For Focus on the Family, a Tricky Invitation From President-Elect Obama
By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country
The New York Times Caucus blog is reporting that the Obama team is planning a National Day of Service for Martin Luther King Day, the day before the inauguration, and inviting organizations of all stripes to participate:
The Presidential Inaugural Committee is putting the wheels for the project in motion with calls and e-mails to national service organizations. The committee is reaching out to organizations of all sizes and ideologies, including faith-based groups, unions and businesses as well as political groups—from Moveon.org on the left to Focus on the Family on the right—to motivate their members to participate.
Come again? Focus on the Family, the evangelical powerhouse whose founder, James Dobson, repeatedly knocked Obama during the election with such zingers as:
"I think he's deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own worldview, his own confused theology."
"... He is dragging biblical understanding through the gutter."
"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? What he's trying to say here is unless everybody agrees, we have no right to fight for what we believe."
God & Country has requests in to the Obama campaign and to Focus on the Family about whether Focus has responded to the Presidential Inaugural Committee's invitation yet and will let you know what it hears back. But Focus has got to be worried that its participation would suggest to its supporters that it is cooperating with the enemy, maybe even lending its imprimatur to a liberal Democrat.
On the other hand, Focus risks losing credibility with evangelicals, especially younger ones, who are increasingly disillusioned with the Christian right's culture war tactics and could be turned off if they see Dobson & Co. rebuffing what they consider a goodwill gesture from the Obama team.
G&C is eager to see how this plays out.
- Read more by Dan Gilgoff.
- Read more about Barack Obama.
Tags: Inauguration | Barack Obama | religion
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Reader Comments
Religion Trumped by Politics?
Focus on the Family should do just that - focus on the family - and stop being a one topic group.
They can avoid projects that conflict with their agenda while still providing service to the community. Are they going to sit on the sidelines for good projects just to spite Obama? That is pretty petty.
Religion is not supposed to make you vengeful and ugly. I thought we were all concerned about making this country the best it can be. Yes - we al have different views about how to do that.
We all can agree that there are poor, or disabled, or elderly folks who need help. Focus on common ground. Show what a good Christian does - leave the judgement to God, love thy neighbor as thyself, hang out with the "blessed" as described in the Beatitudes - the meek, the merciful, the pure of heart, they that mourn, the peacemakers, for example.
If the right still sees Obama only as "the enemy", then they reject his goodness as much as the parts of him they disagree with. He will lead this nation. We should all help him lift us up.
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