Dobson v. Obama: The cage match

I guess the cage match is more of a foil that I always fantasize about. And in this case, it runs directly counter to what I'm talking about. Perhaps you heard in the news that James Dobson, erstwhile president, but still very actively in control of Focus on the Family, condemned Barack Obama's twisting of Scripture. In one of the greatest cases of "does he realize his mouth is talking without him thinking (again)?", Dr. Dobson said, "He's deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own world view, his own confused theology." I'm not terribly careful about saying that about other people, but when I say it, at least I realize that I'm exactly as subject to that judgment as the person I'm talking about.

The distortion in question has to do with Obama's statement that "said Leviticus suggests slavery is OK and eating shellfish is an abomination. Obama also cited Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, 'a passage that is so radical that it's doubtful that our own Defense Department would survive its application' " (from Yahoo! News). I love that Obama is probably the first presidential candidate in history that has noted that Jesus wouldn't christen (as it were) our Defense Department. I don't know how Obama handles the other passages hermeneutically (I haven't taken the time to chase that down yet), but this is the first time in my memory someone so public has called into question the infallible doctrine of American self-preservation.

I'm reading God So Loved the World: A Christology for Disciples by Jonathan R. Wilson. He puts in book form many of the things I have suspected for a while, related to whether the church/humanity gets to kill each other to get our own way. To wit, "Jesus Christ overcomes the world in his death by refusing the lies of the world and remaining obedient to the Father. When he was facing death, Jesus could have followed the way of the world and used his power to destroy his enemies; he could have played by the rules of the world's system of justice to avoid a guilty verdict. But he remained faithful to God, giving up his life in the world for life in the kingdom" (p 180). It's worth noting that Wilson is an anti-dualist; his use of "world" here isn't about "earth," but about the anti-kingdom world system. Another delightful little phrase from Wilson: "Christ's followers are misfits. But that is a blessing, because to be fit for the world is to be fit for death" (p 167).

Why is it that "Christian" "leaders" are so often pro-militarism? Why do they snuggle up in so many other ways to the world's rules? It's as if they say, "In order to expand my influence, I need to say things that will feel agreeable to my public." I'm not sure Dr. Dobson actively says that, but it sure seems like it. He gets in people's faces about raising their kids, but they flock to him. Why doesn't he get in people's faces about how killing people in the interest of or the defense of a nation plays exactly by the rules of the creation-destroying world system? Because he doesn't want to lose his audience? Because he doesn't understand his Bible? Because "he's deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own world view, his own confused theology"? I'm just askin's all.