Jim Wallis / James Dobson

I was actually quite disturbed by the letter from Dobson. I have to say, it was very much the same rhetoric that I heard him speak before the 2004 election when he came to Raleigh and I won tickets to hear him. And, for a bit of back story, that was also the election when a man in the church I was attending attacked me verbally and publically for daring to say that I hadn't yet decided for whom I'd vote that year. That was a horrible Sunday, when no one in the Sunday School class could defend my right to thoughtfully consider my vote, and my only recourse from that attack was to leave. Four years later, and I'm still shocked that I could have been in that situation in a place that should be safe from that sort of attack--in a church.

So, back to Dobsson's letter. He just confirmed for me that he is a fear-monger who has a very limited view of what it means to be a believer in this world. It's his way or nothing. Dobson's political communications aren't that different from the hellfire and damnation sermons I grew up on--the ones where the preacher says that if you can't see reason and get saved just because he thinks you should, then at least get saved to avoid hell. And of course, that also reminds me of how he tells people to parent their children--as if they are dogs to be beaten into submission. All in all, my respect for Dobson is tenuous, at best, but at least I can say it's stronger than the respect that man in Sunday School showed me four years ago.

And that is why I'm adding this letter from Jim Wallis (a name I do not know, so don't take this as an endorsement) to my political musings here. In demanding an apology from Dobson, he's also offering a defense—an apologetic, if you will—for Christians who believe we are doing the best we can to vote differently than Dobson would like us to.

One final thought. When I voted today for Obama, I voted out of hope, not out of fear. If my hope is not realized, my faith will hold me. However, I do not trust that same resolve had I voted out of fear.

Come now, let us reason together.

James Dobson’s ‘Letter From 2012 in Obama’s America’

by Jim Wallis 10-29-2008

James Dobson, you owe America an apology. The fictional letter released through your Focus on the Family Action organization, titled “Letter From 2012 in Obama’s America”, crosses all lines of decent public discourse. In a time of utter political incivility, it shows the kind of negative Christian leadership that has become so embarrassing to so many of your fellow Christians in America. We are weary of this kind of Christian leadership, and that is why so many are forsaking the Religious Right in this election.

This letter offers nothing but fear. It apocalyptically depicts terrorist attacks in American cities, churches losing their tax exempt status for not allowing gay marriages, pornography pushed in front of our children, doctors and nurses forced to perform abortions, euthanasia as commonplace, inner-city crime gone wild because of lack of gun ownership, home schooling banned, restricted religious speech, liberal censorship shutting down conservative talk shows, Christian publishers forced out of business, Israel nuked, power blackouts because of environmental restrictions, brave Christian resisters jailed by a liberal Supreme court, and finally, good Christian families emigrating to Australia and New Zealand.

It is shocking how thoroughly biblical teachings against slander—misrepresentations that damage another’s reputation—are ignored (Ephesians 4:29-31, Colossians 3:8, Titus 3:2). Such outrageous predictions not only damage your credibility, they slander Barack Obama who, you should remember, is a brother in Christ, and they insult any Christian who might choose to vote for him.

Let me make this clear: Christians will be voting both ways in this election, informed by their good faith, and based on their views of what are the best public policies and direction for America. But in utter disrespect for the prayerful discernment of your fellow Christians, this letter stirs their ugliest fears, appealing to their worst impulses instead of their best.

Fear is the clear motivator in the letter; especially fear that evangelical Christians might vote for Barack Obama. The letter was very revealing when it suggested that “younger Evangelicals” became the “swing vote” that elected Obama and the results were catastrophic.

You make a mistake when you assume that younger Christians don’t care as much as you about the sanctity of life. They do care—very much—but they have a more consistent ethic of life. Both broader and deeper, it is inclusive of abortion, but also of the many other assaults on human life and dignity. For the new generation, poverty, hunger, and disease are also life issues; creation care is a life issue; genocide, torture, the death penalty, and human rights are life issues; war is a life issue. What happens to poor children after they are born is also a life issue.

The America you helped vote into power has lost its moral standing in the world, and even here at home. The America you told Christians to vote for in past elections is now an embarrassment to Christians around the globe, and to the children of your generation of evangelicals. And the vision of America that you still tell Christians to vote for is not the one that many in a new generation of Christians believes expresses their best values and convictions.

Christians should be committed to the kingdom of God, not the kingdom of America, and the church is to live an alternative existence of love and justice, offering a prophetic witness to politics. Elections are full of imperfect choices where we all seek to what is best for the “common good” by applying the values of our faith as best we can.

Dr. Dobson, you of course have the same right as every Christian and every American to vote your own convictions on the issues you most care about, but you have chosen to insult the convictions of millions of other Christians, whose own deeply held faith convictions might motivate them to vote differently than you. This epistle of fear is perhaps the dying gasp of a discredited heterodoxy of conservative religion and conservative politics. But out of that death, a resurrection of biblical politics more faithful to the whole gospel—one that is truly good news—might indeed be coming to life.

http://www.sojo.net/blog/godspolitics/?p=3283