Donate to or support
Talk to Action








The Indian River Incident : What You Can Do

link > The "Stop the ACLU Coalition" Shaming Project
How you can help stop "Stop The ACLU" just by sending a few emails



 'Left Behind' video game imageThe Shaming Project

does the violence of "Left Behind: Eternal Forces" bother you ? If so, what can you do ? Well, to begin with you can email Jonathan Hutson's stories to people you know. That will help to bring more public scrutiny of the game. Public shaming really works ! Just click on the "email" icon and link at the top or bottom of the story and you'll be taken to a form that will allow you email the first story, The Purpose Driven Life Takers or the latest installment without leaving this site. Thanks. 'Left Behind' video game image




Can Dobson Out-Fruitcake Obama on the Constitution?
By Frederick Clarkson Tue Jun 24, 2008 at 12:27:00 AM EST printable version print story
I think he can.

James Dobson, head of Focus on the Family, says the Barack Obama distorts the Bible and has a "fruitcake interpretation of the Constitution."

This according to the Associated Press, which was provided a copy of Dobson's pretaped remarks that will air on Tuesday on his nationally syndicated radio program.

Dobson's colorful attack on Senator Obama, who taught constitutional law for twelve years at the University of Chicago, invites examination of Mr. Dobson's views on the Constitution -- something I have written about from time-to-time.


A few years ago, Dobson was a fervent support of Roy Moore, who was ousted from his position of chief judge of the Alabama Supreme Court for defying a federal court order to remove the religious monument to the ten commandments he had installed in state courthouse.

I wrote about this in an op-ed in The Christian Science Monitor at the time:

At a rally on the courthouse steps, James Dobson said:

"I checked yesterday with my research team," Dr. Dobson announced. "There are only two references to religion in the Constitution." The first, from the preamble, he said, refers to securing "the blessings of liberty," which, he asserted, "came from God" (although there is nothing in the document to support that view.) The other was the First Amendment's establishment clause that, he said, "has given such occasion for mischief by the Supreme Court."

However, Dobson's researchers missed - or ignored - Article Six of the Constitution. That's the one barring religious tests for public office and set in motion disestablishment of the Christian churches that had served as arbiters of colonial citizenship and government for 150 years.

Mainstream historian Gary Wills writes that the framers' major innovation was "disestablishment."  

In a November 2006 interview with Larry King, Dobson indulged in some well debunked revisionist history. I wrote about this at the time. Dobson claimed that there is no such thing as separation of church and state.  The historical record clearly shows that while it is true that the phrase separation of church and state is not found in the constitution or the first Amendment, the phrase was in wide use among leading thinkers at the time, and that Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Baptists was an effort by Jefferson to explain his understanding of the meaning of the First Amendment. That is part of the reason why the Supreme Court has used the phrase since at least 1878 to explain the meaning of the First Amendment, and why it has become a standard part of our understanding of the meaning of the Constitution.

   

KING: But we have a separation of church and state.

    DOBSON: Beg your pardon?

    KING: We have a separation of church and state.

    DOBSON: Who says?

    KING: You don't believe in separation of church and state?

    DOBSON: Not the way you mean it. The separation of church and state is not in the Constitution. No, it's not. That is not in the Constitution. That was...

    KING: It's in the Bill of Rights.

    DOBSON: It's not in the Bill of Rights. It's not anywhere in a foundational document. The only place where the so-called "wall of separation" was mentioned was in a letter written by Jefferson to a friend. That's the only place. It has been picked up and made to be something it was never intended to be.

    What it has become is that the government is protected from the church, instead of the other way around, which is that church was designed to be protected from the government.

    KING: I'm going to check my history.

If King did his homework, he would find whatever any honest researcher finds in response such claims about church state separation. Last year I published a long essay in The Public Eye magazine, titled History is Powerful: Why the Christian Right Distorts History and Why it Matters, and in it, I quoted a classic scholarly debunking by Brent Walker of Dobson's claim, as articulated by Christian historical revisionist, David Barton:  


Of course, neither the words "church state separation" nor "wall of separation" appear in the Constitution. That does not mean Barton's position is correct. The Constitution does not specifically mention "separation of powers" or "the right to a fair trial" either, but who would deny the Constitutional status of those concepts? "Church-state separation" is a metaphor for what certainly was and is the spirit of the First Amendment's religion clauses - government is to be neutral toward religion to the end of ensuring religious liberty.

Barton mentions church-state separation as flowing from Thomas Jefferson's 1802 letter to the Danbury Connecticut Baptist Association. He asserts that later in the letter Jefferson made it clear that he wanted only a "one directional wall" to prevent the government from harming religion, not to prevent religion from capturing the government.

A reading of the entire letter belies any suggestion that Thomas Jefferson thought it was "one directional." There is absolutely nothing in the letter even to hint that that is the case.

Dobson and Obama can disagree all they want about the proper interpretation of the Bible. But Barack Obama taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago for twelve years, while James Dobson has a long record of issuing utterly spurious declarations about the constitution with complete conviction.




Display:
We both criticize Obama's interpretation of the Constitution, albeit on different grounds.  I am mortified that a constitutional scholar like Obama so firmly ignores the 14th amendment and advocates for separate but equal institutions for LGBT people.  It is dishonest in the extreme, and he should be embarrassed to claim civil rights lawyer & constitutional scholar creds on the one hand, while undermining the 14th amendment with his words and stances.  After Bush, it doesn't please me one bit to see another candidate for president so brazenly ignoring the constitution.

by Laurel on Tue Jun 24, 2008 at 12:46:34 AM EST
The title of my comment says it all.  Obama probably believes that he can't get elected if he takes too firm a stand on that issue.

Despite that he was still the best of the three main candidates.  Hillary Clinton was embarrassingly nervous even to mention gay people during the primary season.

That doesn't mean we should give Obama a free pass, but America is still a very conservative country and it will be another decade or more before LGBT issues are no longer controversial.   (I've mentioned before that the leader of the Conservative Party in Britain recently publicly congratulated a gay member of his party and Member of Parliament on getting hitched.  A decade or two ago that would have been political suicide.  So there is hope for America yet.)

by tacitus on Tue Jun 24, 2008 at 11:07:26 AM EST
[ Parent ]

but he should be talking up equality under the law and expanding civil rights.  cuz he's mr. civil rights attorney, right?  and he REALLY needs to stop using the language of the religious right (one man, one woman).  he is seriously undermining our effort to keep our toe hold on equality in CA.  i'm sure if he tried or cared, he could find a way to rephrase his position that would still be against marriage but supportive of expanding rights, and not use the rhetoric of the haters.

While on the campaign trail, Jimmy Carter famously opposed the CA initiative that would have banned gay people from teaching.  And he won, at a time when gays had almost no rights.  Obama can do the right thing and win.  If he wants to.

by Laurel on Tue Jun 24, 2008 at 03:03:20 PM EST
[ Parent ]

But there is a long history of timidity when it comes to Democrats taking a stand on issues over the past few decades.  I don't know how it happened, but the Republicans have usually found a way to put Democrats on the defensive.

From policies like universal healthcare to gays in the military to energy conservation, Democrats as a whole are on the correct side of the issue, and there is a yearning from Democrats for someone to stand up and take on these issues.  Yet somehow our politicians are cowed into silence for fear of the right wing pouncing on them and beating them up.

by tacitus on Tue Jun 24, 2008 at 10:30:30 PM EST
[ Parent ]

has set himself up for special scrutiny here because he has painted himself as a principled change agent, has talked up hope, etc.  if we keep letting candidates get away with being weak, we deserve what we get.  i'm not letting obama get away with it.  i'm calling him out on his spinelessness.  we all should.  otherwise we have no room to complain.

by Laurel on Wed Jun 25, 2008 at 12:54:31 PM EST
[ Parent ]





I didn't hear Dobson railing on about Obama's view of the Bible, but I did hear him talking for the umpteenth time about how the "Fairness Doctrine" was about to destroy conservative and religious talk radio.

He had Congressman Mike Pence on the show to talk about his bill which would ban the FCC from ever implementing it without further legislation.

It seems to me that this is just being thrown out there as more political red meat for the conservative base to scare up (as usual) more votes against the Democrats.  Yes, one or two Democrats have grumbled about how biased the media has become, especially on the radio, but there has been no concerted effort by anyone to put the Fairness Doctrine back into place.

Even the activists aren't talking about it much.  There is much more interest in doing something about the consolidation of the media outlets into just a few hands creating monopolies in many parts of the US.  

Anyway, I don't recall seeing much coverage here on this particular issue that the religious right have been hammering on about.  It could do with a good debunking if you have the time.

by tacitus on Tue Jun 24, 2008 at 11:17:50 AM EST



WWW Talk To Action


Its the Substance, Not the Slogan
As Talk to Action regulars know, we believe that name calling and cheap sloganeering are no substitute for actual knowledge and the capacity to......
By Frederick Clarkson (6 comments)
Short Takes: The Family edition
Religion Dispatches: A number of religious leaders called on president Obama to condemn the proposed Ugandan kill the gays bill, which had been originally......
By Frederick Clarkson (0 comments)
Will National Prayer Breakfast Once Again Flaunt Fake George Washington 'Prayer' ?
It was February 2006. President George Bush, King Abdullah of Jordan, and Bono all gathered at the 2006 National Prayer Breakfast. If they read......
By Bruce Wilson (0 comments)
NY Times, AP, Cable News Reports on Air Force Academy Don't Get the Picture
In recent weeks, there has been a pretty steady stream of articles reporting on the much improved religious climate at the U.S. Air Force......
By Chris Rodda (3 comments)
The Road to Remonstrance
I recently wrote about the need for mainstream and liberal Catholics to offer remonstrance -- an earnest presentation of reasons for opposition or grievance......
By Frank Cocozzelli (7 comments)
Angry Voters, Right-Wing Populism, & Racial Violence
Eric Ward is nervous. He's seen it before--the angry right-wing populist crowds, the strident calls to "Restore America" and "Take it Back." In the......
By Chip Berlet (8 comments)
Historians Whack "Liberal Fascism" Thesis
David Neiwert has pulled together a critique of the idea of "Liberal Fascism" over at the History News Network: "It has now been just......
By Chip Berlet (1 comment)
Texas Churches and the Governor's Race
In Polk County Texas, Governor Rick Perry held a campaign rally in one of the Black churches.  He was joined by the head of......
By wilkyjr (0 comments)
Richard Land and Presidential Politics
Andrew Hogue of Baylor University has chronicled the story of Richard Land's connection to Presidential power.  Writing in Texas Baptist History's 2006 Journal, Hogue......
By wilkyjr (0 comments)
Good Riddance 'Jesus Rifles' -- Trijicon to Stop Putting Bible References on Military Rifle Sights
(I've updated this post to add some photos and other stuff to rebut the most common comments I'm seeing on other articles and blogs.)......
By Chris Rodda (1 comment)
Movement Behind Uganda's "Kill the Gays" Bill Organizing in Newark
Street by street, block by block, organized by city ward, PrayforNewark's squads of church members are walking their city, praying for residents and businesses.......
By Bruce Wilson (6 comments)
Resource Directory for the New Apostolic Reformation
The Apostles and Prophets of the New Apostolic Reformation view their postdenominational movement as the future face of the Protestant church and the end......
By Rachel Tabachnick (0 comments)
Sight Fight: U.S. Military Must See Problem With Bible Engravings
Yesterday I wrote on AU's blog about a controversy that has erupted over the revelation that a Michigan-based company has engraved references to biblical......
By Rob Boston (5 comments)
History Matters: Obama Declares Religious Freedom Day
President Barack Obama has issued a Proclamation declaring January 16th Religious Freedom Day. (PDF) In it he invokes the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom......
By Frederick Clarkson (0 comments)
Video Exposes Antigay Western Theocratic Effort "Transforming" Uganda
My new 20 minute documentary, Transforming Uganda, exposes the immense political influence in Uganda of the International Transformation Network and ideological influence of George......
By Bruce Wilson (3 comments)

Pope John Paul II's Penitential Practices: The Opus Dei Connection
We are pleased to once again welcome theologian William Lindsey as a guest front pager. This piece is crossposted from the new progressive Catholic group blog, The Open Tabernacle: Here Comes Everybody. -- FC......
By William Lindsey (0 comments)
WallBuilders, Inc., Promoting a dominionist "Christian Nation"
Cherry Hill Seminary Supports Patrick McCollum in 9th Circuit Case Against California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation http://snipurl.com/u8kcj ......
By Dragonzmajick (0 comments)
Roeder verdict sparks fears of more anti-abortion violence
cross-posted at dKos Scott Roeder is likely to spend the rest of his life in prison for the murder of George Tiller.  At the very least, he'll by 75 years old before he can......
By Christian Dem in NC (1 comment)
The dark underside of the Latter Rain--a walkaway's view
cross-posted at dKos I read Bruce Wilson's posts on dKos and Talk To Action regarding the "Pray For Newark" initiative with particular alarm.  While Pray for Newark appears to espouse an admirable goal--community empowerment--it's......
By Christian Dem in NC (2 comments)
Bishops as Provocateurs
In a thinly-veiled reference to the campaign of President Barack Obama, Archbishop Emeritus of St. Louis, Raymond Burke, charged that Americans are "embracing a totalitarianism which masks itself as the 'hope,' the 'future' of......
By bettyclermont (0 comments)
The Vatican v. Children
Yesterday was not a good day for children seeking justice from the Roman Catholic Church. The internet brought the following news: ......
By bettyclermont (0 comments)
Religious bigots control supermarket chain
Well, they've won again.  The religious bigots have forced Publix Supermarkets into bowing to their wishes. ......
By ArchaeoBob (5 comments)
Manhattan Declaration is to Theology what Fox is to Journalism
The December 20, 2009, New York Times ran a lengthy article by David D. Kirkpatrick about Robert P. George, "The Conservative-Christian Big Thinker." The occasion was release of George's "Manhattan Declaration" signed by the......
By bettyclermont (2 comments)
Merry Freakin' Christmas: I'm Taking Your Stuff, and you Can't Stop Me!
A humorous look at the larger implications of a seemingly harmless holiday tradition. ......
By John Sheirer (1 comment)
Lou Engle, September 25, 2007, Los Angeles: "Holywood"
[This is a partial transcription of a sermon/speech Lou Engle, Founder of TheCall gave on September 25, 2007, in Los Angeles. The full sermon is slightly over 63 minutes. This partial transcript is of......
By Bruce Wilson (0 comments)
Rick Warren Tweet complains my videos of his "Hitler/Lenin/Mao" speech are unfair
It's gratifying to know "America's most powerful pastor" seems to have taken notice of my videos, showcasing Rick Warren's 2005 speech at California's Anaheim Angels Stadium, during which Warren outlined a "stealth" program to......
By Bruce Wilson (4 comments)
Blurring Reproductive Rights and the Religious Right
The principle of the Hyde Amendment, which restricted federal funds from paying for abortion back in 1976 -- is now seen as an acceptable, "abortion neutral" position for the prochoice Democratic Party. How did......
By Frederick Clarkson (0 comments)
Rick Warren Calls on Followers To Be Dedicated as Followers of Lenin and Mao
[note: for more recent news on Rick Warren, see Rick Warren's Dissertation Advisor Leads Network Promoting Uganda Anti-Gay Bill] Video, below contains audio recording, photos, and transcript from Rick Warren's April 17, 2005 speech......
By Bruce Wilson (6 comments)
Julius Oyet Touts The College of Prayer
A new Talk To Action story identifies Apostle and bishop Julius Oyet as a major player in the recent effort in the Ugandan parliament to pass a draconian anti-gay bill. In this video [transcript......
By Bruce Wilson (1 comment)
Mark Silk on the Hagee / Rodriguez Entente
Mark Silk, at Spiritual Politics has picked up on my notice of the Hagee-Rodriguez embrace and zeroes in on what's certainly one of the most notable aspects: "The key thing to understand about the......
By Bruce Wilson (1 comment)
Inscribing Christian Values in our Children Before Birth?
Following the evolution of evangelical discourse as it re-defines homosexuality as evidence of "fallen creation", Terri Murray looks at how the Christian right have shifted their rhetoric to adapt to empirical research showing that......
By TMurray (0 comments)
US News & World Report Showcases Creationist Ray Comfort
US News and World Report's Dan Gilgoff has charitably provided evangelist Ray Comfort a media platform in the form of a US News & World "exclusive" through which Comfort defends his efforts to distribute,......
By Bruce Wilson (0 comments)
Atheist billboard in Central Florida
The organization "Atheists of Florida" sponsored a billboard promoting atheism in Lakeland, Florida.  I, however, have some concerns. ......
By ArchaeoBob (3 comments)
Transcript: Billy Graham and Richard Nixon, February 21, 1973
The following is my own transcript of a 20 minute phone conversation between Richard Nixon and Billy Graham, on February 23, 1973. As far as I am aware this is the only publicly available,......
By Bruce Wilson (1 comment)
Rifqa Bary being sent back to Ohio now
Well, there's a change in this case.  After the judge gets immigration documents and so on from the parents, he will send her back. ......
By ArchaeoBob (0 comments)
The War on The War on Christmas Goes To Pot
The first day of Fall could be considered the official launch date for the annual war on the war on Christmas, which represents a significant part of the the American Family Association business model......
By Bruce Wilson (1 comment)
School Officials off the hook
Today it is reported that the judge excused the school officials who violated the agreement they had over separation of Church and State. ......
By ArchaeoBob (0 comments)
Dominionists trying to outlaw birth control
Well, they're at it again in Florida. ......
By ArchaeoBob (5 comments)
No Danger for Rifqa Bary
The FDLE just completed an investigation and found "no credible reports of threats" against Rifqa Bary. ......
By ArchaeoBob (1 comment)
Truth hitting the mainstream!
I've despaired of ever seeing anything critical or exposing Dominionism hit the mainstream press.  There is now an exception. ......
By ArchaeoBob (0 comments)
Extremism?
The term extremism is currently in vogue to describe hate groups and other malcontents listed as such by knowledgeable monitors like SPLC and others in the T2A sidebar, but while we all know what......
By Jay Taber (2 comments)
My Netroots Nation Panel Talk
Where Do We Stand in the Bright Light of History? Netroots Nation August 14, 2009 Thank You, Professor Ledewitz, for initiating this discussion of a progressive vision for church and state -- and Netroots......
By Frederick Clarkson (0 comments)
Transcript, Jan. 18, 2009 Steven Anderson Sermon Excerpt
Note: the sermon excerpt video and transcript below, from a January 18, 2009 sermon by pastor Steven Anderson of the Tempe, Arizona Independent Baptist Church, begins at approximately 21:30 into Anderson's  one hour, four......
By Bruce Wilson (1 comment)
More anti-Muslim provocation
The local paper reports that students in Gainsville, Florida are wearing T-shirts with "ISLAM IS OF THE DEVIL" printed on them. ......
By ArchaeoBob (1 comment)

More Diaries...


Donate to or support
Talk to Action

Left Behind: Eternal Forces: Installments of Jonathan Hutson's Talk To Action expose series on the "Left Behind: Eternal Forces" video game have been viewed by up to 1/2 million people. See our site section featuring Over 35 original articles covering the controversial "Left Behind: Eternal Forces" video game that has provoked a boycott by a coalition of religious groups and a letter writing campaign urging Walmart to stop selling the game. Media inquiries click here
(image: detail from Francoise Dubois' rendition of the Bartholomew's Day Massacre reveals the actual nature of religious warfare)