Posted on 11/05/2008 11:26:23 AM PST by Alex Murphy
James Dobson may be the only evangelical whose Sunday school teacher apparently never warned him to be careful what he prayed for. Two weeks before Election Day, the Focus on the Family founder chatted with Sarah Palin on his radio show and shared his back-up plan for the struggling GOP ticket. He was, Dobson told her, praying for "God's intervention" and that "God's perfect will be done on November the fourth."
Unless Dobson has undergone a dramatic political conversion, it's safe to assume he does not consider Barack Obama's election on Tuesday to be divinely ordained. In June, Dobson delivered a furious broadside against the Democrat, charging that he was "deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own world view." And yet in a year in which the economy mattered more than social issues for most voters, Obama's comfortable victory included Democratic gains in every single religious category among the electorate.
John McCain's selection of Palin, a former Pentecostal Christian, as his running-mate was supposed to help strengthen his appeal to religious voters. Republican strategists knew that undecided religious voters broke heavily for George W. Bush in the last weeks of the 2004 campaign and hoped Palin's candidacy would sway them to the GOP again this year. Instead, those late deciders — even white evangelicals — appear to have split between Obama and McCain.
Nationally Obama captured 53% of the Catholic vote, a 13-point swing from 2004 and the largest advantage among the group for a Democrat since Bill Clinton. Obama also cut in half the Republican advantage among Protestants. And he made significant gains among regular worship-attenders. Those voters who attend religious services most frequently are still most likely to cast ballots for Republicans....
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
xx% McCain, 53% Obama - Catholics
xx% McCain, 44% Obama - Weekly church-goers
xx% McCain, 53% Obama - Monthly church-goers
xx% McCain, 59% Obama - Semi-annual church-goers
xx% McCain, 68% Obama - Don't attend church
xx - Time did not provide numbers representing pro-McCain votes.
Perhaps they rightly sense that Obama (with his Hollywood buddies) will persecute them within an inch of their lives once he’s settled in office?
Sorry TIME, God’s will isn’t always what we want think it should be for us. Christians understand, and know, that God’s will has taken many turns other than the expected.
Hmmm ... what would be the alternative? Of course Dobson may not himself be convinced that Obama’s election was divinely sanctioned.
How does one become a former Pentecostal? Do they "just say no" to tongue-speaking? :-)
The LORD uses many things to bring about His plan. I don't question that because He's God...and I'm not. And all who question God, make of themselves a god. When they do that, their god is too small.
Yep. The author is an ignoramous.
I am sure Dobson would say that God’s will was done. That isn’t necessarily pleasant, but who are we to judge God?
I believe she left her Pentecostal church for a non-denominationally Bible church. I remember her former pastor on the Greta Show and he said that she left because the other church had a better childrens program.
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