Influential evangelist James Dobson’s attack on Barack Obama’s “fruitcake” views of the Bible and Constitution could help rally otherwise unenthusiastic Christians to John McCain.
A new poll by the Pew Research Center suggests evangelicals are lukewarm about McCain, although few were expected to actually vote for Obama, even before Dobson’s broadside. Still, in an election marked by ardent support for Obama among some Democrats, anything that rallies Republicans for McCain could prove significant.
“The most likely outcome may be to reduce Obama’s appeal to evangelicals,” John Green of Pew told The Examiner. “This could be a first step leading them to vote for McCain.”
The University of Akron expert on religion in politics added: “There is good reason to believe that McCain will get a majority of the white evangelical vote. The question is how big will the majority be? And a related issue is the level of turnout among evangelicals.”
That turnout could be boosted by Dobson, who slammed Obama during Tuesday’s broadcast of his popular “Focus on the Family” radio show. Although Dobson has said he would not vote for McCain because the Republican is insufficiently conservative, he reserved most of his criticism for Obama, particularly the Democrat’s 2006 speech defending his refusal to back a ban on partial-birth abortion.
“I may be opposed to abortion for religious reasons, but if I seek to pass a law banning the practice, I cannot simply point to the teachings of my church or evoke God’s will,” Obama said. “I have to explain why abortion violates some principle that is accessible to people of all faiths, including those with no faith at all.”
After playing this portion of Obama’s speech, Dobson attacked.
“What the senator is saying there, in essence, is that I can’t seek to pass legislation for example, that bans partial-birth abortion because there are people in the culture who don’t see that as a moral issue and if I can’t get everyone to agree with me, it is undemocratic to try to pass legislation that I find offensive to the Scripture.
“Now, that is a fruitcake interpretation of the Constitution,” Dobson said. “This is why we have elections, to support what we believe to be wise and moral. We don’t have to go to the lowest common denominator of morality, which is what he’s suggesting.”
That assertion was challenged by Joshua DuBois, director of religious affairs for Obama’s campaign.
“Barack Obama is committed to reaching out to people of faith and standing up for American families, and a full reading of his 2006 Call to Renewal speech shows just that,” DuBois said.
