Is Dr. James Dobson an Old Testament prophet standing in the street corners decrying wickedness and calling for righteousness? Or is he just a crank and a closed-minded zealot?
He thinks he’s the former. I lean toward the latter.
This week, the Religious Right leader issued an Election Day jeremiad in which he vowed never to vote for Republican presidential candidate John McCain.
Said the Focus on the Family chairman, “I am deeply disappointed the Republican Party seems poised to select a nominee who did not support a Constitutional amendment to protect the institution of marriage, voted for embryonic stem-cell research to kill nascent human beings, opposed tax cuts that ended the marriage penalty, has little regard for freedom of speech, organized the Gang of 14 to preserve filibusters in judicial hearings, and has a legendary temper and often uses foul and obscene language…. Given these and many other concerns, a spoonful of sugar does NOT make the medicine go down. I cannot, and will not, vote for Sen. John McCain, as a matter of conscience.”
Dobson said he would never vote for Democrats Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama either.
“If these are the nominees in November,” he continued. “I simply will not cast a ballot for president for the first time in my life.”
I will admit to a certain grudging admiration for Dobson. Unlike some Religious Right leaders who put pragmatism ahead of principle, Dobson is a purist. (Contrast Southern Baptist lobbyist Richard Land, who said this week that religious conservatives shouldn’t have “any reason to be uncomfortable” with McCain, Mike Huckabee or Mitt Romney.)
But Dobson’s approach to politics is exactly why it is so hard for so many fundamentalists to participate in our American democracy. Like many of his fellow Religious Right purists, Dobson believes ardently that he is right and everyone else is wrong. He represents God’s view of things, and if you disagree, you aren’t just opposing Dobson, you’re opposing God.
But in a pluralistic society, that dogmatic approach to government just doesn’t work. Compromise is a dirty word in religion, but in politics it’s a necessity. What kind of country would we be if all Americans cast their ballots in lockstep with their own religious community? The “United” States would soon be another
I suspect very few of us get to vote for candidates whom we agree with on every possible issue. We pick the man or woman who seems have good judgment, good character and reasonable stands on as many issues as possible. In an imperfect world, that’s about the best we can do. Even if both candidates are less than stellar, we make a choice and forge ahead. (Remember the
Some fundamentalists, however, have trouble living in an imperfect world.
What’s the answer?
Maybe Dr. Dobson has stumbled on the right course of action after all. Stay home, sir, and keep as many of your followers at home with you as possible! The rest of us sinners will just muddle through without you.
American politics might even be better off without those extra voices of intolerance and extremism.
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