Irony (or something like that...)

Actually all you really have to do is look at the headline: Pastor Who Officiated at Jenna Bush Wedding Launches Pro-Obama Website.

But I'll give you an excerpt anyway:

The Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell, leader of the largest Methodist congregation in the country, launched a website yesterday titled "James Dobson Does Not Speak For Me." The site is a jab at Dobson, a stalwart of the religious right who this week called Sen. Barack Obama's interpretation of the Bible in a 2006 speech distorted "to fit [Obama's] own world view, his own confused theology."

Caldwell's site launched a day after Dobson's Focus on the Family radio program aired a harsh assessment of Obama's speech on faith and public policy and encourages readers to sign a statement declaring that Dobson does not represent them.

"I think it's a crime and a shame that Senator Obama has had to explain the fact that he's a Christian," Caldwell said in a recent interview. "Criticize his politics. Criticize his stance on whatever, but don't question his faith. Never in the history of American politics has someone said that he is a Christian and someone came back to say, 'No you're not.'"

If Rev. Caldwell's name sounds familiar, it may be because he is the same Rev. Caldwell who introduced President Bush at the 2000 Republican National Convention and last month officiated at Jenna Bush's wedding ceremony at the presidential ranch in Crawford. This election Caldwell is firmly in the Obama camp and doggedly trying to help the campaign bring other pastors and parishioners along.

And here's a comment to this article that hurts my heart but I certainly understand it:

Like thousands of other Americans, I left the USA (I was born in Iowa, the son of fourth generation Americans whose sons and daughters have fought in every war since the turn of the twentieth century) because of the lies, deceits, hypocrisy of George W Bush and his cronies. While I do not support Obama, I could never support McCain who is a harsher version of Bush and Dobson. I have lived abroad 5 years now and know the USA is definitely among the most hated nations on earth: despised for the butchery in Iraq, the extortion of the oil countries that have inflated oil prices, the arrogance of American tourists who believe their dwindling dollar value is god, and more. I had hoped to return to my native land, but race baiting and sexism is still alive and fluid. Dobson makes me ashamed that I was ever a Christian.

-- Posted by: Dr Arthur Frederick Ide