When Dr. James Dobson said Tuesday that Barack Obama was “distorting” biblical understanding and had a “fruitcake interpretation of the Constitution,” some questioned whether the Focus on the Family leader was trying to stir up trouble by dusting off a two-year-old speech by the Democrat.

That’s not true, says Focus spokesman Gary Schneeberger.

“It came to our attention because it’s sort of gone viral on the internet,” Scheeberger explains.

After a friend forwarded him a chain email with a five-minute excerpt of the speech, Schneeberger passed it along to his boss at the Colorado Springs-based evangelical organization. In remarks Obama made in June, 2006 to a liberal Christian group, Obama said “Even if we did have only Christians in our midst, if we expelled every non-Christian from the United States of America, whose Christianity would be teach in the schools? Would we go with James Dobson’s or Al Sharpton’s?” – referring to the New York African-American activist.

Obama went on to say “folks haven’t been reading their bibles” and suggested that there were biblical inconsistencies, asserting that Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount was a message “that is so radical that it’s doubtful that our own Defense Department would survive its application.”

Schneeberger says Dobson’s reaction to this, reinforced by the complete text of the speech, was one of “alarm.” And from that came the idea to go public with a statement that was both political and religion-oriented.

“It gives us insights not only into Senator Obama’s interpretation of Scripture…but also how he views the role of religion in the Public Square. Of faith, as it relates to policy-making,” Schneeberger says. “And that’s the reason Dr. Dobson, who through the years has been a strong proponent for family policies in state, local and federal governments" decided to talk about the topic.

In his own broadcast counterpoint, Dobson noted that Obama’s references amounted to “dragging biblical understanding through the gutter.” He also blasted Obama’s assertion that religiously-inclined people must address issues such as abortion in ways the go beyond a single faith and make arguments that all people can understand.

“What he’s trying to say here is unless everybody agrees, we have no right to fight for what we believe,” Dobson said in the program.

And while the Obama camp issued a statement saying that they were reaching out to people of all faiths, and the candidate himself said that Dobson was “making stuff up,” Schneeberger says nobody made anything up, and this debate isn’t over, even if it has been spiced up with the admittedly “colorful” term.

“Our hope is that this is an on-going debate,” he says. “What’s been encouraging to us in the two or three days since this story broke is the dialog people have engaged in on that subject. Exactly what does Sen. Obama believe? There are people who disagree, and believe Dr. Dobson’s reading of the speech is wrong. That’s their prerogative. Others agree with Dr. Dobson.”

That exchange, it seems, has already included some prior telephone contact between the Colorado Springs organization staff -- which has publicly distanced itself from Sen. John McCain -- and the Obama presidential campaign. Although nothing is definite – and Dobson himself is now out of the office working on a book – a meeting could happen, Schneeberger allows.

“Dr. Dobson would be open to that,” he says. Boxing gloves, it seems, wouldn’t be necessary, even in the clash between liberal and conservative views.

“You can be friendly and cordial even if you disagree vehemently on the issues,” he says.

If Dobson and Obama ever met for discussions, Schneeberger says he's certain of one thing: “The principles Dr. Dobson has championed for 32 years now in the Public Square have not wavered. My very strong hunch is that Dr. Dobson wouldn’t walk out of any such meeting with his mind changed.”