Pah
Uber all member
Response to James Dobson
Written by Administrator
Wednesday, 29 November 2006
http://instituteforprogressivechris...?option=com_content&task=view&id=30&Itemid=35
Given as a Press Release
Talking Points Memo: Progressive Christians Respond to James Dobson's Inaccurate Statements
On Wednesday November 22, 2006 Dr. James Dobson, PhD, founder and president of Focus on the Family, appeared on CNNs Larry King Live. During the course of the interview Dr. Dobson made a number of highly inaccurate statements on matters including faith, sexuality, liberalism and the United States Constitution.
The Institute for Progressive Christianity, a think tank composed of mainstream liberal Christians is compelled to respond to two of Dr. Dobsons erroneous assertions. The first concerns the following outrageous claim:
KING: If the left gets glee, Doctor, does the right get glee over sexual peccadilloes on the left?
DOBSON: That's very possible. We're all inclined to look at other people. But it's interesting to me that those, again, on the more liberal end of the spectrum are often those who have no value system or at least they say there is no moral and immoral, there is no right or wrong. It's moral relativism.
Such a statement is nothing short of McCarthyism. American Liberalism has long been at the forefront in the battle against evil and for justice. FDR, an avowed Liberal led our nation through the Great Depression of the 1930s and created Social Security in order to help provide dignity to our senior citizens. He also presided over the American victory against Nazism and the fascist governments of Benito Mussolini and Hidecki Tojo. President Harry S. Truman, another proud Liberal desegregated the US Military, stood up to Stalinism and saved Western Europe from the jackboot of Communism through implementation of the Marshall Plan. President Lyndon Johnson gave us Medicare while Robert F. Kennedy always reminded us of the reciprocal relationship between rights and privileges on one hand and contribution to the common good on the other.
History also teaches us that Monsignor John A. Ryan, the originator of both the minimum and living wage as well as a member of the ACLU was not only a Liberal economist, but a confident of FDR. Reinhold Niebuhr was a religious philosopher who has inspired many Liberal minds, including that of Martin Luther King, Jr. With that said, it preposterous for Dr Dobson to suggest the Liberalism is bereft of any notion of right and wrong.
Many on the Religious Rightincluding Dr. Dobson-- deliberately mislabel Liberals as moral relativists and as nihilists. Nothing can be further from the truth. Instead, the mainstream Left embraces Value Pluralism, a concept that understands that all religions of good will share certain basic definitions of good and evil that transcend the particulars of each denomination. This, and not the subjectively held truths of any one faith is the basis of a commonly held American morality. IPCs Directors believe that the true moral relativists and nihilists are more likely to be found within the ranks of the Religious Rights neoconservative supporters.
IPC also takes issue with Dr. Dobsons serious misstatement on the separation of church and state. During the course of the interview, the following exchange took place:
KING: We have a separation of church and state.
DOBSON: Who says?
KING: You don't believe in separation of church and state?
DOBSON: Not the way you mean it. The separation of church and state is not in the Constitution. No, it's not. That is not in the Constitution. That was...
KING: It's in the Bill of Rights.
DOBSON: It's not in the Bill of Rights. It's not anywhere in a foundational document. The only place where the so-called "wall of separation" was mentioned was in a letter written by Jefferson to a friend. That's the only place. It has been picked up and made to be something it was never intended to be.

What it has become is that the government is protected from the church, instead of the other way around, which is that church was designed to be protected from the government.
Dr. Dobsons claim that there is no such thing as separation of church and state is not supported by history. While it is true that the phrase separation of church and state is not found in the constitution or the first Amendment, the phrase was in wide use among leading thinkers at the time.
*Article VI of the Constitution states, "no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."
*The Treaty of Tripoli, signed by Founding Father President John Adams and unanimously approved by the Senate in 1797, stated, "The Government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion."
*In Federalist No. 10, James Madison warns how faction can kindle (their) unfriendly passions and excite their most violent conflicts. Madison also describes how A religious sect may degenerate into a political faction
*In Federalist No. 52, Madison reminds us that our Constitution has no religious qualification for public office in that, the door of this part of the federal government is open to merit of every description and without regard to poverty or wealth, or to any particular profession of religious faith.
As progressive Christians, IPC is steadfastly committed to the separation of church and state as stated in the Constitution of the United States. We base our belief not as an expression of hostility towards religion, but as a guarantee of its free practice whereby the position of one faith is not elevated over any other. In that manner, America will protect, as FDR proclaimed, The freedom of every person to worship God in his own way.
****
The Institute for Progressive Christianity (IPC) is a think tank created for the dissemination of progressive Christian values. The Institute will serve as an educational facility to conduct research, affect and advance policy, educate the public, and influence every sphere of American public life, including politics, academia, arts, and the church.[/COLOR]
It is not so much the material that is presented in the press release, it is the thought that some Christians are openely standing against the abuses of the Religious Right
Written by Administrator
Wednesday, 29 November 2006
http://instituteforprogressivechris...?option=com_content&task=view&id=30&Itemid=35
Given as a Press Release
Talking Points Memo: Progressive Christians Respond to James Dobson's Inaccurate Statements
On Wednesday November 22, 2006 Dr. James Dobson, PhD, founder and president of Focus on the Family, appeared on CNNs Larry King Live. During the course of the interview Dr. Dobson made a number of highly inaccurate statements on matters including faith, sexuality, liberalism and the United States Constitution.
The Institute for Progressive Christianity, a think tank composed of mainstream liberal Christians is compelled to respond to two of Dr. Dobsons erroneous assertions. The first concerns the following outrageous claim:
KING: If the left gets glee, Doctor, does the right get glee over sexual peccadilloes on the left?
DOBSON: That's very possible. We're all inclined to look at other people. But it's interesting to me that those, again, on the more liberal end of the spectrum are often those who have no value system or at least they say there is no moral and immoral, there is no right or wrong. It's moral relativism.
Such a statement is nothing short of McCarthyism. American Liberalism has long been at the forefront in the battle against evil and for justice. FDR, an avowed Liberal led our nation through the Great Depression of the 1930s and created Social Security in order to help provide dignity to our senior citizens. He also presided over the American victory against Nazism and the fascist governments of Benito Mussolini and Hidecki Tojo. President Harry S. Truman, another proud Liberal desegregated the US Military, stood up to Stalinism and saved Western Europe from the jackboot of Communism through implementation of the Marshall Plan. President Lyndon Johnson gave us Medicare while Robert F. Kennedy always reminded us of the reciprocal relationship between rights and privileges on one hand and contribution to the common good on the other.
History also teaches us that Monsignor John A. Ryan, the originator of both the minimum and living wage as well as a member of the ACLU was not only a Liberal economist, but a confident of FDR. Reinhold Niebuhr was a religious philosopher who has inspired many Liberal minds, including that of Martin Luther King, Jr. With that said, it preposterous for Dr Dobson to suggest the Liberalism is bereft of any notion of right and wrong.
Many on the Religious Rightincluding Dr. Dobson-- deliberately mislabel Liberals as moral relativists and as nihilists. Nothing can be further from the truth. Instead, the mainstream Left embraces Value Pluralism, a concept that understands that all religions of good will share certain basic definitions of good and evil that transcend the particulars of each denomination. This, and not the subjectively held truths of any one faith is the basis of a commonly held American morality. IPCs Directors believe that the true moral relativists and nihilists are more likely to be found within the ranks of the Religious Rights neoconservative supporters.
IPC also takes issue with Dr. Dobsons serious misstatement on the separation of church and state. During the course of the interview, the following exchange took place:
KING: We have a separation of church and state.
DOBSON: Who says?
KING: You don't believe in separation of church and state?
DOBSON: Not the way you mean it. The separation of church and state is not in the Constitution. No, it's not. That is not in the Constitution. That was...
KING: It's in the Bill of Rights.
DOBSON: It's not in the Bill of Rights. It's not anywhere in a foundational document. The only place where the so-called "wall of separation" was mentioned was in a letter written by Jefferson to a friend. That's the only place. It has been picked up and made to be something it was never intended to be.

What it has become is that the government is protected from the church, instead of the other way around, which is that church was designed to be protected from the government.
Dr. Dobsons claim that there is no such thing as separation of church and state is not supported by history. While it is true that the phrase separation of church and state is not found in the constitution or the first Amendment, the phrase was in wide use among leading thinkers at the time.
*Article VI of the Constitution states, "no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."
*The Treaty of Tripoli, signed by Founding Father President John Adams and unanimously approved by the Senate in 1797, stated, "The Government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion."
*In Federalist No. 10, James Madison warns how faction can kindle (their) unfriendly passions and excite their most violent conflicts. Madison also describes how A religious sect may degenerate into a political faction
*In Federalist No. 52, Madison reminds us that our Constitution has no religious qualification for public office in that, the door of this part of the federal government is open to merit of every description and without regard to poverty or wealth, or to any particular profession of religious faith.
As progressive Christians, IPC is steadfastly committed to the separation of church and state as stated in the Constitution of the United States. We base our belief not as an expression of hostility towards religion, but as a guarantee of its free practice whereby the position of one faith is not elevated over any other. In that manner, America will protect, as FDR proclaimed, The freedom of every person to worship God in his own way.
****
The Institute for Progressive Christianity (IPC) is a think tank created for the dissemination of progressive Christian values. The Institute will serve as an educational facility to conduct research, affect and advance policy, educate the public, and influence every sphere of American public life, including politics, academia, arts, and the church.[/COLOR]
It is not so much the material that is presented in the press release, it is the thought that some Christians are openely standing against the abuses of the Religious Right
