Truth Bender & False Witness

Steve Benen of the Carpetbagger Report writes about how James Dobson likes to manipiulate facts in the Washington Monthly article False Witness. I call James Dobson a truth bender becuase he is the master of spinning a truth that contridicts his postions into truthiness that supports his positions.

False Witness: James Dobson's Focus on the Family issued an alert to its membership yesterday bragging about the latest New York Times poll, which, the group said, showed that "America's young people continue to track conservative" on social issues. It took some breathtaking spin to reach this conclusion.

The survey collected opinions of 17- to 29-year-olds. Sixty-two percent said abortion should be outlawed or restricted. Danielle Huntley, a student at Boston College Law School and president of Students for Life of America, said she's proud her peers are not buying into liberal rhetoric.

"It illustrates that my generation realizes that they are survivors of Roe," she said. "Each of us born after 1973 could have been legally aborted by our parents."

Tom Robins of the College Republican National Committee told Family News in Focus the opposition to abortion can be attributed to young people's level of understanding. "Our generation has seen the effects of that," he said. "They understand that abortion on demand is not a healthy choice for America."

Fifty-four percent of young adults expressed opposition to same-sex marriage. Ron Luce with Teen Mania said the challenge is to make sure their opinions are founded in biblical truth.

OK, now let's look at what the poll actually said:

* On abortion: A combined 75% of voters under 30 want abortion rights to be legal.

* On gay rights: 44% said they believe that same-sex couples should be permitted to get married, and an additional 24% support civil unions, for a combined 68% who support some legal recognition of gay relationships.

* On ideology: 28% of young voters describe themselves as liberal (compared with 20% of the nation at large), while 27% call themselves conservative (compared with 32% of the general public).

If this is what it takes for a young generation to "track conservative" in Dobson's book, I couldn't be more pleased.

Just say no to James Dobson. It would make me feel a whole lot better.

Technorati tags: James Dobson, Steve Benen, statistics, Christians, Evangelicals, Abortion, Same Sex Marrage, Gay Rights, Truth