Let's see...James Dobson claims Barack Obama doesn't want Christians to be involved in American politics, and then Jim
Wallis says that Dobson is misrepresenting Obama's views.
Here's what I think. If Obama had in fact said Christians should stay out of politics, HE WOULD HAVE BEEN RIGHT!
This nation has been awash with Christian groups trying to play politics for the last 30 years and it has done nothing but
increase hatred, bitterness, and self-righteous judmentalism.
On this score Wallis is able to see the speck in Dobson's eye while missing the two by four in his own. He seems to think
that he is saying something novel when he argues Christians should make their case on moral rather than religious grounds.
But he is being self-contradictory. Beliefs are what led to moral convictions. To promote public policy on the basis
of moral convictions is in fact to insert religion into the political process.
Nothing prevents an individual from voting on the basis on his or her religious beliefs and morals, but when leaders seek
to create a movement of such individuals or a voting block, they breach the line separating church and state. Our founders
sought to protect the right of the individual and at the same time protect the state from collective religious influence or
control. De facto religious lobby groups such as Focus on the Famiy AND Call to Renewal at the least violate the spirit of
the law. Dobson and Wallis both seem to forget that the founders singled out religion's influence a dangerous to the
state because they had seen its negative impact in Europe and did not want it repeated here.
The church is free to function within its own life as it chooses without interference from the state. The state is accorded
the same privilege in the Constitution through Article VI and the First Amendment. It seems the only problem Wallis has with
Dobson is in method, not principle. It wasn't what Obama said or didn't say at the 2006 Call To Renewal gathering
that needs careful scrutiny. It is the fact that he spoke to the religious gathering as a politcians in the first place. The
claim that he spoke as an evangelical Christian rings hollow. Had he not been a U.S. Senator, it is likely he would
have not been asked to speak.
Obama is now being tempted to play the religio-political game evanglicals have been playing, only from his angle rather
than theirs. Politcians who reach out to religious voters are seeking to exploit religion to their political advantage.
Other special interests groups may welcome this kind of mutual exploitation, but it is unseemly for Christians
to engage in it. Not only do we have a poor track record in getting laws passed to suit our religious/moral convictions
(Prohibition, Sunday Blue Laws, and anti-gay marriage amendments immediately to mind), but open ourselves to being justly
criticized for co-opting the gospel to whoever happens to be in power.
So here is my counsel to Wallis and Dobson. Vote your own conscious, and leave others to do the same thing. History
suggests that all of us will be better off.
