James Dobson, Fear, & The Shooting in Connecticut

About 10 years ago a Christian friend gave me a CD with a teaching by James Dobson on it.  Dobson at the time was rallying Christians to support a judge who refused to remove a fixture of the 10 Commandments from his courtroom.  My friend, knowing my knack for  law and politics, thought I would really enjoy it.

He was wrong…

It wasn’t so much a teaching as a mob rally where Dobson created fear in his listeners and then channeled that fear toward his own agenda.  I was able to listen to the CD for about 5 minutes before I could stand it no longer and ejected the disk.

Fast forward to today…

Now with the recent shooting tragedy in Newtown,  Connecticut,  Dobson is again weighing in and mixing up his concoction of fear and religion:

I mean millions of people have decided that God doesn’t exist, or he’s irrelevant to me, and we have killed fifty-four million babies and the institution of marriage is right on the verge of a complete redefinition.  Believe me, that is going to have consequences too.

And a lot of these things are happening around us, and somebody is going to get mad at me for saying what I am about to say right now, but I am going to give you my honest opinion: I think we have turned our back on the Scripture and on God Almighty and I think he has allowed judgment to fall upon us.  I think that’s what’s going on.

Listening to Dobson, or a number of evangelical Christian spokesmen, you’d think the covenant God had with the nation of Israel had somehow been magically transferred to America.  That there is a “special relationship” and when the United States is following God it will be blessed, and when it “sins” (at least the sins that Mr. Dobson feel are important like abortion, homosexuality, and electing a Democrat president) then judgement will occur until people cry out to God.

It’s interesting to note that nearly every bible verse that these “defenders of the faith” use comes from the Old Testament and the covenant God had with the nation of Israel. However in the New Covenant that God has made with ALL people of ALL nations,  Paul the Apostle has a warning for those who are quick to judge AND who show contempt for God’s kindness.

You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.  Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth.  So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?

Romans 2: 1-5

It’s the kindness of God that transforms peoples hearts and minds! When has God’s wrath EVER led to true repentance?  Wrath causes people to hate not repent.  When men and women see what are supposed to be spokesmen for Jesus saying that a bunch of innocent children were shot dead because it’s God’s judgement they don’t drop to their knees and say, “Sorry O Lord”.

No..

They begin to hate you, God, and everything his kingdom represents.

So many Christian teachers today struggle with a God who is rich in kindness and patience.  What they really want is a “cause and effect” God; a God who will love you when you are good but disown you if you are bad.  Some even show a contempt for the unfathomable kindness and patience of God because if people really KNEW that God loved them unconditionally, the power to manipulate their fear would be greatly reduced.

God is good!  People around the world need to know that.  It’s a shame that all too many Christians still don’t.