Jim Wallis Demands Apology from James Dobson Jim Wallis and James Dobson are both Christians. You bring the sodas. I'll bring the popcorn.

Sarah Pulliam

Jim Wallis called for an apology from Focus on the Family founder James Dobson for the fictitious letter posted on Citizenlink.com.

Focus on the Family Action, the political arm of Focus on the Family, posted a letter that pretended to look back on an Obama administration. The writer suggested that certain events had happened, including terrorist attacks on four cities.

Jim Wallis responds:

"In a time of utter political incivility, it shows the kind of negative Christian leadership that has become so embarrassing to so many of your fellow Christians in America," he writes. "Such outrageous predictions not only damage your credibility, they slander Barack Obama who, you should remember, is a brother in Christ, and they insult any Christian who might choose to vote for him."

And Wallis isn't the only one upset. There's also a satire piece. The Matthew 25 Network calls it "blatant fearmongering," and more than 2,000 people have joined a Facebook group called "A Christian Bipartisan Rejection of Focus on the Family’s Letter from 2012."

"As you can see, Focus on the Family Action has abandoned reasonable appeals and resorted to shameless tactics of fear mongering. They have abandoned the belief that voters can make informed decisions and have instead appealed to fear as their fundamental motivator.

"As Christians, we stand appalled and ashamed at such tasteless demagoguery. We believe that civil, educated, and compassionate dialogue should and can occur with the active engagement of our faith, but believe that Focus on the Family Action has, in this letter, stepped far outside of reasonable boundaries into pure sensationalism. We believe that such thoughtless expressions coming from an organization that purports to represent Evangelicals continues to mar our legitimacy and voice in the public arena, and damages our basic Christian witness."

The list of things proposed in the letter includes:
-Terrorist attacks on four cities
-Israel is hit by a nuclear bomb
-Euthanasia becomes commonplace
-The Supreme Court becomes liberal
-Churches lose their tax exempt status for not allowing gay marriages
-Pornography openly displayed
-Gun ownership restricted and inner-city crime rises,
-Home schooling becomes restricted and families move to Australia and New Zealand
-Conservative talk shows shut down
-Christian publishers forced out of business
-Power blackouts because of environmental restrictions
-Boy Scouts shut down
-Russia occupies four countries
-Bush officials jailed or bankrupt

Focus on the Family Action defended its letter yesterday after a CNN reporter described the organization as "religious extremists."

Gary Schneeberger, vice president of media and public relations at Focus Action, has worked in the media for 25 years. He said Feyerick's report "definitely signals a new level of marginalization by the mainstream media of groups like us that stand for biblical truth."

"We can’t control what the media want to call us," he said. "All we can do is continue to stand for the truth. The Bible makes it clear that when you stand for Jesus and His righteousness, those kinds of things will come."

I received this article as an email response to another forward I received. But a cursory search tells me Pulliam also writes for a Christian website (see second link). The letter central to this fear-mongering malarkey is really a lengthy, tedious drone to read. A bit like watching Armageddon but without Liv Tyler and a cool Aerosmith music video. In this case, Obama would be the asteroid, and the right-wing Christians are Bruce Willis with a giant drill bit and a nuclear bomb; grovelling over some sentimental story about "losing" America to the liberals and going Jerry Bruckheimer on the ficticious consequences.

But it really shares most of its fear-mongering values with Senator McCain's party lines. Except Christians don't sound as silly when they start mentioning things like:

"THIS IS EXTREMELY SERIOUS.

Minutes ago I spoke with friend Dr. Norman G. Marvin, M.D. and he is so concerned at what he has learned about Barack Obama's family in Kenya that he is calling a special prayer meeting in his home to pray against the witchcraft curses attempted by them against John McCain and Sarah Palin.

[...]

IF YOU KNOW HOW TO DO SPIRITUAL WARFARE, PLEASE PRAY TODAY AND CONTINUALLY THAT ALL SUCH CURSES BE BROKEN AND SATAN'S PLAN FOR AMERICA BE DEFEATED, IN JESUS' NAME. PRAY AND COVER MCCAIN AND PALIN WITH THE BLOOD OF CHRIST. IF YOU DO NOT KNOW HOW TO DO SPIRITUAL WARFARE, IT IS TIME YOU LEARN!!!"

(Does Stan's dad from South Park screaming "We didn't listennn!!" come to mind yet?) and;

"Two days ago, I listened to a 9-6-08 message by Bree Keyton, a young woman evangelist who had just traveled to Kenya and visited Obama's home village and what she found out about his relations with his tribal people was chilling. And his 'cousin' Odinga was dreadful. She said the witches, warlocks and those involved in satanism and the occult get up daily at 3 a.m. to release curses against McCain and Palin so B. Hussein Obama is elected.

[...]

Bree Keyton went and visited Obama's tribal people and she found out Obama is 75% Arab and his family are Muslims. Odinga is still trying to become the President of Kenya. If he does, he will make a law forbidding all public preaching and institute Sharia Law. Bree K. said Odinga has made a pact with satan. Bree K. also said when Obama visited his tribe in '06 and as late as Jan. '08 he went to every elder's home which has a 'shrine' inside to worship the genie and asked for their blessing. She was told Obama and Odinga were both 'destined' before they were born to be president/leader of their nation. They say 'he is the chosen one'. She said Obama's grandmother sacrificed a black and a white chicken to the 'goddess of the river' so both whites and blacks will vote for Obama. All Islam loves and worships Obama."

What must be going through the minds of right-wing Christians eager to jump onto this anti-Obama bandwagon after reading this, I wonder. Is Obama going home every day to slaughter some chickens to give him an edge over McCain? Is Obama not American then for being of 75% Arab decent or even if he were a Muslim? Is it blasphemous to want a leader who can finally offer some harmony with America's Muslim neighbours? Or has everyone just gone f**king dumbass stupid declaring "spiritual warfare"!? The above excerpts are from the original email forward. Thankfully though, many Christians are claiming they did not get this memo about the Jesus fatwah. The fundamentalists would do well to notice that they happen to be sharing the same boat with the neo-Nazis who obviously don't want a black president. Funnily enough, for the same xenophobic, irrational reasons.  ¶ posted by Jon at 11/01/2008