(AFP) – Jun 24, 2008

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Powerful Christian conservative leader James Dobson berated Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama Tuesday for a "fruitcake" view of the US constitution and for distorting Biblical teaching.

Hitting back at Obama's courting of evangelical voters, Dobson highlighted a speech two years ago to religious leaders in which the Democrat said he could not outlaw abortion based on his own Christian beliefs.

"That is a fruitcake interpretation of the constitution," Dobson said on a radio show aired by his Focus on the Family group.

"This is why we have elections, to support what we believe, to be wise and moral. We don't have to go to the lowest common denominator of morality which is what he is suggesting," he said.

"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 also hit out at Obama's oft-stated mention of Old Testament passages that call for the stoning of homosexuals, to illustrate his point that the Bible is not always helpful to political discourse.

"That kind of commentary drives me crazy," Dobson said. "He is dragging Biblical understanding through the gutter."

With his June 2006 speech to the group Call to Renewal, Obama flagged his refusal to allow Republicans to monopolize the evangelical vote, and he has recently been busy with religious "outreach" efforts on issues such as social justice.

In the speech, Obama had also contrasted the beliefs of Dobson with those of the Reverend Al Sharpton, a black liberal firebrand, to demonstrate that Christian teachings were open to broad political interpretation.

Obama's communications director Robert Gibbs said Dobson was guilty of "an odd and curious statement, to say the least."

"Evangelicals are concerned about issues from genocide in Africa to climate change," Gibbs said on MSNBC television.

He said the Illinois senator would continue to reach out to "voters of all faith, to try to build a bigger coalition, to try to bring people together to get things done."

Dobson's attack coincided with a New York Times article that said some in the Islamic community felt snubbed by Obama, who has been dogged by false rumors that the Christian candidate is a secret Muslim.

The newspaper said Obama aides had told Keith Ellison, the nation's first Muslim member of Congress, to stay away from a campaign rally last December in Iowa.

It noted that Obama has spoken in churches and synagogues, but not yet at a mosque, and that two Muslim women wearing "hijab" headscarves were barred from appearing in camera-shot at a Detroit rally last week.

Obama has personally apologized to the two women, and Gibbs said that while there had been "unfortunate incidents on our side," there was no deliberate drive to rebuff Muslims.

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