obama dobson 2

James Dobson and Barack Obama on political efforts, religious efforts, and the role of politics in religion, and the role of religion in politics:

Street Prophets: Confused Theology?

CNN: Distorting the Bible?

And doesn't Dobson's claims of distortion hinge on dispensationalism? I think Obama has higher theological ground here because he's saying "honestly, let's take the Bible as a whole seriously, then let's figure out how to conduct ourselves publicly, plurally." Dobson's position is necessarily more weak, because he must at once defend the passages in the Torah which condemn homosexuality, but he then must say that taking the other legalistic passages as seriously as Obama suggests we must is bad form. Dobson's position is clearly the more confused of the two.

However, this is not a theological argument. This is a debate about faith and secular democracy. Obama, by admitting to the tough parts of Leviticus then talking about how best to navigate our way faithfully through modern American life shows himself in a much stronger position than the Dobson camp would like. They're scared of Obama because Obama is right and they are wrong.

The cracks are showing in the old quid pro quo between the religious right and the economic and constitutional conservatives.

infinitude

Reading this at Songs of Unforgetting:

The Infinite

An infinite that excludes the finite is not truly infinite; it is limited by that which still lies outside of it. The “truly infinite” (das wahrhaft Unendliche) is that infinite which includes all finites within it, for it alone is limited by nothing whatsoever outside itself.

Philip Clayton

Tags: god, infinite, panentheism, Philip Clayton, quotes

Makes me wonder about old James Carse, about Finite and Infinite Games, and if finite games can exist within infinite games... if memory's working, I think Carse covers that and posits they can and do (a timed game of chess within a infinite game of simulated city building, for example?).

That's a good book. That needs more play, theological and otherwise.

Here's Carse talking about religion (skip to the 5 minute mark) at the Long Now Foundation: