The American Spectator

Shawn, as I said before, I think it’s easy to understand why a libertarian type wouldn’t like Dobson, just as a matter of ideological temperament, but I don’t think you should deceive yourself with the old “he uses religious reasons” canard. (This whole line of argument is squarely within the subject matter of my dissertation in progress, but I won’t bore the crowd with that!)

The left loves to protest that Christians in politics are ever-guilty of invoking revelation to make their policy points. The problem with the claim is that it is rarely true. If you listen to Dobson talk about abortion you hear a lot of the ugliness of the procedure, the development of the fetus/unborn child, the emotional cost, the philosophical deception, etc.

What you don’t really hear is much scripture being quoted. Heck, guys like Stephen Carter protest that the Christian right has gotten too good at the public reason game and that they have gotten away from a more religious way of thinking. Per Carter, the trouble with Christian right-wingers is that they are sometimes too Republican and not enough Revelation!

Larry, in response to you, the story is that Trout had an affair with someone who was not a Focus employee. And, of course, he promptly left the ministry. That’s hardly a knock on Dobson’s integrity or character.