James Dobson, who himself could use a lesson in Jesus, lectures Obama about God

John Aravosis (DC), AmericaBlog.com: Dobson's quotes are so self-referential, it's rather amazing.

"I think he's deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own worldview, his own confused theology," Dobson said.

"... He is dragging biblical understanding through the gutter."

Pot meet Kettle. Now, what is truly interesting about all of this is that Dobson can't stand McCain. So it's rather interesting that Dobson is now attacking Obama, which in principle helps McCain. Obama has made no secret that he's wooing people of faith, as a fellow Christian. McCain's Christian bona fides aren't that strong - he recently got his faith wrong, and he certainly doesn't talk about God and Christ in the real way that Obama does, in the real way that a real Christian recognizes as, well, real. So Dobson appears to be worried that Obama is a real threat, not just to McCain, but to Dobson's own warped view of Christianity. Of course, the real threat to Dobson is that nobody appears to care what he and his ilk have to say anymore. At least not in politics, and that's Dobson's home turf. He may have loads of red-state followers who are still willing to at least sip his Kool-Aid, but in Washington, he's not exactly the cock of the walk he once was. And he knows it.

UPDATE from John Amato at Crooks and Liars: Our friends at Americans United for the Separation of Church and State wrote in to say Dobson’s “Alliance Defense Fund” is encouraging pastors to deliberately break the law and engage in politicking at church services during a pre-arranged “Pulpit Freedom Sunday” scheduled for September 28. [Memo to the IRS you’ll be working that weekend.]

UPDATE from Sara Kugler, HuffingtonPost.com: Barack Obama said Tuesday that evangelical leader James Dobson was "making stuff up" when he accused the presumed Democratic presidential nominee of distorting the Bible. ...

Speaking to reporters on his campaign plane before landing in Los Angeles, Obama said the speech made the argument that people of faith, like himself, "try to translate some of our concerns in a universal language so that we can have an open and vigorous debate rather than having religion divide us."

Obama added, "I think you'll see that he was just making stuff up, maybe for his own purposes."