Fox's Garrett uncritically aired Focus on the Family's Minnery saying that Obama, in '06 speech, was "diminishing the idea that people of Christian faith have anything to say"
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SUMMARY: Fox News' Major Garrett uncritically aired an audio clip of Focus on the Family's Tom Minnery asserting that in a June 2006 speech, Sen. Barack Obama was "diminishing the idea that people of Christian faith have anything to say." In fact, in that speech, Obama said: "[W]hat I am suggesting is this -- secularists are wrong when they ask believers to leave their religion at the door before entering into the public square. Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, William Jennings Bryan, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King -- the majority of the great reformers in American history -- were not only motivated by faith, but repeatedly used religious language to argue for their cause."
On the June 24 edition of Fox News' Special Report, correspondent Major Garrett aired an excerpt of Sen. Barack Obama's June 28, 2006, speech, in which Obama is shown saying: "Whatever we once were, we are no longer a Christian nation -- at least not just. We are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, and a Buddhist nation, and a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers." Garrett reported that those comments "drew a sharp criticism" from Tom Minnery, a co-host of the radio show of Focus on the Family founder and chairman James Dobson. Garrett then uncritically aired an audio clip of Minnery saying of Obama, "So, he's diminishing the idea that people of Christian faith have anything to say." In fact, in that speech, Obama said: "[W]hat I am suggesting is this -- secularists are wrong when they ask believers to leave their religion at the door before entering into the public square. Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, William Jennings Bryan, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King -- the majority of the great reformers in American history -- were not only motivated by faith, but repeatedly used religious language to argue for their cause." He added that "progressives" "might realize that we have the ability to reach out to the evangelical community and engage millions of religious Americans in the larger project of American renewal."
From Obama's June 28, 2006, speech at the Sojourners/Call to Renewal event:
OBAMA: In fact, because I do not believe that religious people have a monopoly on morality, I would rather have someone who is grounded in morality and ethics, and who is also secular, affirm their morality and their ethics and their values without pretending that they're something they're not. They don't need to do that. None of us need to do that.
But what I am suggesting is this -- secularists are wrong when they ask believers to leave their religion at the door before entering into the public square. Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, William Jennings Bryan, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King -- the majority of the great reformers in American history -- were not only motivated by faith, but repeatedly used religious language to argue for their cause. So, to say that men and women should not inject their, quote, "personal morality" into public policy debates is a practical absurdity. Our law is by definition a codification of our morality, much of it, which is grounded in the Judeo-Christian tradition.
Moreover, if we progressives shed some of these biases, we might recognize some overlapping values that both religious and secular people share when it comes to the moral and material direction of our country. We might recognize that the call to sacrifice on behalf of the next generation, the need to think in terms of "thou," and not just "I," resonates in religious congregations all across the country. We might realize that we have the ability to reach out to the evangelical community and engage millions of religious Americans in the larger project of American renewal.
And some of this is already beginning to happen. You know, pastors, friends of mine, like Rick Warren and T.D. Jakes, are wielding their enormous influence to confront AIDS, and Third World debt relief, and the genocide in Darfur. You've got religious thinkers and activists like our good friend Jim Wallis and Tony Campolo, who are lifting up the biblical injunction to help the poor as a means of mobilizing Christians against budget cuts to social programs and growing inequality.
And by the way, we need Christians on Capitol Hill, and we need Jews on Capitol and Muslims on Capitol Hill. When you've got an estate tax that is talking about a trillion dollars being taken out of social programs to go to a handful of folks who don't need it and weren't even asking for it, we need an injection of morality into our political debate.
From the June 24 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume:
GARRETT: In his speech, Obama also said this about the state of faith in America:
OBAMA: Whatever we once were, we are no longer a Christian nation -- at least not just. We are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, and a Buddhist nation, and a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers.
GARRETT: That drew a sharp criticism from Dobson's radio co-host Tom Minnery, who said a 2007 survey of religious affiliations showed 76 percent of Americans called themselves Christians, while fewer than 2 percent of those surveyed called themselves Muslims, Buddhists, or Hindus.
MINNERY: So, he's diminishing the idea that people of Christian faith have anything to say.
Exactly Snoopy,
Over at the HuffPost, there is an article that outlines how each and every time these old-school fundamentalist Christians (Minnery, Dobson, Hagee) open their mouths and attack Obama, liberals, or Democrats in general, they are sending more and more of what used to be their followers away from the dark side and pushing them toward the light!
At the rate its happening..... McCain will be lucky to get 2,000,000 votes across the nation.....
Care to try to rephrase that so it makes some sense?
Thanks.
Allow me to translate for the non-devout:
What Obama does seek to diminish is for Christianity and Christian beliefs to 1. have a central role in socio-political decision making...
Now, that sounds something I could get on board with!
Wow Dex, before you knee-jerk post about what you think you know, why don't you read the quote from Obama above?
"But what I am suggesting is this -- secularists are wrong when they ask believers to leave their religion at the door before entering into the public square. Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, William Jennings Bryan, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King -- the majority of the great reformers in American history -- were not only motivated by faith, but repeatedly used religious language to argue for their cause. So, to say that men and women should not inject their, quote, "personal morality" into public policy debates is a practical absurdity. Our law is by definition a codification of our morality, much of it, which is grounded in the Judeo-Christian tradition." (emphasis mine)
Care to issue a retraction?
Jesus would come and show Dobson exactly what "Left Behind" means.
To quote one of my favorite philosophers, "I'd kick him square in the nuts."
I wish that Jesus would materialize and just kick his butt.
Yea...Ninja Jesus! ;>)
Full disclosure I feel that religion has the same logical foundation as any other make believe fairy tale bull squat that's bandied about by fearful, needy people, that said Dobson is a pimp whoring faith to people who just don't know any better. See the Bible is filled with great Liberal viewpoints the far rightwing nutsacks have excised and perverted over the years, the idea that Dobson would be upset by interpreting biblical passages would be funny if it wasn't pathetic. It's just too bad that Jesus forgives, this monster should rot in Hell.
These guys, however, believe, like most tyrannical blowhards, that 'having something to say' means 'being obeyed.'
They don't do dialogue. They don't even know what that is.
OBAMA: In fact, because I do not believe that religious people have a monopoly on morality, I would rather have someone who is grounded in morality and ethics, and who is also secular, affirm their morality and their ethics and their values without pretending that they're something they're not. They don't need to do that. None of us need to do that.
This has been the religious rights problem for years. They would like to think they are the only people of faith who count in this country and they are not. The whole monopoly on morality the right assumes is a facade. And Focus on the Family should be renamed Focus on People Who Eat, Drink, Read, Worship, and Have Sex Like Us.
Intolerant clowns.
And Focus on the Family should be renamed Focus on People Who Eat, Drink, Read, Worship, and Have Sex Like Us.
When I lived in Colorado (and worked in Colorado Springs - home of FOTF and Dobson's misfits), I had the following bumper sticker on my vehicle.
FOCUS ON YOUR
OWN DAMN FAMILY
I got many comments about that sticker - all positive. Even the people in Colorado Springs realized that James Dobson and his misfits were nothing more than meddlesome jerks.
I gotta say that I love this speech. As a secularist progressive who used to feel strongly about my Catholic faith and now, after years of historical and social studies in comparative faith, question even the existence of any supreme being, I fully relate to the condescending nature of the majority in its treatment and disrespect for nonbelievers. I think the same is true, many times over for the distrust of Judaism and any middle eastern religion. Even Catholics are generally distrusted by other Christian churches. But all of us are people, with individual moral compasses and personal judgment tailored from the cloth of our own experiences.
We do not check our religion, our social baggage, our self interest, or anything else at the door for any purpose. Even our altruism is bourne from our self interest. Every unselfish act brings its own personal benefit and is, therefore, a positive act of self service.
What Obama clearly says, any pandering aside, is that all people, but specifically liberals, each have their own faith and morality and need to recognize that they have the right to use these in the public good, just like conservatives already espouse. Let's be proud of what drives our decision to support publicly funded welfare, national medicine, proper veteran benefits, ending the Iraq war, protecting civil liberties even if means an appearance of less safety, etc. It is our moral duty as Americans to sacrifice for one another. Taxes are just the most obvious reality of this necessity.
People who say they despise spending for federal public agencies get every morning in their safe crime controlled neighborhood, take their safe regulated medicines, eat safe inspected food, drive thier safe economical clean burning car to their safe regulated industry/office/work-site, drink safe clean water, use sanitary sewer systems, and breath clean air, all becuse federally collected taxes are spent on these measures. Obviously, many places need to be raised to a minimal level, but that requires even more money.
You can't have what you won't sacrifice for; if you do have it, but aren't willing to ensure that everyone does, you will eventually lose it. America will eventually settle into the level of the majority, that's a historically proven fact.