Hello all,

Many of you are my friends. Chances are I have not met most of you, as I imagine that there are hundreds of thousands (or perhaps millions) of you who I have not met in my various homes in Michigan. But I believe that I understand at least to some degree where you are coming from, specifically because of my experience with Focus on the Family as mentioned yesterday.

I'm writing to you as part of my continuing response to his radio show from Tuesday, June 24th regarding Senator Obama's speech from 2006. I have listened to Senator Obama's speech as well as the entire audio of the radio show from Focus on the Family's website, and I would like to bring to your attention a few points of concern I have. (I will break these into a few separate posts in hopes that this makes it easier to read.)

First of all, Dr. Dobson made a statement about Senator Obama's worldview that is wholly inaccurate. Dr. Dobson said "[Senator Obama] is trying to make the case that it's antidemocratic to believe or fight for moral principles in the Bible that are not supported by people of all faith, or presumably by people of no faith." That statement, if true, would quite simply be damning for Senator Obama in his attempts to garner support in the evangelical community. But what did Senator Obama say? He said:

Democracy demands that the religiously motivated translate their concerns into universal, rather than religion-specific, values. It requires that their proposals be subject to argument, and amenable to reason. I may be opposed to abortion for religious reasons, but if I seek to pass a law banning the practice, I cannot simply point to the teachings of my church or evoke God's will. I have to explain why abortion violates some principle that is accessible to people of all faiths, including those with no faith at all.

"Amenable to reason." That does not read as "antidemocratic." I can understand this statement by Senator Obama. It would make sense that we would need to have a universal value to convince those who are not Christians to support legislation as such. Just as the defense "God told me to" typically does not hold up in the American court system, so "God told me" does not typically hold water in the American judicial system. It seems that Obama was encouraging Christians to hold themselves to a higher standard, not writing Christian thought and politics off as "antidemocratic."

Stay tuned for Part II.

I do not wish to have any negative rhetoric or lack Christian spirit in this series, whatever its length, so please feel free to call me out if my comments seem vitriolic or mean. With that being said, make sure you're kind in your words and spirit as well, and I believe we will have a positive dialogue.