They know that he his one of the most influential leaders of the Christian conservative movement in this country. They assume, therefore, that he must be either an ordained minister or a noted theologian to have achieved such preeminence. But in fact he is neither. His area of expertise is psychology in which he holds a doctoral degree. His theological expertise is self-bestowed, based upon the fact that he comes from a long line of Nazarene evangelicals. And that his father was an itinerant evangelist.
I have slightly better credentials vis-a-vis the subject of theology in so far as I studied to be a Roman Catholic priest for 11 1/2 years, was ordained a deacon, and hold a Masters of Divinity degree. That more than qualifies me to make the following comment: James Dobson doesn't know crap about theology. Oh he's well-versed in the narrow fundamentalist view of the Bible as the true Word of God as written. But he shows absolutely zero understanding of the complexity of the Bible as an historical and sociological set of writings in addition to it's primary purpose as a tool for teaching moral values and a belief in a higher Being.
Dr. Dobson would probably be amazed to learn that the story of creation found in Genesis has its roots in most of the early civilizations which had almost exactly the same stories which can be found in the reference work The Ancient Near-Eastern Texts. He would be further amazed to learn that the writers of the biblical books drew heavily upon their experience of the world around them. They then took those beliefs and practices of the so-called "pagan" cultures and redacted them to conform to and confirm the unique monotheistic belief of the Jewish people.
Okay. enough of the mini-theology lesson. The point is, is that Dobson is no more qualified to comment or question Barack Obama's own belief and understanding of Christianity and the Bible then I am to comment on and question Dr. Dobson's. Faith and belief in a Supreme Being are unique to every believer. It can't be stamped out with a cookie cutter so that every one blindly and unquestionally follows a rigid dogma.
And it is because of this rigid extreme fundamentalist form of Christianity propagated by Dobson, et al that has brought us to where we are now.
What Dr. Dobson and all the other self-anointed have never understood is that the foundation of Christianity is the belief that the Christ is the fulfillment of all the prophesies of the Old Testament. While Christianity has its roots in the Old Testament, it has been surplanted by the teachings of Christ contained in the writings of the New Testament authors.
It would be nice if occasionally Dr. Dobson and others of his persuasion would remeber that the God they profess to believe in is not the angry vengeful God of the Old Testament but rather the loving God whom Christ called His Father.
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