Obama-Dobson discussion disturbing

After reading the news coverage, comments and blogs this morning, I find it disturbing the discussion is whether Obama’s views of religion and government are correct rather than Dobson’s egregious misrepresentation that Obama “criticized Dr. Dobson and biblical teaching” and “went so far as to equate Dr. Dobson with the far-Left Rev. Al Sharpton” in his keynote address to the 2006 Call to Renewal Conference.

Dr. Dobson’s name is mentioned only once in the speech. “And 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? Would we go with James Dobson’s, or Al Sharpton’s?” Clearly, Obama is using Dr. Dobson and Al Sharpton to represent POLAR OPPOSITE views, rather than equating them.

I would like to give Dr. Dobson the benefit of the doubt that perhaps he misunderstood Obama’s intention. However that would be unreasonable. Dr. Dobson is an intelligent, educated man who has worked in the political arena for years. It is perfectly valid for Dr. Dobson (or anyone else) to rip apart Obama’s views of the role of religion in politics. Examine his profession of Christian faith and stance on abortion, gay rights, school prayer, welfare, race, etc. It is irresponsible, negligent, and perhaps villainous to suggest that the speech in question had anything to do with Dr. Dobson let alone to state that it criticized him. It is deceptive to say that the speech equates Dobson and Sharpton when it actually uses them to represent polar opposite views.

But no one is talking about it. We accept it as par for the course in political rhetoric. It is perfectly acceptable to ‘bear false witness’ and that is disturbing.

Moron of the Week

James Dobson

The news sites have various headlines about James Dobson accusing Barak Obama of “distorting” the Bible. A cursory reading of the stories shows Dobby (apologies to the house elf) to be the one distorting things. The objections highlighted on Dobson’s Citizenlink website are that Obama “went so far as to equate Dr. James Dobson with the far-Left Rev. Al Sharpton" and is “deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible”

If you take the time to find 2006 speech that Dobby is referring to, you will find his name mentioned in only the following statement.

“And 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? Would we go with James Dobson's, or Al Sharpton's?”

It is obvious that Obama is using James Dobson and Al Sharpton to represent polar opposites, rather than equating them.

Obama’s supposed distortion of the Bible comes immediately afterward.

“Which passages of Scripture should guide our public policy? Should we go
with Leviticus, which suggests slavery is ok and that eating shellfish is
abomination? How about Deuteronomy, which suggests stoning your child
if he strays from the faith? Or should we just stick to the Sermon on the
Mount - a passage that is so radical that it's doubtful that our own Defense
Department would survive its application? So before we get carried away,
let's read our bibles. Folks haven't been reading their bibles.”

I’m not sure what the distortion is here. Perhaps that Leviticus and Deuteronomy do not ‘suggest’ but rather dictate that eating shellfish is an abomination and children should be stoned? There is ample scripture in both the Old and New Testaments that describe the proper treatment of slaves, so it is hardly a distortion to suggest that the Bible can be seen as saying slavery is ok. It has been a while since I’ve read the Sermon on the Mount; maybe Obama has missed something there. I guess I should follow his advice and read my Bible.

There is nothing surprising in Dobson’s statements or political tactics. It is just absurd to think that it will do anything other than make him look like an idiot. That wins him the moron of the week award. I would like to call it moron of the month or year, but there is a lot of time between now and November for others to top Dobby.

Games with words

The vegetables have been planted and the smell of cupcakes cooling hangs in the air with Johnny Cash. She lies in the hammock reading Sanskrit stories of sex and the city in Canada where poppies are worn to remember war.

Politics are looking up.

I have voted in five presidential elections.  In each case, my vote was not cast for a candidate, but against his opponent.  At this point, the upcoming election holds the potential to be different.

 

Both John McCain and Barak Obama are circumspect thinkers.  Admittedly you have to wade through a lot of political BS to see it, but it is there.   Both men have known privilege and oppression.  Which I believe produces a more balanced approach to things. It is encouraging to me that McCain’s most famous work in congress (POWs and campaign finance) is bipartisan legislation.  His criticism of the attacks on John Kerry’s war record in the 2004 election showed character willing to step on the party line.  Everyone likes Obama’s optimism and campaign of hope.  What really stands out to me is that he has energized the younger generation of voters.  In previous elections only the ‘political geeks’ under 35 were enthusiastic enough about a candidate that it translated into action.  There are a lot of people who are actively working to get Obama elected.

 

The campaign with test both men and their agendas, but I am hopeful that we are starting out with 2 candidates who appear to genuinely care about righting the course of our country. 

 

 

would you like prayer with that?

Several weeks ago, possibly the last time I was at church, I was at church in a shitty mood.  It had been a progressively worsening day and it felt like everywhere I turned someone why trying to make me feel isolated and alienated.  I didn’t really feel like going to church, but it appeared to be the last opportunity for me to go to church for a while, I needed to put my last donation check in the offering for the year and my girlfriend was running power point.  It was the second Sunday of Advent and we were lighting the candle of peace.  I had come expecting a service that focused on peace.  Unfortunately, the church is having some financial difficulty, so the focus was M-O-N-E-Y.  Sitting through a service focused on giving and service to the body of Christ is not really beneficial when you’re spent and have nothing to give – except for the aforementioned check that was written out before the service.   I sat in the A/V booth through the service, feeling more and more isolated and separate from ‘the community’ as the night went on.

 

At the end of the service there was the typical announcement that the prayer room would be open and staffed if anyone needed prayer.  Honestly, I needed prayer.  I knew I needed prayer, but the last thing I could do at that point was step into a room full of people – most younger than me, at best acquaintances – and open up the cares and worries that were weighing me down.  What I wanted, what I needed, was support from people that were familiar with me and my life.  I’m talking about the difference between going to McDonald’s and ordering a ‘meal’ and going over to your little sister’s and making dinner.  One is a relationship build from shared history; the other is a service.

 

So at the end of a very depressing day, to my jaded ears, the announcement that the prayer room was open and available for those who needed it sounded like “would you like prayer’s with your happy meal?”

 

 

insight and error

Nabakov wrote “The difference between dreaming of a reordered world and dreaming of reordering it oneself as one sees fit is a profound and fatal one.”  He is writing about Stalin as one of a group of young men who could not “make any distinction between their abstract rebellion and his lust for power.”  This idea could provoke an interesting discussion about the difference between wanting to make a better world for all and wanting to make a better world for oneself.  Unfortunately, I’m not really thinking about that because I read something slightly different than what Nabakov wrote.

 

What I read was “The difference between dreaming of a reordered world and dreaming of reordering oneself is a profound and fatal one.”  We usually look to change others, our circumstances or the things that constrain us.  We rarely look to change ourselves.  For the most part we are powerless to change anything but ourselves; yet we continually look for any solution that doesn’t involve changing ourselves.  Worse we decry others for failing to make the changes that we do not make (but need to) ourselves.

 

During my last visit to my mother’s I was frustrated with her for not getting rid of all the junk that is cluttering up her house.  It would be so much better if she would get rid of the stuff she doesn’t need and organize the storage of the rest.  I looked for ways to help (force) her to be more organized and wondered if she would even notice if I simply got rid of certain things.  This line of thinking helped to distract me from thinking about all of the junk that I haven’t had time to sort through or organize since I moved.  Unfortunately, I made the mistake of realizing that the reason I was so frustrated with my mother’s disorganization was that it reminded me so vividly of my own.

Shampoo?

Definitions of sham on the Web:

n. fake: something that is a counterfeit; not what it seems to be

v. simulate: make a pretence of;



Definitions of poo on the Web:

n. Excrement.

v. An act of defecating.



Therefore the definition of Shampoo should be…

n. not the excrement it seems to be

v. make a pretense of defecating

Thoughts on Love

Love is a noun --

    Person : God

    Place : you want to be, sucks to be out of

    Thing : that binds us, that sets us free

 

Love is a verb --

    Will you love me?

    Do I love you?