in which i alienate another quarter of the readership

Although I have never really understood why it is that anyone would rely upon a child psychologist for advice about for whom to vote, it seems that Dr. James Dobson has once again weighed in on this year's presidential race, and, not suprisingly, he doesn't like Obama. (That's not to say that he likes McCain's, either. He apparently doesn't.)

Dobson's main problem with Obama is that he is supposedly "distorting the Bible" and giving a "fruitcake interpretation" of the Constitution. He is particularly annoyed that Obama has pointed out that in a secular society, purely religiously-based arguments just don't cut it: you have to give a good reason that's acceptable to everyone, regardless of their personal religious belief. I'm inclined to agree, given that the Founders explicitly prohibited our country from being a theocracy.

I am quite certain that most of Dobson's listeners won't vote for Obama (or any other Democrat) anyway, so this probably won't have much of an effect on the race. But I do find it interesting and disturbing that Dobson apparently believes that Obama's calls to promote justice for those in need are somehow out of line with Biblical teaching. Much as Dobson might want it to be so, the primary message of the Gospel is not about building strong families or sexual ethics. It just isn't, and no honest reading of the text in all its inerrant glory can come up with that conclusion. Jesus - and the Bible as a whole - talked far more about the way individuals and a society treat their poor and disadvantaged than any other topic. And that seems to me to be as important an issue as any for Christians who are trying to pick their candidate in this election.