Obama Clashes With Christian Conservative Leader

Evangelical outreach continues as James Dobson slams 2006 speech on religion.

ByABC News
June 24, 2008, 6:32 PM

June 24, 2008— -- Barack Obama says his Christian faith will help him reach white evangelicals who traditionally vote Republican, but some religious leaders are resisting the call.

"I think he's deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own world view, his own confused ideology," James Dobson, leader of the Christian group Focus on the Family, said Tuesday in his daily radio show.

Dobson spent much of his show picking apart a 2006 speech from Obama, D-Ill., on why liberals and conservatives need to be more tolerant about faith.

"I can't simply point to the teachings of my church, or evoke God's will. I have to explain why abortion violates some principle that is accessible to people of all faiths, including those with no faith at all," Obama said in that speech.

Dobson called that a "fruitcake interpretation of the Constitution," but Obama, in exclusive comments to ABC News on Tuesday, insisted Dobson is misrepresenting his words.

"I have no idea what he's referring to. Anybody who's read that speech will tell you that I extol the need for people with religious faith to express their views in the public square, and I don't interpret the Bible in the ways he's referring to," Obama said.

"Either he didn't read the speech or he's just trying to score political points, and either way, I don't think it's a particularly useful way to talk about these issues," Obama told ABC News.

Obama is not polling any better with white evangelical Protestants now than Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., did in 2004.

In a recent ABC News/Washington Post poll, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., led in the group 68-22 percent; in 2004 election exit polls, President George W. Bush won that group 78-21 over Kerry.

Despite those numbers, Obama has said he is trying to reach out.

"Even if they may not end up supporting my candidacy, I want to make sure people know I'm listening to them and I'm a person of faith," Obama said in an interview.