James Dobson in a panic over 2006 midterms

[cynatnite]

snip:
The program, coordinated by the Colorado-based group Focus on the Family and its influential founder, James C. Dobson, would use a variety of methods — including information inserted in church publications and booths placed outside worship services — to recruit millions of new voters in 2006 and beyond.

snip:
The program, announced in an e-mail to activists last week, is seeking county and church coordinators in the targeted states of Maryland, Montana, Tennessee, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Minnesota.

"In 2004, about 25 million evangelicals failed to vote. Now is the time to reverse the trend," the e-mail said.

According to the e-mail, county coordinators are being asked to work about five hours a week and would be responsible for "recruiting key evangelical churches."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gopchurch15aug15,0,5887088.story

[saltpoint]

1. Dobson has built himself quite an empire in Colorado Springs

but his support couldn't pull Ralph Reed out of the electoral fire in Georgia. The reach is sometimes long but it's getting shorter.

Evolution candidates are prevailing over anti-evolution candidates in more than one instance.

The Far Right is not gaining the ground it had hoped to gain.

Dobson is a public embarrassment. I hope every candidate he's backing in November gets washed back down the sewer drains they came from.

[lonestarnot]

12. Second!

:hug:

[saltpoint]

27. Lonestarnot, hi to you and Happy Wednesday afternoon.

Here's a big hug right back atcha, good person.

:hug: :hi: :dem:

[mntleo2]

22. Render Unto Caesar ...

...as a mainline christian myself I find Dobson to be so off base biblically that he is beyond an embarrassment, he is a liar, an elitist, and a Pharisee. Like many evangelists (not all there are some good people out there) he seems to "forget" that in Iraq, Palestine and other places are some of the oldest Christian communities in the world ~ where "his" religion began, yet these are places where he supports wholesale killing. Unfortunately, like evolution, their history does not fit his paradigm of what he would like. As so many of his ilk seem to do, he thinks he is speaking for God when he spews his crap when in reality, he is speaking for his real god ~ himself.

As for Dobson's politics, well as usual he is purposefully ignoring his Teacher and supposed savior.

When the Pharisees sought to put Jesus in a box and asked to whom should they pay taxes to ~ Caesar or the Jewish state, they were trying to get Jesus killed because if Jesus had said to pay taxes to the hated Roman government, he would be speaking against this own faith. If Jesus said to pay taxes to the synagogue, he would be speaking treason against the Roman government. But Jesus asked for and was given a Roman coin with Caesar's face upon it where the inscription below the face says in essence that Caesar was the son of God. So Caesar, and evidently his empire believed that the emperor was a god. But in Jesus' faith and in Dobson's faith, who owns everything? Their answer would be "God owns everything ..." Whereas Caesar just thinks he owns everything. Jesus told them to "render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's and to God that which is God's." He was saying to give to God (support one another) because Caesar (and the Pharisees as well as the whole Roman empire) were just living an illusion.

Many Christians believe that Jesus was telling people to pay their taxes, obey the law of the land, but he was not. Jesus was telling the Pharisees that true obedience was to God. And if the law of the land held that their leader was also a god then they were called to resist that, along with unjust laws from which only a few could benefit (which the Pharisees did benefit because they were benefiting from the Roman government, while most of their people were not). So because Dobson thinks that obedience to man's law is also obedience to God (well he thinks OTHER people should obey those laws, but not him and his cronies) Dobson feels quite justified in thinking he has some pipeline to God (and we know he has one to Bu$h) and he should tell other people when and how to vote.

What a pompous ass.

My 2 cents

Cat In Seattle

[saltpoint]

28. Thanks for that, Cat In Seattle. I think you nailed Dobson good.

If I may invoke that image, given the subject.

I've distrusted Fungus on the Family from its outset and so your negative characterization of Dobson works just fine with me.

No complaints whatsoever.

In fact, you may have been a bit too charitable. I'm still comfortable with the washing-them-back-down-the-sewer-drain-they-came-from plan, although I admit it will take more than a weekend's work. They're are a lot of Dobson-lovers out there, and it would be a shame wasting all that water just to flush them away.

The liberal Christians I know think Dobson is far worse than your characterization, but they would say you have provided the foundation for his role. He's a very un-Christian, almost anti-Christian personality. It would be a fine thing to see a lot of Colorado Republicans he supports go down in flames this November.

The fewer the Republican lackeys he has, the less far his influence extends.

And that would be a good thing.

[waiting for hope]

2. Separation of Church and State?

Is Dobson a non-profit? What would be the stink of Democrats put up booths in front of, let's say, public libraries, or perhaps the downtown federal courthouse....

[fishwax]

13. those seem like perfectly appropriate places to put up booths

what would the objection be?

[waiting for hope]

25. Sorry - I was being sarcastic

It just seems that the ilk of people like Dobson would object just out of their own sense of perverted righteousness.

[fishwax]

26. i see ... and you're probably right

they'll object to anything, because pretty much everything is anti-christian, I guess. :)

[xchrom]

3. god, guns and gays.

[AlinPA]

14. Let's not forget the Flags. 'murcans need to wave the flag. And hate

them people in them other countries that talk funny.

[City Lights]

4. How many evangelicals are out there?

From a WaPo article on the 2004 election:

According to surveys of voters leaving the polls, Bush won 79 percent of the 26.5 million evangelical votes and 52 percent of the 31 million Catholic votes. Turnout soared in conservative areas such as Ohio's Warren County, where Bush picked up 18,000 more votes than in 2000, and local activists said churches were the reason.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32793-2004Nov7.html

26.5 million evangelicals voted in 2004 and Dobson claims 25 million more stayed home? :shrug:

[rsmith6621]

6. Im One!!!!!!!

I vote with my Mind not My Bible....

[asjr]

7. Good for you. That is what we are supposed to do--

vote with our brains. Even Jesus believed in separation of church and state--he threw out the moneychangers from the temple.

[City Lights]

9. If you vote regularly, you're not one of the 25 million that

dobson is talking about. Plus, you're a thinking evangelical - definitely not what dobson is looking for. ;-)

[rsmith6621]

5. Whats He Worried About.....

The Rapture is comming up soon on Aug 22nd......Isnt it???

........................................Maybe James is doubting his faith......

[gatorboy]

8. Who came up with that date anyway?

The August "end of the world" one, I mean....

[RaleighNCDUer]

16. I don't know, but he's wrong.

The world will end in 2012, at the end of the Mayan calendar cycle. Everybody knows that.

[AlinPA]

10. The bigot is having a rally at Pittsburgh's Mellon Arena in September

The ad in the paper says "you'll learn about what's at stake in this election, etc....to protect the family". Santorum is not yet scheduled, but I'm sure he will join his fellow bigots.

[warrens]

11. Even fewer evangelicals will vote this time

First, a huge chunk are liberals or at least moderates. Second, except the crazies, evangelicals are typically anti-war. Third, evangelicals have a built-in distaste for politics.

Keep trying, Jimmybaby, but screeching endtimes and gay marriage ain't going to help your fascist buddies this time. More than ever will stay home or vote Dem.

[RaleighNCDUer]

18. You know, you would almost think that Dobson, like so many

other ill-informed people, thinks that to be an evangelical is to be a fundigelical, or as you put it, the crazies. This would indicate that he is himself a fundigelical - for no believers I've ever come across know less about their own religion than fundigelicals - or he is a sloppy con man enriching himself off the beliefs of others who he really doesn't understand.

I lean toward the latter.

[zanne]

15. They employed all their tactics last time.

In the last election, they really got the evangelicals riled up, and they came out in droves to vote. They've already done that. They won't get a bump this time, because few Democrats will be voting for Republicans this time around. (They do need Democratic votes to win). I see a parallel here between the Dobson method and the Bush method. Fear isn't going to win them an election this time. I'll be a little crude about it; they shot their wad.

[Blackhatjack]

17. We need to go right at Dobson where he is weakest ....

...Evangelicals equate Dobson suggestions to being soundly morally based advice. Dobson has some pretty close ties to unsavory characters who are having their "dirty laundry" aired in public right now(ie. Ralph Reed, gambling interests paid for with evangelical donated money,etc.).

One thing Evangelicals hate the most is being minimized, taken advantage of, and involved in anything that is underhanded or immoral.

Remember that Abramoff and buddies referred to them as "religious whackos" and discussed how to take advantage of them.

Dems need to put Dobson on the spot and make him choose to align himself with these characters or admit that he made a mistake in consorting with these folks and recommending them to other evangelicals to support. Either way Dobson is gonna take a hit with his followers, and become less influential in supporting rightwing conservative Republican candidates.

What Dobson has done is hide under a "pretense of nonpartisanship" and heavily get out the vote for Republicans based on a pack of lies.

[Blackhatjack]

19. Q for Dobson: Do you still support Tom Delay? Even after charges??

..Take each one of the wrongdoers to Dobson and ask him if he supported them in the past, and still supports them as an example the would hold up to Evangelicals to vote for today, if they were running for election.

Just go down the list. And point out the hypocrisy and inconsistency, and at the least the fact he was lied to by the same folks who want their vote this time.

[maxrandb]

20. Democrats need to counter this BIG-TIME!!

Why we don't place our own pamphlets into church bulletins is beyond me. I'm appalled at the Republicans for doing this, but if they are going to fight dirty, then Democrats better fight dirty too.

Of course, Dems wouldn't have to pass out voter guides, we'd simply need to highlight sections of the Bible like the "beatitudes" or the entire book of Matthew, or Jesus' words about money changers and stone throwers. Somehow I think the irony would be lost on the likes of Mr Dobson.

But seriously, for every wing-nut "voter guide" passed out in church, there ought to be a counter guide detailing the dealings of Jack Abrhamhoff.

Fight "fire and brimstone" with "fire and brimstone"!

I have more faith in my pinky, than Mr Dobson has in his entire foul soul.

[AspenRose]

21. A TAX on all their houses

They need to be taxed, plain and simple

[lisainmilo]

23. I live in the Bible Belt

I live in the middle of the country, in the middle of a red state, in the middle of rednecks. I don't have cable or satellite, I rely on my TV antenna (anyone remember those?) and get 3 to 6 stations depending on the weather and which way the wind blows. Anyway..........On Sunday mornings here, the local TV stations all have broadcast sermons from various churches. ALL of the snippets (this last Sunday) I watched spoke about our war on terrorism. They preach the Christian vs.Islamic, the Holy War. They preach about GWB and love him. They still have a powerful hold on alot of people. My husband and I have stopped going to church. We tried various churches and religions and could not find one that kept politics out of religion, we even tried one 50 miles away. Needless to say, it is important to continue our efforts to stay off the sidelines and into action. To educate. There is a reason all this came up again.....it's the Repubican tactic to provoke fear at the personal level and the national level.
:dem:

[Sinti]

24. "In 2004, about 25 million evangelicals failed to vote.

I thought that was how they supposedly "won" the election in 2004? Which is it, did they vote in droves to make sure the creep was kept in office, or did they not vote? Cake and eat it too moment I'm having here.

*edited for dumbness.

[napi21]

30. Hmmm, you don't suppose they got caught up in the purge the

voting registers do you? Or maybe they're NOT ELIGIBLE? I was an accountant for 45+ years! Believe me, don't trust ANY numbers you hear, especially from a partisan trying to prove a point!

[GreenPartyVoter]

29. Let him panic