Religious divisions in the United States cut all ways, or at least both ways when it comes to presidential politics.  The broadcast of evangelical leader James Dobson over his “Focus on the Family” radio program attacking Barack Obama has been in the news over the past three days.  In his remarks, Dobson accused Obama of deliberately distorting traditional understanding of the Bible with his own confused theology, and of dragging that biblical understanding through the gutter, in referring to a speech given by Obama in 2006.

Obama responded yesterday by suggesting that Dobson was just “making stuff up” and dismissed Dobson’s comments as having been offered for his own purposes and not necessarily for the truth.  Dobson’s following and influence among evangelicals, though, is extensive.  Just ask his minion at Focus on the Family, Tom Minnery, who stated that Dobson speaks for “millions of evangelicals because his understanding of the Bible is thoroughly evangelical.”  Minion Minnery went on to acknowledge that Obama had called the organization earlier in the year for a meeting with Dobson, as had John McCain, although neither meeting has taken place yet.  Dobson prefers that candidates visit the Focus on the Family campus to learn more about the organization, and so far neither has “gone to the mountain.”

Lest you think McCain has been spared attack by the religious right, though, another of its element has labeled McCain as a “RINO Socialist Asian Hating Anti-Triclavianist (typical of Episcopalians).” (sic, www.calvinists4brownback.wordpress.com)  This vicious and sweeping condemnation from the Calvinist web site appears so far to have been taken lightly by the McCain campaign, as to date there has been no defense or response to the claim.

The Calvinist vote in the U.S. is, politically speaking, an under-appreciated bloc that presidential candidates ignore at their peril.  It can trace its roots all the way back to the Mayflower, in fact, and it has been estimated by some that nearly two-thirds of the population of the original colonies had been schooled in Calvin.  (http://reformed-theology.org, a paper by Lorraine Boettner)  Although it is not now known how many of the Mayflower descendants today are Calvinists, it also is not known the extent to which Calvinist beliefs are genetic.

For those of you not familiar with the term triclavianist, you’ll find a definition on Wikipedia, and when you do, you will learn that it is the erroneous doctrine that three and only three nails were used to affix Christ to the cross.  The theological debate about exactly how many nails were used, and what happened to them thereafter,  has raged for 2000 years, and continues to this day.  We learn from this web site that McCain falls on the anti-triclavianist side of the issue, and apparently that has caused much upset in at least one corner of the Calvinist community.

This third thing is equally interesting, and involves the scientific community of the religious right.    Expeditions have been made to Africa to prove the existence of dinosaurs, funded by and involving creationist theory scientists, a term some might consider oxymoronic. The efforts have been for the purpose of proving contemporaneous man-dinosaur existence.

In search of the legendary “mokele mbembe,” these expeditions have returned with photographs claiming to show signs of a sauropod-like creature, but no concrete proof as of yet.  According to one of the lead scientists on one of those expeditions, Dr. Richard Thaley, a professor of theobiology at Fellowship University, the results were inconclusive “owning to the difficult conditions of the region, dinosaurian wiliness, and God’s Will.” “Perhaps this dark continent was seen by the Lord as a suitable hiding place for these giant creations . . . “  Seems to me if it’s proof you want for man sharing the planet with dinosaurs, just watch The Flintstones.

A man who bends the Bible for his own purposes, cherry-picking Leviticus verses to support his evangelical beliefs and discarding the rest, accuses Barack Obama of distorting traditional understanding of the Good Book.  Another religious extremist labels John McCain an anti-triclavianist, just like Kramer labeled Jerry an anti-dentite on the Seinfeld show.  And, a creationist theory scientist’s efforts to prove that man and dinosaur walked the earth hand in claw have been thwarted to date by wily dinosaurs.

I wonder who Fred and Barney are voting for this year.