Would Good Morning America invite as a guest a liberal who'd never voted for a Democrat but who after a year spent trying to live like Jesus decided to vote for McCain? I doubt it. But when an evangelical who'd never voted for a Democrat spent such a year and decided to vote for Obama, GMA devoted a segment to his story
Rev. Ed Dobson is the evangelical in question, and let me begin by saying that he seems a sincere and thoughtful person. A graduate of Bob Jones University and a member of the Moral Majority's founding board, Dobson was the pastor of Calvary Church in Grand Rapids, MI until retiring in 2005 to battle Lou Gehrig's disease. He is currently a member of the administration of Cornerstone University. Dobson explained that he was inspired by A. J. Jacobs's book, The Year of Living Biblically, in which the author describes his experiences spending a year trying to obey all biblical rules.
GMA weekend co-anchor Bill Weir interviewed Dobson, and the discussion eventually turned to politics.
View video here.
BILL WEIR: You voted for Barack Obama.
DOBSON: I did indeed.
WEIR: Why?
DOBSON: Well, I decided since I read through the Gospels at that point over 30 times, I wanted to know who represented the fundamental teachings of Jesus. And I felt that he, more than any other candidate, represented the teachings of Jesus. So I voted for him: my first vote for a Democrat.
WEIR: Which brought some scorn I imagine from your community, your Christian community there, which led you to have to forgive them! [Dobson had earlier mentioned that learning to forgive those that sin against you was one of the most difficult things he had to do in living like Jesus.]
DOBSON: Yeah, yeah, well, I'm not saying everybody should vote [for Obama] nor am I saying that Jesus would vote for Mr. Obama. I did because I felt overall he was closer to Jesus' teachings.
