This is personal

Before I get back to work, I'm going to indulge in a short review as my personal reminder of what the past 12 or so months have held:

October 2007
Gracie, almost died from a rare herniated diaphragm. After emergency surgery, outlandish vet bills, and lots of TLC she is fine.

November 2007
Gordon, who gave me my first job out of college and was like a father to me, died.

December 2007
Two days after Christmas, I suffered a very bad fall and back injury that laid me up for weeks.

January 2008
My only aunt, whose family and mine had been "estranged" for 12 years, died. At her wake, I saw dear loved ones I'd missed terribly for years. This all ends well in terms of relationships reborn, but the anticipation and resulting emotions were unlike any I'd felt before.

and
The increasing frailty of my parents and the realization that they would not be able to live in their home much longer becomes a regular topic of discussion for my brother and I.

March 2008
My father turned 80 and a week later my mother began her final journey with a trip to the ER, resulting in a hospital stay, inpatient rehab, subacute rehab...and a recurring cycle lasting for nearly seven months.

April 2008
After months of preparation and anticipation, I entered into covenant membership with the Wheaton Franciscan Sisters. My plans were that this commitment would be the defining moment of my year. It was far from it.

and
My 80-year-old father was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

July 2008
My dearest friend in the world died after a long battle with cancer. Lucille was like a mother to me. She had just turned 83.

and
My mother suffered a heart attack after being home for only a few days and left her home of the last 47 years for the last time.

September 2008
My 72-year-old mother died two weeks before my parents' 50th wedding anniversary. I was on vacation in Wisconsin, called back home, and made it in time to be with her for nearly 24 hours before she passed...with me as her only witness.

and
My Cubbies imploded...again.

November 4, 2008
I know it in my heart...my year will be redeemed in one day.
This day.

Focus on the Fear

Have you read that fictitious letter that Dobson's organization wrote? I won't give them the exposure by reprinting it, but I'll gladly include Jim Wallis' response as published on The Huffington Post:

James Dobson's "Letter From 2012 in Obama's America"

James Dobson, you owe America an apology. The fictional letter released through your Focus on the Family Action organization, titled "Letter From 2012 in Obama's America", crosses all lines of decent public discourse. In a time of utter political incivility, it shows the kind of negative Christian leadership that has become so embarrassing to so many of your fellow Christians in America. We are weary of this kind of Christian leadership, and that is why so many are forsaking the Religious Right in this election.

This letter offers nothing but fear. It apocalyptically depicts terrorist attacks in American cities, churches losing their tax exempt status for not allowing gay marriages, pornography pushed in front of our children, doctors and nurses forced to perform abortions, euthanasia as commonplace, inner-city crime gone wild because of lack of gun ownership, home schooling banned, restricted religious speech, liberal censorship shutting down conservative talk shows, Christian publishers forced out of business, Israel nuked, power blackouts because of environmental restrictions, brave Christian resisters jailed by a liberal Supreme court, and finally, good Christian families emigrating to Australia and New Zealand.

It is shocking how thoroughly biblical teachings against slander--misrepresentations that damage another's reputation--are ignored (Ephesians 4:29-31, Colossians 3:8, Titus 3:2). Such outrageous predictions not only damage your credibility, they slander Barack Obama who, you should remember, is a brother in Christ, and they insult any Christian who might choose to vote for him.

Let me make this clear: Christians will be voting both ways in this election, informed by their good faith, and based on their views of what are the best public policies and direction for America. But in utter disrespect for the prayerful discernment of your fellow Christians, this letter stirs their ugliest fears, appealing to their worst impulses instead of their best.

Fear is the clear motivator in the letter; especially fear that evangelical Christians might vote for Barack Obama. The letter was very revealing when it suggested that "younger Evangelicals" became the "swing vote" that elected Obama and the results were catastrophic.

You make a mistake when you assume that younger Christians don't care as much as you about the sanctity of life. They do care--very much--but they have a more consistent ethic of life. Both broader and deeper, it is inclusive of abortion, but also of the many other assaults on human life and dignity. For the new generation, poverty, hunger, and disease are also life issues; creation care is a life issue; genocide, torture, the death penalty, and human rights are life issues; war is a life issue. What happens to poor children after they are born is also a life issue.

The America you helped vote into power has lost its moral standing in the world, and even here at home. The America you told Christians to vote for in past elections is now an embarrassment to Christians around the globe, and to the children of your generation of evangelicals. And the vision of America that you still tell Christians to vote for is not the one that many in a new generation of Christians believes expresses their best values and convictions.

Christians should be committed to the kingdom of God, not the kingdom of America, and the church is to live an alternative existence of love and justice, offering a prophetic witness to politics. Elections are full of imperfect choices where we all seek to what is best for the "common good" by applying the values of our faith as best we can.

Dr. Dobson, you of course have the same right as every Christian and every American to vote your own convictions on the issues you most care about, but you have chosen to insult the convictions of millions of other Christians, whose own deeply held faith convictions might motivate them to vote differently than you. This epistle of fear is perhaps the dying gasp of a discredited heterodoxy of conservative religion and conservative politics. But out of that death, a resurrection of biblical politics more faithful to the whole gospel--one that is truly good news--might indeed be coming to life.

Jim Wallis is the author of The Great Awakening, Editor-in-Chief of Sojourners and blogs at http://www.godspolitics.com/.