{"id":245,"date":"2008-11-02T11:23:30","date_gmt":"2008-11-02T11:23:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/progressiverevival\/2008\/11\/huge-outpouring-of-response-to.html"},"modified":"2008-11-02T11:23:30","modified_gmt":"2008-11-02T11:23:30","slug":"huge-outpouring-of-response-to","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/11\/huge-outpouring-of-response-to.html","title":{"rendered":"Huge Outpouring of Response to Dobson 2012 Letter"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/strong>Over 750 emails now have been sent to Focus on the Family, rejecting the 2012 fear mongering letter!  Please help us keep them coming<\/a>!<\/p>\n


<\/strong><\/p>\n

Here are some of the highlights from the emails we’ve
\nreceived of letters that have been sent to James Dobson and Focus on the Family Action.  You can view<\/a> many more on the Matthew 25 website.<\/p>\n

\"Horizontal<\/p>\n

\n

You
\nhave, for many years now, served as a trusted voice of and for
\nChristian witness in our country. I am deeply saddened, even disgusted,
\nat the fear that you instilled in innocent and less informed members of
\nthe Church in our country when writing the letter from 2012. I believe
\nstrongly that we are called to action in the politics of our nation,
\nbut we must do so in the light of a living and loving God, One who I
\nbelieve calls us into dialogue and reconciliation, one who gave us
\nminds to think through difficult issues and not simply to make
\nassumptions and “prophecies.”<\/p>\n

I am deeply
\ndisappointed and offended by your letter and have great hope that you
\nwill consider posting a public response to the droves of people who sit
\nin disagreement with your tactics. <\/p>\n

\"Horizontal<\/p>\n

I
\nam an evangelical Christian, active in an evangelical church, wife of a
\nyouth pastor. Please encourage your listeners to ask God to bless our
\ncountry and its people. Please encourage your listeners to seek God’s
\nwill as they cast their ballot. Please stop encouraging your listeners
\nto hate those who think differently than themselves. This is what you
\nare doing. You are vilifying Sen. Obama, a fellow Christian. You are
\ngiving Christian people permission and encouragement to speak out
\nagainst Sen. Obama as if he were the antichrist. This is wrong. I’m
\nliving with the result of your encouragements. I’m hearing hateful
\nthings out of mouths that ususally speak the truth in love and they
\noften reference your publications! Please steer your readers to love
\nand good works, faith in God’s soverignty and hope that God can bless
\nus as a people, as a nation. Stop encouraging people to personalize
\ntheir worst fears in the face of Sen. Obama. This is neither the faith
\nthat we are called to nor the hope that we have been given. If you
\ndiffer, speak out. But with God’s love and hope that He is still in
\ncontrol. <\/p>\n

\"Horizontal<\/p>\n

I
\nam a believer in Jesus Christ, served on the mission field and have
\nappreciated your books and ministry. After receiving 2012, I am pulling
\nout my support for Focus on the Family not because I have gone
\n“liberal”, but because I am very disappointed with the direction you
\nare taking. I love the church and desire unity whole heartedly, and
\n2012 seeks to divide the church, which is what the enemy wants. Christ
\ntranscends partisan, Dr. Dobson. Grace and peace to you, because I
\nabhor slander, esp. in the body of Christ.<\/p>\n

\"Horizontal<\/p>\n

I
\njust have to let you know that I am very disappointed in the letter you
\nhave published about the ramifications of Obama being elected
\npresident. The things you say in this letter do nothing but continue to
\nalienate Christians from from the hurting world that we have been
\ncalled to reach. You are taking a stand on an issue (homosexuality) to
\nthe exclusion of all others, and I have a hard time understanding why
\nyou believe that this one particular sin will be the one that will
\n“ruin” our America. Sin is sin. You and I are just as sinful. I have
\nhad a stellar Christian education both as an undergraduate and graduate
\nstudent, and I work in the field of mental health. So many people are
\nafraid to come to the church and to the counseling clinic, to approach
\npastors and Christian counselors because of the approach you take to
\nthis issue in a public manner. Being a Christian is not about
\nself-preservation or the preservation of an elite group, it is about
\nsacrificing self to meet the needs of others – ALL others, whether we
\nagree with them or not. Please, please, please be careful with the
\npower you have.<\/p>\n

\"Horizontal<\/p>\n

For
\nyears I have been using Focus On The Family videos and materials in my
\nchurch programs for young parents and families. I have always found you
\nand your organization to be a great asset to our Christian churches.<\/p>\n

However,
\nI am appalled at the recent letter sent out by Focus On The Family
\nAction which I understand to be an offshoot of Focus On The Family and
\nits ministries. We have had too much anger, hate, and malevolence
\nspread in this campaign. I can not believe this is the way God would
\nhave us act as Christians. Our God is not a God of fear; rather a God
\nof hope, love and forgiveness. I am sure that whatever the outcome of
\nthe upcoming election our God is BIG enough to handle it, and to
\ncontinue to help us work our way through our problems and difficulties
\nshould they come.<\/p>\n

My prayer for you is that you help
\nus by continueing to preach a gospel of hope. Also by helping us to be
\nproactive in our Christian witness by taking the high road rather than
\nsinking to the levels of fear-mongering.<\/p>\n

\"Horizontal<\/p>\n

I
\nam very grateful for the support and inspiration that I received from
\nyour program as a young stay-at-home mother. I was saddened when I had
\nto quit listening to your program because of the increased political
\npartisianship that was not in the spirit of Christian love. But I am
\nshocked by the contents of the Letter from 2012! This letter not only
\nappears to be an act of political despiration but seems to proclaim the
\nidea that God is somewho limited by a single election. The letter is
\nalso hateful and appeals to a great number of human instincts that are
\nnot Christian–prejudice, fear, and self-protection. Not to mention the
\nfact, that unless you are claiming prophetic powers, there is no way
\nyou can make the claims in the letter. Most, if not all of the claims,
\nare not even a part or even hinted at in Obama’s platform. <\/p>\n

Quite
\nhonestly, I think Focus on the Family should be ashamed and owes not
\nonly Obama but the American people an apology. THe church is losing a
\ngeneration of people thanks to these kinds of hateful tactics. I know
\nthat God won’t allow this to happen but as a supposed Christ-based
\norganizaiton, I would think you would be concerned.<\/p>\n

\"Horizontal<\/p>\n

Proverbs
\n6:19 states in part that God finds detestable “a man who stirs up
\ndissension among brothers.” You are doing this very thing. I urge you
\nto take down this hateful, fear-filled letter and ask Mr. Obama for
\nforgiveness for maligning his character in this manner.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

It’s not too late to send your message to James Dobson and Focus on the Family. To send a message, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over 750 emails now have been sent to Focus on the Family, rejecting the 2012 fear mongering letter!  Please help us keep them coming! Here are some of the highlights from the emails we’ve received of letters that have been sent to James Dobson and Focus on the Family Action.  You can view many more…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":156,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-election-08"],"yoast_head":"\nHuge Outpouring of Response to Dobson 2012 Letter - Progressive Revival<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/11\/huge-outpouring-of-response-to.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Huge Outpouring of Response to Dobson 2012 Letter - Progressive Revival\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Over 750 emails now have been sent to Focus on the Family, rejecting the 2012 fear mongering letter!  Please help us keep them coming! Here are some of the highlights from the emails we’ve received of letters that have been sent to James Dobson and Focus on the Family Action.  You can view many more…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/11\/huge-outpouring-of-response-to.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Progressive Revival\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-11-02T11:23:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.matthew25.org\/images\/div.gif\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mara Vanderslice\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Huge Outpouring of Response to Dobson 2012 Letter - Progressive Revival","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/11\/huge-outpouring-of-response-to.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Huge Outpouring of Response to Dobson 2012 Letter - Progressive Revival","og_description":"Over 750 emails now have been sent to Focus on the Family, rejecting the 2012 fear mongering letter!  Please help us keep them coming! Here are some of the highlights from the emails we’ve received of letters that have been sent to James Dobson and Focus on the Family Action.  You can view many more…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/11\/huge-outpouring-of-response-to.html","og_site_name":"Progressive Revival","article_published_time":"2008-11-02T11:23:30+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.matthew25.org\/images\/div.gif"}],"author":"Mara Vanderslice","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/11\/huge-outpouring-of-response-to.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/11\/huge-outpouring-of-response-to.html","name":"Huge Outpouring of Response to Dobson 2012 Letter - Progressive Revival","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/11\/huge-outpouring-of-response-to.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/11\/huge-outpouring-of-response-to.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.matthew25.org\/images\/div.gif","datePublished":"2008-11-02T11:23:30+00:00","dateModified":"2008-11-02T11:23:30+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/#\/schema\/person\/d528e4d292ba39f3c0b499eb052d9c09"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/11\/huge-outpouring-of-response-to.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/11\/huge-outpouring-of-response-to.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/11\/huge-outpouring-of-response-to.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.matthew25.org\/images\/div.gif","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.matthew25.org\/images\/div.gif"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/11\/huge-outpouring-of-response-to.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Huge Outpouring of Response to Dobson 2012 Letter"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/","name":"Progressive Revival","description":"Politics from the New Religious Progressives","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/#\/schema\/person\/d528e4d292ba39f3c0b499eb052d9c09","name":"Mara Vanderslice","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/a2a\/a2a304576a8a3cc32a25835b4fe51bc2x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/a2a\/a2a304576a8a3cc32a25835b4fe51bc2x96.jpg","caption":"Mara Vanderslice"},"description":"Mara Vanderslice is the organizing force behind the Matthew 25 Network. Prior to founding Matthew 25, Mara worked with Common Good Strategies, a political consulting firm that worked on connecting elected officials, candidates and state parties with America\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s diverse religious communities. CGS worked on numerous successful political campaigns in 2006. Prior to that, Mara was the Director of Religious Outreach for the Kerry-Edwards 2004 campaign. Mara\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s work has been profiled in The New York Times, TIME magazine, The Washington Post, ABC News and the Christian Broadcasting Network. Mara also appeared as a guest on The Colbert Report on Comedy Central.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/author\/mvanderslice"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/156"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}