Sen. Barack Obama shows some of the good luck charms in his pocket while he talks with the media aboard his campaign charter.

Tony Perkins
President, Family Research Council

Before Sen. Barack Obama tries to extend his presidential appeal to the faith community, he would do well to understand its core beliefs.

In his daily radio show today, Dr. James Dobson is taking a deeper look at Sen. Obama's a la carte interpretation of God's Word. During today's broadcast, he questions a speech Obama gave in 2006 in which the senator said, "Which passages of Scripture should guide our public policy? Should we go with Leviticus, which suggests slavery is OK and that eating shellfish is abomination? How about Deuteronomy, which suggests stoning your child if he strays from the faith? Or should we just stick to the Sermon on the Mount-a passage that is so radical that it's doubtful that our own Defense Department would survive its application? So before we get carried away, let's read our Bibles."

As Dr. Dobson said on today's show, "I think he's deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own worldview, his own confused theology." He said Obama, who supports radical abortion rights, is trying to govern by the "lowest common denominator of morality," and labeled it "a fruitcake interpretation" of our Constitution.

"Am I required in a democracy to conform my efforts in the political arena to his bloody notion of what is right with regard to the lives of tiny babies?" Dobson said. "What he's trying to say here is unless everybody agrees, we have no right to fight for what we believe."

Obama's statement reflects the Democratic Party's pre-2008 position, which is that you must check your faith at the gate of the public arena. Now that Democrats appear to have gotten religion, Sen. Obama is saying that while he is a Christian, he doesn't think that faith or the Bible should have any role in shaping public policy.

There's either a disconnect between Sen. Obama's faith and the policy positions he holds, or his theology is off. Every Christian – including Dr. Dobson – has the right to evaluate a candidate's use of faith. As Obama tries to build bridges into the Christian community, we have to ask – are these bridges stable or swinging?