Dear Doctor Dobson

As a fundamentalist Christian living in Colorado I have visited Focus on the Family several times and deeply appreciate the contributions that Dr. James Dobson has made to the cause of family values. On the issue of who to support in the 2008 Presidential contest I must however diverge from Dr. Dobson and many other Christian leaders. While I am not greatly enamored with the current field of Republican candidates, the prospects from the Democrats are downright frightful. I am constantly reminding my friends that electing government officials is not tantamount to selecting pastors and popes. We are selecting people to run our secular public institutions. Politics is the art of the possible not the perfect. I doubt any candidate will ever suit me completely (unless of course I run, not). My goal in deciding on whom to cast my vote comes down to who is the best possible choice on my side that has a chance of getting elected and keeping the much worse choice from the other side from being elected. The progress of political success is usually gained in many small steps with many small setbacks over a long period of time, not in one grand fell swoop. If my stand on principle predictably results in my opponent getting elected then I really have no principles. I have merely been a willing participant in making life worse for all. Sadly, politics is many times choosing the lesser of two evils. But the keyword is lesser. I know that the current consternation in Christian camps hinges on abortion. And I believe that there is a fear amongst many that voting for someone who is not unabashedly pro-life may truly invoke the personal judgment and wrath of God. But if your opponent is solidly pro-abortion and by your action of sitting out an election or supporting a third-party candidate (who has no chance of getting elected and merely siphons votes from your party’s candidate) with the result in either case being that the pro-abortion candidate is elected; then in my view you are complicit in that eventuality. Do you suppose that might be how God would see it? Have you served God and served your cause and the public or have you only served your selfish viewpoint? The truth is the President has little to do with abortion policy save appointing judges. So what we should be evaluating is who potential candidates might appoint to the bench and what the judicial temperament of a potential judge is. The real rub is that under our Constitution questions of abortion policy have no place in federal courts. The U.S. Supreme court has no jurisdiction in those questions since they are not addressed in the Constitution. The proper forums for those debates and policies are the States. So to my friends on the Christian right I beseech you to get some perspective on what we are really engaged in here. Washington, D.C is not heaven and politicians are not angels. We’re doing the best we can with what we have. Remember, progress not perfection is the goal. Let’s do some good today in order to avoid a really big bad tomorrow.