Dobson and Obama

I want to weigh in today on Dr. James Dobson's criticism of Barack Obama. Dobson recently responded to a 2006 speech that Obama gave, which discussed the role of faith in politics. Obama said the following (see here for the complete speech):

"[G]iven the increasing diversity of America's population, the dangers of sectarianism have never been greater. Whatever we once were, we are no longer just a Christian nation; we are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers. 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? 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.

"This brings me to my second point. Democracy demands that the religiously motivated translate their concerns into universal, rather than religion-specific, values. It requires that their proposals be subject to argument, and amenable to reason. I may be opposed to abortion for religious reasons, but if I seek to pass a law banning the practice, I cannot simply point to the teachings of my church or evoke God's will. I have to explain why abortion violates some principle that is accessible to people of all faiths, including those with no faith at all."

Dobson and his guest, Tom Minnery, gave at least four responses to Obama's speech (click here to listen to their comments). First of all, Minnery pointed out that most Americans are Christians, according to the Pew Forum's research, meaning that America is not a Muslim nation or a Buddhist nation or a Hindu nation.

Second, Dobson denied that he wants to expel unbelievers or deprive them of their constitutional rights. He also took offense at being equated with Al Sharpton, whom Minnery called a racial bigot.

Third, Dobson argued that Obama is the one who doesn't understand the Bible. According to Dobson and Minnery, many Old Testament laws applied only to ancient Israel, whom God was trying to purify after he had delivered her from Egypt. That means they don't apply today. The implication is that God needed to run a tight ship in order to cleanse his people of paganism and hold them together as a godly nation. Consequently, God separated Israel from the nations through his dietary laws, and he mandated the death penalty for a child who defied God, embarrassed his family, and lived a drunken lifestyle. Dobson and Minnery also dispute Obama's pacifist interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount, for they argue that Jesus and Paul acknowledge the existence of real evil in the world.

And, fourth, Dobson assumed that Obama was saying we should exclude religion from public policy debates, as we focus instead on the "lowest common denominator of morality." Dobson translates this to mean that, for Obama, a Christian cannot oppose partial-birth abortion on moral or religious grounds, but must conform his beliefs to the views of people from other religions (or no religion at all). Dobson sees that as anti-democratic.

I have some responses to Obama and Dobson:

First of all, Obama did not attack Dobson. He did not accuse Dobson of wanting to expel unbelievers or deprive them of their civil rights. His whole point was that, even if America were a Christian nation, there would still be difficulties if we attempted to teach Christianity in public schools, or use it as a guide for public policy. Would we embrace the approach of the Christian right, which James Dobson exemplifies? Or would we draw on the ideology of the Christian left, which Al Sharpton represents?

This dovetails into my second point: Obama is not for excluding religion from public policy. He clearly acknowledges the importance of faith in America's heritage, including its political activism (e.g., abolitionism, the Civil Rights movement). He explicitly states that "our law is by definition a codification of morality, much of it grounded in the Judeo-Christian tradition."

The problem is that people will get nowhere by hurling proof-texts at one another. I can say that the Bible is against abortion, but that won't convince someone who doesn't believe in the Bible. Plus, what would happen if proof-texting became the basis for public policy? Would Catholics be justified in banning birth control for all Americans, non-Catholics included? There's nothing wrong with having a religious motivation for our political positions, or with appealing to Christianity as a way to draw from our common national heritage. But we should also come up with secular arguments. That's what Obama is saying (even though he may question the "common national heritage" part).

And Dobson does this! When he argues for the Federal Marriage Amendment, for example, he doesn't just appeal to Leviticus. He also refers to the decline of marriage in countries that legitimate homosexual unions. He argues that forsaking the traditional definition of marriage can allow it to mean anything and everything. He explains how recognizing gay marriage can completely damage America's Social Security system. It is not reducing ourselves to the lowest common moral denominator to come up with secular arguments for our public policy positions. The religious right does this all of the time!

Third, Obama was pretty condescending when he said that Christians do not read their Bibles. Evangelicals have their ways of explaining (or explaining away) the difficult passages of Scripture. I may not find them convincing all of the time, but Obama shouldn't act as if they're unaware of the Bible's troubling aspects. And, in some sense, he acknowledges later in the speech that Christians do wrestle with them, for he states: "Even those who claim the Bible's inerrancy make distinctions between Scriptural edicts, sensing that some passages--the Ten Commandments, say, or a belief in Christ's divinity--are central to Christian faith, while others are more culturally specific and may be modified to accommodate modern life."

Fourth, I do feel that Obama contradicts himself, on some level. He argues that Christians should not have to leave their faith at the door when they enter politics, then he cites "problems" with bringing Christianity into the public square. He is for allowing "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance that students recite, yet he opposes teaching religion in public schools. Personally, I see nothing wrong with public schools acknowledging the importance of the Christian faith in America's heritage. Sure, non-Christians should not be forced to do so, but why should we have a nationwide ban on school prayer, especially when there are many areas of the country that are predominantly Christian?

Obama wrestles with some hard issues, and, in the process, he looks like he's talking on both sides of his mouth. Dobson takes Obama's speech more personally than he should, plus he quotes it rather selectively.