Posted on 03/28/2007 2:36:11 PM PDT by SubGeniusX
Focus on the Family founder James Dobson has dealt a potentially devastating blow to Fred Thompson’s presidential aspirations, saying the former senator is not a Christian.
"Everyone knows he’s conservative and has come out strongly for the things that the pro-family movement stands for,” Dobson – considered the most politically powerful evangelical figure in the U.S. – said in a phone call to Dan Gilgoff, senior editor at U.S. News & World Report.
"[But] I don’t think he’s a Christian. At least that’s my impression.”
Thompson’s spokesman Mark Corallo took issue with the statement.
"Thompson is indeed a Christian,” he said. "He was baptized into the Church of Christ.”
Focus on Family spokesman Gary Schneeberger sought to clarify Dobson’s statement, telling Gilgoff that while Dobson didn’t believe Thompson belonged to a non-Christian faith, he "has never known Thompson to be a committed Christian – someone who openly talks about his faith.
"We use that word – Christian – to refer to people who are evangelical Christians. Dobson wasn’t expressing a personal opinion about his reaction to a Thompson candidacy.”
Thompson has said he is leaving the door open for a presidential run. A Gallup-USA Today poll released on Tuesday has the Tennessee Republican running third behind Rudolph Giuliani and John McCain among Republicans and Republican-leaning voters.
Although Dobson has not endorsed any Republican presidential candidate, he told Gilgoff that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich was the "brightest guy out there” and "the most articulate politicians on the scene today.”
Gilgoff is the author of the new book "The Jesus Machine: How James Dobson, Focus on the Family, and Evangelical America Are Winning the Culture War.”
In the 2004 race, Dobson gave the first public presidential endorsement of his career, supporting George Bush. Bush got almost 6 million new white evangelical votes in 2004 that he didn’t get in 2000.
Dr. Dobson really needs to stick to what he does best: enlarging the Lord's Church.
He and certain others in the ecclesiastical hierarchy ( of many faiths and denominations) should take a deep breath, step back from the world of Caesar and just preach the Bible and the Word...and stop doing these inane interviews with and making statements about politicians.
Dobson, going the way of Pat Robertson and every other special interest group. When all your real issues play out, you begin making them up.
HOLY CATFISH! THE PIRANAS ARE STILL AT IT! LOL!!!!
but Baptists and other denominations have told their children that we are a CULT!!
you are nutty, Newbie.
When a minion issues a clarification, instead of a denial, there's a good chance the Master said, and meant, what was reported.
OK...I'll bite....tell us what a real Christian is.
You forgot he sarcasm tag...
For ever? :-)
I've never heard one bad word about Orthodox Christians...what are they...Greek Orthodox?
A very astute observation.
*Sigh*
Dr. Dobson is Not a minister!
I wish Mr. Dobson would find a political cliff and jump off it. I hope Fallwell is handcuffed to him when he jumps.
He managed to insult millions of Christians (other-than-evangelican)in one fell-swoop, didn't he?
Dobson needs to get the boat keel out of his eye.
It would be better if he were a physiologist. :)
uh-huh
WINNER!!!!!
You really need to lay blame on losing congress to the POTUS. His impotence on the illegal immigrant problem was and is astounding. This is where we lose enough 20 or 25 votes to control congress. The GOP only lost by 1 or 2 votes in each house.
Dobson is quite influential. Maybe he knows Fred Thompson, maybe he doesn't. I would certainly hope he knows what he stated to be true before he kills off somebody's candidacy.
Don't know much about Fred Thompson other than he seems better than the other three front runners.
Personally I was hoping we could clone Ronald Reagan (maybe make a single exception to the cloning laws).
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.