Evangelical minister's letter to Dobson:

Posted by Evan Derkacz at 8:17 PM on October 10, 2006.

Evangelical Christian and ordained minister Jeff Carr penned an open letter to James Dobson, calling him out on his response to the James Foley scandal.

Thank God.

It hasn't gone unnoticed that conservative Christian leaders have been engaging in political pilates (pontius pilates?) to simultaneously appear outraged and to assure congregants that voting is important and that this IS NOT A SYSTEMIC PROBLEM IN THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. Robertson's version is HERE, Tony Perkins' is HERE and Dobson's is HERE.

After praising Dobson as a leader he once respected, Carr's letter reads:

But somewhere along the way, I fear you have lost your way. Your message of hope has turned into a message of...

partisan politics. Instead of words of encouragement, your words seem to continually blame someone else for the problems of the world.

...While thankfully you did condemn the acts of Rep. Foley, you spent the majority of your time attacking "the liberal media," the Democratic party, and gay people, who according to your thinking are the real problem in America.

Unfortunately, I don't think your statement rings true for millions of evangelical Christians, who believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus and the plenary inspiration of the Holy Scriptures ... inerrantly revealing the will of God concerning us in all things necessary to our salvation (Church of the Nazarene Manual). Your statement comes across as the same kind of partisan rhetoric that you claim to be fighting. More hubris than humility. More politics than principle.

...

I'm not just disappointed in the way you responded to the Foley scandal this past week. For if the definition of evangelical is "good news," I'm afraid you may not be very evangelical anymore for the vast majority of people in this country.

Sincerely,

Rev. Jeff Carr
Ordained Minister, Church of the Nazarene

Tagged as: foley, religious, right

Evan Derkacz is an AlterNet editor. He writes and edits PEEK, the blog of blogs.