For some reason, many of you do not seem to think the cause of the family is very important.  Perhaps you forget that God set up the family as the primary unit for raising kids up “in the way they should go.” As the family goes, so goes society.  Many of you criticize Dobson while the government and secular organizations systematically erode the rights of parents to raise their kids in the Christian way.  You’ll wake up one day asking “What happened --- why are they taking my children away from me?  Parents are and will be the primary ones accountable to God for their children, not the government or anyone else.  Thank God for people like Dobson who aren’t afraid to stand up for old fashioned family values and for parent’s rights.  A man can only commit his life to one cause.  Just because he focuses on the Family doesn’t mean he isn’t concerned about AIDS or other issues. 

Our laws reflect the values of society and models the standard for what we as a society hold as good and bad, right and wrong.  Who we elect to make our laws is not a trivial matter.  Criticize Dobson’s politics if you want, but but don’t ever forget he’s probably done more for families than any other person in this country, and I can’t think of a MORE IMPORTANT cause to devote oneself to.  Many of society’s “other” problems can be traced to the breakdown and weakening of the traditional family.  Do not take the family for granted.  Not every problem in society can be solved through legislation, but don’t tell me that Christians shouldn’t be involved in politics.  The Bible tells us that God judges not only individuals, but nations as well.

I was going to bow out of this discussion.  I’ve said more than my fair share.  But Tommyboy addresses Peter and me, later GR Guy made comments that drew me back in.

First GR Guy – I am not sure what I or others critical of Dobson have said that would cause you to think we don’t feel the “cause of the family is important,” or that we have forgotten that God set up the family to raise up kids.  I don’t believe that one person made a critical comment about Dobson’s ministry to families or about the great value of his wisdom and insight through the written and spoken word.  But later you later say:

[Parents are and will be the primary ones accountable to God for their children, not the government or anyone else.]

That is exactly the point.  Dobson et all have duped many into thinking that in order to live out our Christian faith or to raise our children in the way they should go, we must have a Christian president and laws that reflect our Christian values.  This wrong perspective has caused many American Christians to abdicate the very family responsibility you describe, and sadly, to also abdicate our mission.  If living godly lives and providing godly influence to our families and communities is dependent upon a government with “Christian values,” then most Christian families in the world are in big trouble. Nothing in scripture indicates that democracy is God’s anointed form of government.  Neither can we make a biblical case that it’s God’s will for us to have Christian lawmakers and Christian laws (and pleae don’t cite God’s commands to Israel, America is not a parallel).  While the people of Israel were in exile, subject to the pagan king Nebuchadnezzar, God sent this message through the prophet Jeremiah:

“This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:  “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”

God has always expected His people to live Godly lives, regardless of their circumstances.  My friend Zodwa lives in Swaziland.  She is a wonderful Christian woman, and the 3rd wife of a polygamist husband.  The beloved Swazi king takes a new wife every year.  When I was there last year, the wife count was 15.  She is powerless to change her family situation or the public policy about marriage.  However, she IS NOT powerless to influence her family to love and honor Jesus.  Compared to Zodwa (and most Christians in the world), my government interferes almost negligibly with how I raise my family.

TommyBoy – I understand your suggestion about Jesus keeping his focus in spite of the Pharisees attempt to deter him being similar to Dobson’s single mindedness.  I see a different parallel.  Just as the Pharisees attempted control morality through adherence to the law . . . so today is the evangelical political machine, including Dobson.  It will never work.  Rather than imposing Christian laws on a non-Christian society in order to force them to act like Christians, government should someday come to reflect Christ because the followers of Christ have influenced their friends and neighbors so much that society has come to desire public institutions that embraces the values of Christ.

Again, I believe this is what Jesus modeled.

I have another comment about the political fight to overturn Roe v. Wade, but this post is too long so I will weigh in again.

Wendi

To fail to participate in the process is to lose your moral right to speak into it in a democratic society.  And Dr. Dobson, venerated as he is, can’t assume he speaks just for himself when making statements like this.  In effect, he told his million-plus audience to check out of the process.  Hill-o-Bama should send him a thank-you card.

About 30 years ago, my then 16 year-old sister found herself with an unplanned pregnancy.  At the time I was a young mother, outspoken in my conservative Christianity.  This included my passionate views about the evils of abortion, the plague this practice has become in our society, God’s disappointment with us.  In the end, my sister was persuaded that an abortion was her best choice.  Before she made her decision and for a long time after, she felt completely judged and rejected by the church and by Christians, including her sister.  My outspoken views against abortion prevented her from coming to me while she agonized over her decision, and sadly prevented her from talking to me for many years afterward, while she was estranged from God and from her family.  My passionate campaigning was completely ineffective and unable to save the baby my sister carried (who would have been one year younger than my oldest son, now 29 years old).  In retrospect, I believe my posture actually prevented me from being Jesus to her when she needed Jesus the most.  I’ll never know what conversational doors might have opened if my words and behavior hadn’t assured her that neither I nor my Christian friends would be willing to walk with her through this crisis. Our minds were made up.  For us, the options were black and white.

Years later, when the Holy Spirit was tugging at her heart, she got up the courage to go to church one Sunday.  It was “anti-abortion” Sunday.  The congregation was being challenged to call their politician, fight to overturn Roe v. Wade.  The bulletin was filled with statistics about the number of babies who had been murdered, by murderers like her.  That day sent her reeling backwards.

The end of the story is good (except that the baby she aborted would turn out to be the only baby she would ever carry).  My sister is now a devoted follower of Jesus and our relationship has been redeemed.  Grace is miraculous.

And so this is why I am so sickened by Dobson’s intentional efforts to persuade the lawmakers and the American public that he speaks for me.  For years, I was happy that my sister believed me to be an accurate representation of Christianity.  Now, I am ashamed of the arrogance of such a viewpoint.  Of course, I will never know if I’d have been able to persuade her to make a different decision had she come to her big sister for help.  But this I do know for sure; if I hadn’t been so vocal in my political views about abortion (and other “Christian positions”), she would have at least come to me for help.

Making abortion illegal might save a few babies, but it will never transform a heart.  Shouldn’t we invest our resources and energy in things that can be used by the Holy Spirit in the process of transformation and redemption?

Wendi

Wendy,

I am sorry for the pain your sister went through; my sister went through a similar experience.  The difference for us is that neither one of us were Christians, nobody was judging her.  Still, she did not seek out our help and she still went through years of shame.  She actually told me about it a year or more later while we were sitting on the floor of a holding cell at the county jail.  We’ve both come a long way since then!

I guess the difference between you and I is the conclusions we draw from these experiences.  You see your sister’s shame as the result (at least in part) of a vocal “anti-abortion” crowd.  I see my sister’s feelings of shame (in the absence of this crowd) as being the result of sin – Shame was the first response of Adam & Eve and it has been our response since.  You think your sister would have come to you if you weren’t so vocal about abortion but my sister and I were close (we are less that a year apart in age) and I was pretty far away from anything religious, and she didn’t feel that she could talk to me about it.  I think this is the result of shame.  You might hope that things would have be different if, maybe it would have…but I experience the “if” and it wasn’t any different.

Here is my point regarding Dobson: Because someone speaks out against substance abuse it doesn’t make them uncompassionate to the plight of addicts.  The person who warns against sexual sins is not conversely blind to the need to help people plagued by AIDS, STDs and broken relationships.  Likewise the person who stands up and says that abortion is wrong should not automatically be portrayed as insensitive to those who have walked through those doors.  To be sure, there are uncompassionate, blind and insensitive people, Christian and otherwise, but it is wrong to paint the whole lot with a broad brush. 
I pray that the people redeemed by Jesus will never lose the will to speak the truth in love; even as Jesus and his disciples did.  If the salt should loose its saltiness it is destined for the trash; if the light should go out how great will be that darkness. 

Wendi,
Thank you for sharing so personally.  I praise God for the end result.  I am sure your story is not an isolated one as well.  I also say that I do not agree with Dobson’s stance on withholding a vote for president if McCain get the nod.  I think his public statement to the effect was at best, irresponsible. 

I also think the disrespect here towards someone whose life has been lives according to values, consistently and passionately lived is a bit too much.  James is not a pastor nor has he ever been one to my knowledge.  He has not had moral scandal surrounding his ministry, financial scandal surrounding his ministry and he has passionately defended women, children, marriage, family while being an educational voice for many of the ills that afflict the family and our culture. 

Place Dobson into the context of the last 40 years of American History and you get a better picture. 

Peter, I think that your argument against Dobson not using his influence for Aids is wrong on two levels.  First, he has been huge in dealing with the preventative side through abstinence education, through advocating education that held for a higher standard than put on a condom.  I have heard him speak about the plight of HIV and Aids in this world but this is not his primary message. 

You seem to castigate Dobson because he did not run to put out the 5 alarm fire while he is working on a three alarm fire.  You fault him for using his influence to rally and fight a fire that is real and has claimed countless lives and yet praise Bono and the likes for using their influence.  The bible says David was a man used by God for his generation… Jim Dobson is too.  Do I agree with everything Dobson says or does?  No.  but I am grateful to him for his ministry and the impact that ministry has had upon millions and millions of people, myself included. 

Dobson still fights for issues that many younger people have quit caring about but that does not make them non-issues.

Wendi, Pimped out…Duped are words that come from passion but I find them to be more passion and opinion than representative of a Character revealed by a life of service.  These words in my opinion impugn a character and inflame rather than promote healthy dialog.  Again your story reveals your passion and I can imagine you felt duped and pimped out, but I encourage to not let Dobson become your icon for that.  The factors surrounding your sister were much bigger and I am sure Dobson had little to do with most of them.  Forgive me if I seem insensitive, I am not trying to be.

This is very disconcerting - that Dr. Dobson would folding his arms, and sit out his responsibility to be salt and light in a pagan, post-Christian society.  ANY glimmer of light against the deep darkness on the political scene is still potentially very powerful.

But worse, he’s modeling to his huge constituency a posture of piety what is taken by some in the culture as self-righteousness.  This gives the media (Nancy Pelosi and her ilk), a grand opportunity to validate their opinion of evangelicals as the unreasonable isolationists they think we are.

As a Christian conservative, I agree wholeheartedly to Dobson’s analysis of McCain’s shameful record.  However, Dobson has long preached the reality of “half-loaf” public policy when it comes to voting for and endorsing politicians who don’t embrace an ideal Christian ethic.

Voting for McCain may require holding my nose, but sitting this one out is to give the social high-jackers on the Left permission to gloat.  And if many Dobson-followers follow suit, they are sure to score a “win” for the Left.

I’m sick and tired of Conservative Republican Christians acting as if they speak for God.  Let God speak for God.  He addresses a lot more issues than the Republicans are willing to deal with.  The fact is that the conservative Republicans have just as many glaring moral blind spots as the liberal Democrats.  They are just different blind spots.  Honestly, I don’t think Jesus came just to save white upper-middle class men.

This posted by a proud, very evangelical Independent.

Though I understand his frustration, it sounds like a HORRIBLE statement!  Our ability to vote is a gift from God himself!  Not voting is the sin of poor stewardship unless there is no other viable option, and the only options are offensive to the gospel and the word of God.  Thank God there is an option for the Christian conservative voters… Chuck Baldwin..  He is the ONLY 100% pro-life candidate running for president this year! 
“Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.”
-John Quincy Adams
http://www.baldwin08.com/HomePage.cfm