followed by promoting economic prosperity, and finally addressing social and cultural reforms. The Obama campaign has made it clear that expect to win this election by breaking down our society into neatly formed groups who only vote based upon single-issues. Remember that in the months ahead.

J Brown
June 24th, 2008
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