Dr. Dobson, time to apologize to your readers

What did the piece get wrong David? You seem entirely bitter towards Bible-believing (the whole of the NT for followers of Christ) Christians. I'll go buy your book today. But, you seem unwiling to "say" anything "about" the walk you profess.
IS gay marriage anywhere supported "in the Bible?" It certainly mangles any idea of a Christ-like "marriage. Abortion David? It is just another means to an end? Like a condom or pill? You need to stand for something David. You need to speak out when you're a Christian seeing the horror caused by lascivious licentiousness and the gutlessness and insidousness of letting everything go. The poor David? That means we become communists? Ever read a history book David? Hugo Chavez sound familiar? That's a bit more easy to find. No David, Focus On the Family, James Dobson . . . and Chuck Colson are the good guys. NOT, the bad guys. Not many Christians reallt believed that the GOP was a denomination David. We're really not that stupid. But at least they do not trumpet Satanic practices become a civil right and a protected Constitutional status.
Even poor children "David," need a mother and a father - that would be a man and a woman according to Jesus - as the foundation of "good" society. Look around and see what is going on - actually going by - outside your Lexus' window.
You are Christian brother David, with a somewhat great message. But that does not make what you are doing completely correct. While you want Christians silent, our real enemies are gaining power. By the way, the Democrats? You think the majority of them do not hold us in contempt? Ask a Democrat in Boston or San Francisco?

David Kuo, Thank you for continually speaking TRUTH no matter how politically unpopular it is. That FOTF evangelicals are stooping to such low-level slander as their best "debate" tactic against you reveals much about their mean-spirited, hate-filled gospel. Jesus had little to no patience with these types. Best of luck, David.

Also, Doony,
Some grammar lessons and maybe a dictionary might be helpful before you post to a public forum. Otherwise, you live down to the stereotype of a Dobson evangelical as a knuckle-dragging cretin and a living proof of the theory of evolution. No wonder FOTF has to prepare form documents for their follower s letters to congress. Otherwise, our elected representatives would all realize what they must already know. Dobson s followers are poor, uneducated, and easily lead.

Thanks for your note, David.
I do hope Dobson and his followers will begin treating you with respect. An apology is certainly in order, but part of respecting others includes actually listening to what they have to say.
Is Dobson ready to listen? More importantly, is Dobson ready to hear the profound gospel of Jesus Christ?

I'm sorry David. I just do not see Dobson and Colson harming children as much as I do progressives and liberals.
One trip to a juvenile hall or, a street corner in any city or town tells the true story of who and what is selling out our world. And it is not Dobson or Colson.

Donny, Have you talked to any of the kids in juvie or on "street corners" recently? So many people want an alternative, want something meaningful. But the problem is Jesus isn't seen as an alternative. He's just another commodity in our nihilistic, angry, hate-filled world. And I'm afraid Dobson and Colson are contributing to that sense people have. He's just another name screamed during the O'Reilly Factor, not someone who truly upturns our world. It's now advent, and we celebrate the imminent arrival of Jesus' presence -- what does that mean? Just winning more elections, protecting power, getting the right laws passed? That doesn't sound biblical. (You learn quickly when studying law that the law boils down to protecting the status quo.) If we truly want to further the kingdom of God, why would we rely on such clumsy tools as law and politics to do that?

Donny, First, let me apologize for my rude and insensitive comments earlier. I should not have lashed out the way I did. However, Jesus, as I understand him, was full of compassion and mercy. He was not a Machiavellian political operative, and in fact said my kingdom is not of this world. He also said, I desire mercy, and not sacrifice when the Pharisees condemned his disciples for working on the Sabbath and breaking one of the Ten Commandments. Jesus put mercy first. I was wrong not to do so with you earlier in my original response. I should have put mercy first. But I still must add, Colson and especially Dobson come across to the world and even to me more like the Pharisees then the Man who said I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.

I have not read your book yet but will. I watched a few interviews on youtube so I believe I understand your main point. As an acivist and former staffer at a national pro-family organization, your belief that the Bush Administation somehow pulled a fast one over us just isn't the case. We knew Faith Base initiative was a front. It was the most inefficient spectacle I have ever laid eyes on. The conference calls - we yawned our way thru them. We were never big on pushing the faith based stuff because we didn't want the government involved - once it is involved they screw things up and we realized that.
The ultimate goal was to be an advocate for the unborn and family and that is achieved daily, pre-Bush and post-Bush, by the mere act of taking a stand - it is inherently right.
I hope you achieve your ends although doubt it with appearances on the Bill Maher show. Have you gone from one master, the political one, to another one, selling books?

Do evangelicals have blood on their hands? (A critique of evangelical support for the Iraq war)

"Focus on the Family" will, of course, never apologize for their negative attacks on David Kuo and his book, no matter how many times Kuo patiently and clearly points out their baldly false and divisive statements. As the saying goes... "You can lead a fundamentalist to the facts, but you can't make him think."

Or how about another saying..."Being a fundamentalist means never having to say you're sorry."

Funny thing, Jesus Christ and many of the religious leaders in our nation who profess to believe in the Man's fine work. Not exactly a Biblical scholar myself, but I never recalled Jesus Christ telling the flock, a la Oral Roberts, "Give me $8 million and I'll come out of my tower." Of course, back then, the powers that be didn't think in terms of millions. Or towers. Or have cable television. Perhaps Jesus Christ said, "Give me gold pieces or I refuse to speak to you anymore." Jesus Christ recognized the lepers, ate with them, as I recall. Not a man of stigmas. Not with his Dad. Now, the Christian world has Rev. Ted Haggerty with a wee problem, and Rev. Dobson says he's just too busy and that it'll just take too long to square things with the Man Upstairs. Ole' Rev. Dobson's got other souls to save, books to sell, radio shows to host, and quarterly profit goals to meet. Jesus Christ, my Bible tells me, knew a lot about warnings. Pretty darn accurate, too. No Monday Morning Quarterbacking for this Man. Or his Dad. Of course, no football either. Wonder what Jesus Christ and The Boss thought when Rev. Jerry Falwell, with the nods of Rev. Pat Robertson, went on the post-9/11 rant that blamed that terrible tragedy on the American Civil Liberties Union, liberals, homosexuals, and the American League allowing the designated hitter? Of course, Jesus Christ didn't have to worry about the ACLU 2,000 or so years ago. Maybe it didn't matter. Also, unlike Charlie Colson, Jesus Christ never had to worry about bugging hotel rooms and Congressional investigations. Jesus Christ, says the Bible, knew mangers quite well and, as for government, let's say things were a bit more one-sided when he walked in the Middle East. Never had any eavesdropping devices to worry about. Investigations, sadly, got right to the point. And what's with all this stuff about believe what I and/or everyone else believes or you're an anti-American who ought to leave the country? Somehow I don't remember Jesus Christ ever being quoted as saying anything along those lines. No America in His day, to be sure. And no one can, and probably never could, trust the media, right? Getting to the point and trust - seems we've lost the ability to do either of these things in our nation these days. Everyone's so interested in being right that, well, we've forgotten that we're all Americans, each of us as apt to sin, or just be human, as the next man, woman, or child, whether he or she belong to a religion and tell everyone, belong to a religion and keep it to themselves, or belong to no religion at all. Seems Jesus Christ and his Father gave us a fair number of choices. I wonder, and maybe it's in the Bible somewhere, why so many people seem to want to narrow the options these days. Biblical scholars, have at it.

Dobson: Helping families. Colson: Helping criminals not be criminals anymore. That is to say "helping families." They are doing what Jesus said to do.
David Kuo: Selling a new book. Who really knows what he is going "to do?" Satan has had a field day turning the Christians that actually are doing good things, into hate mongers. Now "pro-family" is a hate crime. Obviously. Satan (and his followers) hate goodness. How have we come to view men such as Dobson and Colson as the bad guys? Because the bad guys are in control of what most people get to hear and how they hear it. This new progressive paradigm is nothing new on the spiritual scene. Just hedonsim and licentiousness with enlightenment frosting to make it palatable. Numbing the minds of people to accept abominations as easily as a Big Mac. "By the way," I have been working with those kids in juvenile halls and on and street corners for more than a decade. Men like Dobson and Colson work to try to make those children's lives better. They do it by working very hard. Not by altering the meaning of words and by ignoring truth. Another example of Jesus.
There are fundamentals to what is Christian reality, that can only be ignored or attacked. And then there is progressive insanity exchanging the truth for a lie (old abominations repackaged). Not one person that examines what Dobson and Colson are doing can find them drifting away from the words of Jesus. Their detractors are anything but those who agree with the Gospel. Can anyone post where Jesus is quoted as saying "anything goes." That is a question. Both Colson and Dobson answer "no" to it. And of course, the new anti-Christs hate them for their stand on that immutable truth.

David, How about holding Jim Wallis and Barry Lynn to the same standards as you do Chuck Colson and James Dobson? Which of those men compare to the names atributed to the Epistles? Colson and Dobson. David, is it OK to let heretics off the hook because they do not disagree with your opinion? Paul used "the state" to spread the Gospel. He opposed things that Wallis' organizations OK. Truth is truth no matter the day and age.

Donny, My question about talking with kids in juvenile halls and street corners was not rhetorical. I assumed your passion comes from seeing true brokenness. Since you do know that there is a real need for a true alternative, why don't we work to present it as such? It seems that when Christians look to law and politics as their weapon of choice, they and their intentions get co-opted by the political machine. I know I'm simplifying, but what about an example from something I know is important to you. Since Roe v. Wade, there have been 21 years of Republican presidents, and 12 years of Democrats. That's a long time to bring real change. But what's changed? Nothing - unless the real priority for the religious right was to limit habeas corpus for those on death row. But I would hope that's not the case.

Hedonism and licentiousness are catch words that include eh-hum . . . several things. Mostly though, the things that either destroy the family, or, alter what it is, or, break it into pieces. Satanic things. The breakup of the family is big business. Eternally-wise. Notice that Colson and Dobson fight to save the family from attack and breakup. While "the left" just keeps redefining every moral-carcinogenic mutation within their environment. Sort of an intellectual Botox injection to cover up the every rising wrinkles. Of course only to wear off again and again to show the reality of reality. With no fasting either. It's difficult to speak the truth on a website that views it as hate speech. So we skirt around reality for larger web-hit volumes. Q: How many followers were with Jesus at the Cross?
A: A minority of those that professed membership. Now, why is it, that the oh-so enlightened, seem to be just peddling lascivious acts and permissiveness when all is said and done? Darwinism is just a doctrine and dogma to allow unfettered access to hedonism. C'mon, c'mon, we're all adults here. Do we really need to hide the product after the sale is completed? Again, Colson and Dobson fight for good; and oppose unrestrained behaviors rule our world. Very Jesus-like according to Jesus. Nothing has really changed since Sodom or Inner-city Rome. Ever seen the walls Pompei? Larry Flyntsville. Nothing knew at all in our "modern" world. Same ol' same ol', except now from those with higher education doing the salespitch. Except, we don't have to go to Pompeii for indulgence. "No accountablitity!" is the guiltless sermon of progressive clergy. That is, until their Prius is broken into by a teenage child of crack addicted homeless mother of three. Then, all hell breaks loose. And our city jails fill to overflow. Dobson has tried to help prevent that. And Colson still does in the jails. Until Barry Lynn or Jim Wallis can get him arrested for helping.
Welcome to relativity and progressive pudding. Where "in" lies the the truth of consequences. Proof of who are the good guys, and who are the bad guys. My votes? Dobson and Colson are wearing the white hats.

2000 years of Christianity, and nothing has really changed since Sodom and the decadence of imperial Rome? I can't say that's much of an advertisement for the efficacy of Christian morals and the Christian message, if true. I personally think quite a bit has changed, and will continue to change as circumstances change, but I'll leave that discussion for another time. I'm not enough of a Whig to crow about Progress, but nor am I so blind as to suppose nothing changes. So-- the family.You disapprove of things that destroy the family, or, alter what it is, or, break it into pieces. Fair enough. I have a family myself. Now, the traditional family: would this be the Roman family? You know, the family where the child could be placed on the rubbish heap without a qualm if the father didn't want it? Okay...too traditional probably. Maybe the Victorian family? Women of a certain class did not work, servants raised the kids, divorce was nearly impossible, and if you were poor you kids went off to the spinning mill or the blacking factory. Hmmm. Still too traditional. Maybe the family of the 1950s! Leave It To Beaver, Father Knows Best, etc. All kidding aside Donny, I think the changes in the family and in society generally are largely driven by powerful economic and technological forces. You can't put the genie back in the bottle. Birth control pills are out there. Women are in the workforce, more economically independent than ever before. Birthrates in Italy-- Italy!!-- have gone negative. Divorce has lost its stigma, and marriage has lost much of its allure. These are just social facts. The forlorn hope that exhortation can keep the family from alteration is unrealistic. I suppose you long for some Golden Age where there is neither a Darwin nor a halter top, nor a divorce decree, nor a Gay Pride Parade, where all the hedonism and licentiousness is banished (whatever you mean by those terms). Well, good luck. Every past age you might care to look closely at will display its own stock of social ills every bit as repugnant as those of our own time.

This is about Jesus. After all. His followers follow "Him."
Leave it to Beaver? Pretty close to a guiltless environment. Seems the very picture of the Jesus marriage/family, that Dobson and Colson fight for. Every child wants both parents intact and in place. I'll stake all on that. 2000 years and we're back to a Roman/Greek decadent and licentious society. Just as described as would happen in the Gospels. Jesus ain't no dummy. And fault cannot be laid at the feet of Bible-believing and Bible-preaching Christians. You have to go outside the Church walls to party hardy.
A fast from politics by Christians means ever further gains by "the bad guys" to institute and indoctrinate more people to search elsewhere for a false happiness. Guilt is a reality that Christ Jesus tried to warn people about. Tried and tried and tried. The goody-two shoes, lovey-dovey, go your own way Jesus? Where? What Gospel is He in? Jesus paved the stones of a narrow street. Dobson and Colson are not liars. There is consequence for choices and behaviors, no matter who is rewriting the DSM for whatever political activist group. You can put ADD in front of an excuse laden diagnosis, but nature again will have the last word. And sorrow from the denied guilt of it all will result. Children need both parents. A Dobson and Colson mantra. In fact DNA will prove that human children are the products of "two people." Two different sex people. I'm sure the cloners have their hidden desires, but I feel confident that nature will not be mocked by them as well. Sooner or later things will be put right. Dobson has nothing to apologize to David Kuo about, or for.
David,
You burst onto the scene as a savior of leftist politics, not of the lost sheep. You helped the abortionists and hedonists gain a strong foothold on the necks of good and decent people. You'll have to live with that. You deserve no apology from James Dobson. Neither Dr. Dobson, or Chuck Colson yoke themselves with unbelievers. Your fans David, are howling from the secular stands. The genie or relativism is out of the bottle and too fat from too many orgies to be put back in. But that does not mean you have to dance with him. That, is a choice. Luckily Christians have leaders like Dobson and Colson telling them the truth about the genie and his ways. No apologies necessary when telling the truth.

"Luckily Christians have leaders like Dobson and Colson telling them the truth..." Yeah, how lucky can you get!

Well, David, you must be doing something right if you've got Dobson and Colson dumping on you, not to mention Donny who really has reached into his jumbo pack of rhetorical bullets to try to shoot you down. You have found your voice. Keep it up. We followers of Christ who can't abide the "you're either with us or against us" dogma of the far right thank you for speaking out. Donny, you have an incredible amount of energy and passion and you clearly get a kick out of getting people fired up. It just seems you might be happier by focusing that energy and passion on helping people in need rather than fussing about all the sinners in the world.

I hate 'blogs'. Really!
Is Daddy home yet?

radiofreewill, Dobson's honesty is not a good thing? Haggard has many good people to lead him away from the sinful behaviors that he embraced. Dobson is not a Pope figure after all. You and David Kuo, "as Christians," should concentrate on the kinds of people that want Haggard to embrace and condone the sin that he embraced, as a definer of "what" he is.
Dobson has let other fine pastors help Haggard. He got out of the way like you ask. Dobson is doing what many reponders of this blog want of him: To let others lead.
C'mon man.

"If I am willing to serenely bear the burden of being displeasing to myself, I will be a pleasant place of shelter for Jesus." St. Therese of Lisieux - age 19 The capacity for examining oneself rather than needing to find a devil to accuse is something we are losing. the Christian right has lost the ability to be self critical. David, you have not lost that. And you are indeed, a pleasant place of shelter for Jesus. Fred Rogers - as in Mr. - said that the most important thing he learned in seminary was that Satan was the accusor. For a long time I received mail from Focus on the Family and I can only say that the energy was satanic - accusing and condemning. Your book is gently critical of a type of Christian witness that has lost its center because of a need to accuse rather than comfort, to destroy some imaginary devil rather than support those who suffer.

Amen, David. I congratulate you on standing boldly and meekly on the firm ground of the truth. The Devil has his influence in all of the world's systems, but Christ has overcome the world, so we have no reason to fear the intimidations of the so-called "moral majority". I find it ever-so fascinating that these Religious right-ers are willing to dirty themselves so shamelessly, eager to play the games by the rules of a condemned system.
The time is coming soon when an angel shall declare, "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdom of God and his Christ". When we hear that call, we shall know the world is being announced as dead.
I implore all self-preserving Chrsitians to heed the truth within these words of Christ: "He that would save his life, shall lose it. But he who shall lose his life for my sake shall have life eternal." God is rising a people up to judge the rotton chaff that would try and pass off as wheat. God will expose all that is hidden, He shall straighten out the crooked paths, bringing mountains down low, and raising valleys on high. The Day of the Lord is at hand!

What about the immoral majority?
There are far more non-Christians "in the west" than there are Christians.

I left the Republican Party, and eventually left the Christian faith, because of what I saw happening with the rise of the evangelical wing of the party. The churches, and yes individual Christians, were more occupied with electing Republicans to office than witnessing the Gospel of Christ to those in need. To them, the Gospel was Ronald Reagan. As I look back on it had I heard Jim Wallis, David Kuo, or any of the other, more liberal voices in the faith I might have well continued on the Christian path.
The attacks from the members of the religious right on this board remind me all to well of the reasons I left that path behind...far behind. They are also the reason I have to hide my identity on blogs such as this, lest someone find out that I am no longer "claiming Christ" and use that to get me fired from my job (in a local public school) or make life miserable for me and my family. It wasn't that long ago that some "Christians" vandalized the home of another non-Christian family in town. I don't want to expose my family to that kind of "witness".