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.
Gee...Christ Jesus wasn't an Evangelical Christian either. I don't know anything about Dobson...but he sounds like a nut.
This sentence makes a lie out of the first sentence. Somebody including dobson is full of --IT.
Dobson should be more careful with his remarks, knowing they can be taken out of context and skewed. Whatever he meant, it seems inconsistent to question Thompson's personal faith and give Newt the benefit of the doubt.
Fred is, then, my kind o' Christian: sleeves in the jacket; Christian in deed, and not word. I know one when I see one.....don't need to see the card: the color of the Golden rule paints Utterances, demeanor, and actions. And any Christian who can't see it had better check their own minds...to see who's first: Christ, or themselves. MHO
Hey, dobson. Try pulling the plank out of your own eye first.
Dobson is full of himself. He doesn't speak for the majority of Christians. He also underestimates how badly the base want to beat back the libs this election, especially after this Iraq bill.
Where does it say in the Constitution that a President has to be a Christian and who made Dobson God.
Judge not lest ye be judged brother Dobson.
Conversely, I could not vote for a professing Christian who denied all of the above and whose goal was to tear down and destroy Judeo-Christian values wherever he/she finds them, what's left of them. If he champions evil, perversity, and socialism, I don't care what religion he claims allegiance to.
In defense of Dobson, many denominations that call themselves Christian do not teach Christian doctrine. I wouldn't call Romney a Christian. But that's not the reason I won't vote for him. I won't vote for him because I find him the least honest of all the candidates. He is a parser like Clinton, trying to be on all sides of the issues at the same time. As a voter I have a right to know exactly where a candidate stands in plain english. I don't like a scammer.
Dobson doesn't think that Fred is "Christian enough" yet they think Newt Gingrich would make a fine Christian candidate! ROTFL! There are some things the right can do to give easily give the Presidency to Hillary, and this is one of them. BTW I love Newt to, well atleast his political views and ideas, but I always thought his personal life is what would do him in with the evangelical crowd.
I am an evangelical Christian and I will not have the likes of Dobson or any other "Christian leader" telling me who to vote for or telling people I won't support one candidate or another. I view the Democrats as such as evil force to be reckoned with that I will vote for whoever the Republicans run in '08. During the primary, though, I will support Thompson if he runs and no one if he doesn't.
You really shouldn't post remarks like this, it reveals your ignorance about who and what James Dobson is.
Bear in mind, I didn't call you ignorant, just on the subject of evanganicial Christians.
Without people like Dobson, there would be no GOP with any influence at all.
The GOP would be the Rockefeller wing, sitting back letting the little people think they are in control, whle making back room deals.
Dobson only wishes he had that much power. His empty accusations won't have any effect, thankfully.
Since when did Rev. Dobson set the gold standard for being Christian?
I spent the better part of a couple hours in a private conversation with a Protestant minister...he was sponsoring group activities for home schoolers...our kids were involved.
At the end of our conversation...spanning subjects like morality, history, politics...he gave me a pamphlet explaining how I might be born again. Geez he musta liked what he heard. To bad he was so full of himself he couldn't recognize the obvious truth with regard to me, and my salvated condition. Makes me shake my head, and wonder about the qualities of character that drive some persons to lead the flock: a lot like most politicians, I reckon. "Dig ME!!!!"
If Dobson doesn't like Fred Thompson, then there's a good chance that I will.
I didn't know that ONLY evangelicals are Christians. As a Catholic, I am terribly insulted. Dobson should realize that he cannot define words as he goes along.
Exactly! Dobson, Falwell, and Robertson are the Jacksons and Sharptons of the Right. They say candidates aren't "Christian" enough until the candidate kisses their ring.
Apparently Dobson has taken over the role once filled by Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, and a bunch of others:
"You have to go through me first, I'm the most important player". There couldn't be anything more tiresome, or useless. I recall a positively pathetic picture on the front page of the New York Times a day or two after the Sean Bell shooting in the Bronx (the guy who was about to get married, out at a strip club or whatever it was with friends) The picture shows Al Sharpton, looking appropriately aggrieved,teary-eyed, nearly immobile with sadness, and in serious need of public ego-stroking, standing face to face with Mayor Bloomberg, who is only too willing to play his part as another "player" and hold both Sharpton's arms above the elbow with his hands,looking him straight in the eye, literally "reaching out". This image was so emblematic of both the cynical nature of photo-ops and the media game played by the political players , that I made a point of storing this issue of the TIMES away for posterity. The same type of thing goes on, a hundred times a day among the political class. And it always makes me puke. And the worst thing about the omnipresence of Dobson for the last 10 years, is how gleefully the MSM reports on him, and if he is some kind of Leading Light/Philosopher King of the Republican Party or Conservatism: he is nothing of the sort---I know he has both hard and soft supporters, but at most , they account for about 5 % of Republicans.
ping
I hope for the day Republicans can completely ignore the likes of Dobson.
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