"I think he's deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own worldview, his own confused theology," said Dobson.

Fucking hilarious.

That NY Times piece was kinda dumb, if you ask me. And the headline was a bit overdone, if you read the entire piece.

And with some odd descriptions:

Some Muslim supporters of Mr. Obama seem to ricochet between dejection and optimism. Minha Husaini, a public health consultant in her 30s who is working for the Obama campaign in Philadelphia, lights up like a swooning teenager when she talks about his promise for change

Hmmm. "Swooning teenager"? "Dejection"?

He gives me hope,” Ms. Husaini said in an interview last month, shortly before she joined the campaign on a fellowship. But she sighed when the conversation turned to his denials of being Muslim, “as if it’s something bad,” she said.

So if someone gives you hope, the NY Times describes you as a swooning teenager. And if you sigh, you're dejected.

And this:

As a consequence, many Muslims have kept their support for Mr. Obama quiet. Any visible show of allegiance could be used by his opponents to incite fear, further the false rumors about his faith and “bin-Laden him,” Mr. Bray said.

“The joke within the national Muslim organizations,” Ms. Ghori said, “is that we should endorse the person we don’t want to win.”

Doesn't this sort of contradict the whole premise of the article?

As a Christian, Obama is correct in correcting folks who claim he is not a Christian...I mean, if you were Jewish and somebody said you were Hindu, you'd correct them simply because, well, they were incorrect. But the constant denials from the Obama camp have always bothered me a bit because a) we don't have a religious test for office in this country and b) this being the case, even if he was a Muslim, who cares?

But the problem is that people do care. There are over a billion Muslims on this planet, if I'm not mistaken. Are they all evil terrorists? Hardly. But in this day and age, "Muslim" conjures up images of a scary brown guy in a turban or a scary black guy with a bow tie. It's the world's largest religion and has been around almost 1,500 years...yet somehow it's simply unacceptable to be Muslim and a politician in this country.

So the Obama camp has to do the things they do. Keeping veiled woman out of photo shoots is wrong and unacceptable, but you know the wingers would be plastering those photos all over their stupid blogs, sending out blast emails including the picture saying, "See! I told you!" He's damned if he does, damned if he doesn't. And while American Muslims may hold some political power in certain parts of Michigan, overall, they just aren't an electoral force. As a result, they lose out, all in an effort to protect the insecurities, prejudices, and fears of folks who think every Muslim is out to blow up their kids' school. Sad...

I think Dobson's point is that the Christian religion in this country has been more or less subsumed into the Republican Party, and as such, Democrats are interlopers who must be repelled.

As someone who grew up in the Church, I was exposed to James Dobson about 15 years ago, at the age of 13. I laughed at his stupid ass then, and I am sad that he has grown to what he is today. Does he, or any of his followers, work on a Sunday? Does he know, or is he friends with, anyone who has ever had a divorce? Does he own any clothing made from more than one type of fabric (i.e. any clothing that is not "100% cotton")? Because, if so, he is violating the rules of the bible, all of which state the above are un-godly.
Seriously, James Dobson, what an asshole. Even Jesus would back us up on this one, I think.

It's a bit strange for American Muslims to take exception to Obama considering he's probably the best candidate for them, ever.

But people have a strange way of getting upset with the very people they really don't have any quarrel with and instead laying blame where it doesn't belong. Basically, American Muslims are cutting off their noses to spite their faces if they keep this up.

Goddamn - this is as close as they are likely to come any time soon to having someone in the White House who actually practices their religion - Obama at least has had a passing acquaintance with it.

It's unfair of them or anyone else to blame Obama for trying to dispel the constant rumors of his own religious affiliation, and I wish more people would be more sensitive to Obama's situation and less fucking concerned with their own all the time.

Because it's a mistake - he's the best thing they could hope for just like he's the best thing progressives here who aren't Muslims could hope for and the left is busily trying to fuck that up, too, over whether or not we can sue some corporations.

Some days I really wish I lived somewhere besides America.

If McCain rejects every Republican involved in a scandal . . . He will be less than Lieberman (the Party of one) . . .

Frankly, given Gibson's wife and financing issues makes him the perfect Vice President to highlight McCain's ability to make decissions. Heck! Can't ya all jus picture these two mavervicks against family values and legal financing riding to victory in JANUARY 2009?

Is anyone here interested in setting up a website to help Hillary to retire her debt and for Obama to get money for general election? Here is the idea: Hillary will need return money raised for GE to donors. Many of them may not other wise ready to contribute the returned fund to Obama but they can live without those returned fund, of course. Some Obama supporters who have never contributed to Hillary's primary compaign may be now ready to donate to Obama's GE compaign. So let's make a deal. For every dollar returned by Hillary to her donor which is subsequently contributed to Obama's GE fund, an Obama supporter will contribute the same amount to Hillary to retire her compaign debt. This is a win-win for everybody.

Deal or no deal?

Amk- you are spot on. Absolutely right about every word you wrote.

Fogu2- Finally, someone has the BALLS to talk about religion and race and is not afraid of dealing with either subject as we should have dealt with aeons ago. No, he has not exacerbated anything. It is types like you and the media that are keeping this issue as a front burner and trying to ignite passions. As for him being unfit for the presidency, I think the person who was truly unfit for the "presidency" has been soundly defeated and is out with a begging bowl asking for money. The 109 million dollar woman wants OBAMA to pay off her debt!!!! Unfreakinbelievable!.

Aimey may_ Love your idea, but don't want to shell out a penny for that woman who could not even manage her own campaign finances and yet considered herself the ONLY VIABLE CIC candidate. Nope- she can afford to retire her own debt. Besides, she has her robot army of 18 million, if each of the them contributed a Dollar, she would be able to take care of a big chunk of it. Ummm- wonder where they are?? Yeah.....only crickets, I hear.

Bluebell- Keith Ellison scares me sometimes. It would behoove Obama to stay far away from him.

As a die hard supporter, I will say this that Obama has conceded the new cycle to Mccain who I am afraid is faring better than Obama. They need to do something quickly.

"I think he's deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own worldview, his own confused theology," said the Pope of Martin Luther. Protestantism is a movement whose very name suggests protest against Jesus's Church founded on Peter the rock and first Pope of the Holy Catholic faith. The traditional understanding of the Bible makes it very clear that the Catholic Church is Jesus's Church. However, the protesters insisted on their right to interpret the Word of God directly rather than through the proper lines of authority established by Christ Himself. From the Reformation it has been a long slow slide into postmodernism, decadence, and moral decline.

Wait. . . Isn't Dobson a Protestant?