Dobson Says He Won't Support Thompson

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.

“Please tell me what exactly stops the bad guys from using the mechanisms of govt to do bad things now.”

Us.

It just becomes much more difficult to do so if our guys are asking for the same method. Then we’re no longer able to stand on the ground of being the party of less government, but only on saying that male-female marriage is Godly and a cornerstone of civilization.

Of course the other side believes otherwise. Then it’s just a matter of whose opinion prevails. If we say ‘no’ to the whole idea of social dictates through Constitutional amendments, then we can oppose them on both the grounds that they are wrong AND that their very approach is wrong.

Lastly, even Amendments get interpreted by judges, whether circuit court or Supreme Court, and I think that’s just the sort of issue we do not want the Nine to fiddle with. It’s much easier to keep judges from ‘creatively’ interpreting something which merely prevents one state’s idea of marriage from being forced on others.

Anyway I respect your opinion - and likely I won’t change it, nor you mine. Fortunately, unlike lock-step liberal ‘thinking’ it is possible for various opinions to exist within conservatism.

...I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise..Luke 23:43

Elsie, I believe the souls of believers instantly go to God...

I can see how you can believe that, for it appears that some in the Scriptures have done exactly that.

However, some also interpret 'paradise' with Purgatory, God's waiting room. (I'm not one of them.)

Here are some verses I've collected to ~~prove~~ illustrate my viewpoint:

NIV John 11:11-15
11. After he had said this, he went on to tell them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up."
12. His disciples replied, "Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better."
13. Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.
14. So then he told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead,

(If Lazarus was in God's presense, he would have been upset to have to return to this fallen Earth.)

NIV Acts 7:59-60
59. While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."
60. Then he fell on his knees and cried out, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." When he had said this, he fell asleep.

NIV Acts 13:36
"For when David had served God's purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep; he was buried with his fathers and his body decayed.

NIV 1 Corinthians 11:28-30
28. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup.
29. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself.
30. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep.

1 Corinthians 15
1. Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand.
2. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
3. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance : that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
4. that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
5. and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve.
6. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.
7. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles,
8. and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.
9. For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
10. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them--yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.
11. Whether, then, it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.
12. But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
13. If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.
14. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.
15. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised.
16. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either.
17. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.
18. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost.
19. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.
20. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

NIV 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
13. Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope.
14. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.
15. According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.
16. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
17. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.
18. Therefore encourage each other with these words.

(If the 'dead' are going to rise, then they'll have to come BACK from GOD's presense and get back into the graves!)

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