Obama vs Dr Dobson and like minded Values Voters for contrast
Obama Makes A Pitch to Values Voters-"America is a country of strong families and strong values," says a political ad that began airing in 18 states over the weekend. The candidate then goes on to say how he helped move people off the welfare rolls and fought for tax cuts. It almost sounds like a typical Republican campaign commercial -- except this is the first national ad aired by Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama since he effectively secured his party's nomination earlier this month. (See ad)...Obama, ranked by The National Journal as the most liberal senator, is pro-abortion and supports civil unions between homosexual couples. Campaign ads won't change that record, said the Rev. Louis Sheldon, president of the Traditional Values Coalition. "He knows nothing about what values voters base their votes on," Sheldon told Cybercast News Service. "He has emphatically voted to support partial-birth abortion, killing the life of the unborn baby partially out of the birth canal. He has agreed to raise taxes by not renewing Bush's tax reduction. All of this is going to come out."But many religious voters don't fall into neat categories on the issues, according to a study by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life released Monday. (See study)"
Obama Loses Church-Goers Again, But Wins Nomination-"After these remarks were reported, Clinton beat Obama, 61-39 percent, among Democratic primary voters in Pennsylvania who said they attend church weekly. Among Catholic Democratic Pennsylvania primary voters who said they attend church every week, she defeated him, 74-26 percent."-A very informative article as to why Obama is focusing on the Values Voter.
ABC: Evangelicals ‘Buzzing’ Over Obama-"According to Harris “hundreds of house parties and rock concerts” are planned to attract the liberal members of the evangelical community. In closing the story Harris conceded that there was “almost no chance Obama will win a majority of evangelicals” but “even a small improvement could make a huge difference in a tight race.”...Harris acknowledged one major stumbling block for evangelical voters: Obama’s support for abortion....At this point he included a sound bite from Tucker Bounds, a spokesman for the McCain campaign, who mentioned Obama’s opposition to banning partial birth abortion and a “failing record on the key issues that are important to evangelicals.”
Rather than delineating those key issues, or mentioning that Obama has an extremely liberal voting record, Harris mentioned that McCain wasn’t conservative enough for some evangelicals either. Harris noted that Mansfield, the author featured in the story, “will not actually vote for Obama because of the issue of abortion.”
Dobson: Obama ‘Distorting’ Bible, Pushing ‘Fruitcake Interpretation’ of Constitution-"“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?” Obama said. “Would we go with James Dobson’s or Al Sharpton’s?” Dobson said Obama condemned pastors for their “diatribes” but “sat for 20 years under the tutelage” of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and suggested Obama couldn’t recognize the controversial pastor’s anti-Americanism....“Folks haven’t been reading their Bibles,” Obama said....“I think he’s deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own worldview, his own confused theology,” Dobson said....Dobson reserved some of his harshest criticism for Obama’s argument that the religiously motivated must frame debates over issues like abortion not just in their own religion’s terms but in arguments accessible to all people. “What the senator is saying is that I can’t seek to pass legislation that bans partial birth abortion because there are people who don’t see that as a moral issue,” Dobson said. “Now that is a fruitcake interpretation of the Constitution. … We don’t have to go to the lowest common denominator of morality which is what he is suggesting. Am I required in a democracy to conform my efforts in the political arena to his bloody notion of what is right with regard to the lives of tiny babies?”...Obama recently met in Chicago with religious leaders, including conservative evangelicals. His campaign also plans thousandsof "American Values House Parties," where participants discuss Obama and religion, as well as a presence on Christian radio and blogs."-See Obama and the Born Alive Infant Protection Act?.
Dr. Dobson's Take on Obama-A must see video of 5 parts of an Obama speech and Dr Dobson radio broadcast in response. Obama responds to the statement: "Jesus Christ would not vote for Obama".
For more on Obama see Obama Reaches Out to Young Evangelicals?, The "Goose Bump" and "Race" trap, First things on Obama's list of first things he will do as President?, MIT Pro-Life students vs Obamas' "moral" concern for his once unborn daughters and hearty empathetic Judges, NPR and Homosexual hit the spot that most secular news mediums miss: Religious Discrimination in the name of Gay Rights., and The Values Voter traps (see The "I am a Christian trap" where Obama says, "I am a Christian. I'm rooted in the Christian tradition. I believe that there are many paths to the same place..")
Pastors Challenge Law, Endorse Candidates From Pulpit-"..God wanted them to vote Republican. In an election where candidates openly discuss their faith and are regularly seen in churches, and a time when pastors' sermons lead the politics sections of newspapers, one might be excused for not knowing that it is illegal for a church to endorse or oppose a candidate for president. when Booth addressed the members of his Warroad Community Church one Sunday in May and told them, "If you are a Christian, you cannot support a candidate like Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton for president," he very much knew he was violating the law. He even wrote a letter to the IRS explaining what he had said and challenging the tax collection agency to do something about it...Booth, 34, is one of several religious leaders who this year hope to challenge federal law by flouting the regulations about endorsing candidates from the pulpit...Booth and other religious leaders who want to challenge the government believe their rights to freedom of speech and religion, enshrined in the First Amendment, permit them to say whatever they want, wherever they want. Those rights, they say, should trump a 54-year-old tax code. "The government is trying to censor me and other religious leaders," Booth told ABC News. "I may be taking on the IRS, but the IRS has taken on the Constitution unchallenged since 1954. I feel like the only law that should dictate what I am allowed to say is the First Amendment." "The gist of my speech was you can't support Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama because they support abortion and homosexual marriage, and the scripture vehemently opposes both. I didn't say vote for McCain, but I'm planning to," he said..."A month before I made the sermon I talked to the church leadership. I told them, 'If we do this we could lose our tax exempt status. Are you prepared for that?' We spent a week in prayer, and I felt God was telling me to make that speech." Booth said despite alerting the IRS to his sermon, he has yet to hear from the agency. The IRS would not comment to ABC News on any specific investigation."...Booth is not the only pastor challenging the IRS this year. The Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian advocacy group based in Scottsdale, Ariz., is enlisting ministers around the country to endorse candidates from their churches' pulpits on Sept. 28. "Pastors on that day will evaluate candidates in light of scripture," said Erik Stanley, senior legal counsel for the group. "Our hope is that the IRS will initiate investigations and we can bring this into the federal courts." Churches, he said, are doubly protected by the First Amendment to make political speeches, because it protects both free speech and freedom of religion. "Churches have constitutional rights and special status by virtue of being churches. This isn't about political speech, it is about religious speech. The Bible and scripture applies to every aspect of life, including who we elect." Both the Democrats and Republicans recognize how important "faith voters" will be in this year's presidential election, and each is working to court religious groups....The Democrats this year are courting religious voters like never before and will open this summer's convention, for the first time, with a prayer meeting."
