Posted on 09/19/2007 7:14:10 PM PDT by pissant
DENVER (AP) — James Dobson, one of the nation's most politically influential evangelical Christians, made it clear in a message to friends this week he will not support Republican presidential hopeful Fred Thompson.
In a private e-mail obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press, Dobson accuses the former Tennessee senator and actor of being weak on the campaign trail and wrong on issues dear to social conservatives.
"Isn't Thompson the candidate who is opposed to a Constitutional amendment to protect marriage, believes there should be 50 different definitions of marriage in the U.S., favors McCain-Feingold, won't talk at all about what he believes, and can't speak his way out of a paper bag on the campaign trail?" Dobson wrote.
"He has no passion, no zeal, and no apparent 'want to.' And yet he is apparently the Great Hope that burns in the breasts of many conservative Christians? Well, not for me, my brothers. Not for me!"
The founder and chairman of Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family, Dobson draws a radio audience in the millions, many of whom who first came to trust the child psychologist for his conservative Christian advice on child-rearing.
Gary Schneeberger, a Focus on the Family spokesman, confirmed that Dobson wrote the e-mail. Schneeberger declined to comment further, saying it would be inappropriate because Dobson's comments about presidential candidates are made as an individual and not as a representative of Focus on the Family, a nonprofit organization restricted from partisan politics.
Dobson's strong words about Thompson underscore the frustration and lack of unity among Christian conservatives about the GOP field. Some Christian right leaders have pinned their hopes on Thompson, describing him as a Southern-fried Ronald Reagan. But others have voiced doubts in recent weeks about some of the same issues Dobson highlighted: his position on gay marriage and support for the 2002 McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform legislation.
Dobson and other Christian conservatives support an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would bar gay marriage nationally. Thompson has said he would support a constitutional amendment that would prohibit states from imposing their gay marriage laws on other states, which falls well short of that.
Karen Hanretty, a spokeswoman for the Thompson campaign, said Wednesday in response to the Dobson e-mail: "Fred Thompson has a 100 percent pro-life voting record. He believes strongly in returning authority to the levels of government closest to families and communities, protecting states from intrusion by the federal government and activist judges.
"We're confident as voters get to know Fred, they'll appreciate his conservative principles, and he is the one conservative in this race who can win the nomination and can go on to defeat the Democratic nominee."
In his e-mail addressed "Dear friends," Dobson includes the text of a recent news story highlighting Thompson's statement that while he was baptized in the Church of Christ, he does not attend church regularly and won't speak about his faith on the stump.
U.S. News and World Report quoted Dobson earlier this year as questioning Thompson's commitment to the Christian faith — comments Dobson contended were not put in proper context. Dobson in this week's e-mail writes that suppositions "about the former senator's never having professed to be a Christian are turning out to be accurate in substance."
Earlier this year, Dobson said he wouldn't back John McCain because of the Arizona senator's opposition to a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.
Later, Dobson wrote on a conservative news Web site that he wouldn't support former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani should he win the Republican nomination. Dobson called Giuliani an "unapologetic supporter of abortion on demand" and criticized him for signing a bill in 1997 creating domestic-partnership benefits in New York City.
Last week, Dobson announced on his radio show that the IRS had cleared him of accusations that he had endangered his organization's nonprofit status by endorsing Republican candidates in 2004. The IRS said Dobson, who endorsed President Bush's re-election bid, was acting as an individual and not on behalf of the nonprofit group.
I am not an apologist for every one of Dr. Dobson’s positions and expressions. He may not be very familiar with federalism. I don’t know. And he may not understand Fred Thompson’s position, precisely because his focus is on the moral and spiritual side, more than the political and the governmental.
But there have been, in this thread, a few over-the-edge remarks and negative implications against Dr. Dobson’s personal character that are uncalled for.
If I were to assume a position of influence in state or federal government, I would certainly call upon Dr. James Dobson for counsel on many issues.
Apparently the only thing that the Columbia students reacted negatively to in Ahmadinejad's speech today at Columbia was him saying that there were not homosexuals in Iran. They laughed and booed. Everything else they let him mumble away about and even clapped for him.
If you didn't know it, most of the "secret" and "holy" stuff in the Temples was copied from the Masonic rituals. Real holy stuff. Google it.
The Cal Ripken of Sunday school.
“Like the evangelist Ted Haggard? Sure looks like a valid comparison to me.”
Yeah, like Ted Haggard, who got booted from his perch for being involved in the same lifestyle as Ernst Roehm, head of Hitler’s Brownshirts. Though any comparison of Haggard’s church (which booted him) to the local Nazi beer hall crowd in Munich would, of course, be as crudely extremist as your earlier assertions that American Christians are comparable to the Nazis.
According to respected Univ. of Berlin historian, in his book “The Hidden Hitler,” Hitler himself was a homosexual prostitute in Vienna and maintained a long-term sexual relation with some guy he met in the German army in WW I.
Since you think it fair game, a question: do you hate Christians as much as Hitler hated Jews? Have you murdered any Christians?
Don’t let that question distract you from the little project of providing examples of evangelical Christians “destroying” the GOP or trying to impose their values “at the point of a gun.”
So that you don’t needlessly waste your time or ours, you need to identify a political movement to do so, as you allege, not just some individual wacko who happens to claim to be a Christian. No doubt you’ll find limitless variations of demographic characteristics such as religion, skin color, age, etc, among people guilty of various crimes.)
It’s just that those who engaged in homosexual behavior were over-represented among the leadership of the German Nazi Party in the 30’s.
This thread is still kickin? LOL
It was on the front page when I logged back in a few minutes ago. Most of the responses I read somehow had to do with Romney though....
Where’s your reference for the $1.5 million figure?
What was it that led you to hate Christians so much, radioman? Tragic....
LOL
The only better news for the Thompson camp would be for Alan Keyes and Ron Paul to hold a summit and call Thompson a nanny-nanny-poo-poo.
Seems like it become a discussion on Mormonism. Certainly not my intent.
No one should be held accountable for what happens on their thread after the first 100 or 200 posts.
LOL
“Newt’s own personal marriage issues reflect the exact opposite of what he espouses...”
What does Newt espouse? Because he seems like a different person. I actually like him now, before I couldn’t stand him. Has something changed? Newt doesn’t seem like the same awful person he used to be.
that’s sad isn’t it?
“I have made no such comparison.”
You said evangelical Christians pose the same threat to America that the Nazis posed to Germany in the 1930’s. Your comparison was clear, though it’s understandable you now retreat from it.
“It’s those who demand that everyone conform to their dogma who I take exception to.”
No, what you actually accused them of was attempting to force their values on others “at the point of a gun.” Though, again, it’s understandable that you now wish to retreat to more defensible rhetoric.
“Today’s evilvangelicals ARE the modern-day pharisees.”
I never have been impressed with them as a group, now it makes sense. I go to church, but I prefer the type that doesn’t put these people on pedatsals.
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