Yesterday afternoon, my daughter and I enjoyed lunch at Avogadro's Number (which is still famous in 2008 for its tempeh) and then went down the street to Barack Obama's Campaign Office and picked up our Community Credentials to attend Obama's acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. I had applied for the credentials at the beginning of the month and only half-thought we'd be lucky enough to get them. But we did, and we feel honored and excited about attending this moment of change in contemporary American history.

Unfortunately for us, it really irks Grand Ayatollah James Dobson that a small business entrepreneur and his ninth-grade daughter would want to witness our country's shift away from the Republican authoritarianism that the Grand Ayatollah blesses. In fact, the Grand Ayatollah is so threatened by us – and by a stadium – and a nation – filled with others like us – that he has beseeched Republican Jesus (à la Bob and Justin Schaffer) to – yes indeedy – "cause it to rain upon the earth [and] destroy from off the face of the earth" anyone attending Obama's speech at Mile High Stadium (i.e., Invesco Field). Watch the video, and hear for yourself.

The Carpetbagger Report (linked above) will fill you in on the details, but it seems the Grand Ayatollah regretted the negative publicity generated as a result of his partisan prayers. His supplications were intended for God's eyes and those of the faithful only, but they leaked out to a wider audience. That forced the Grand Ayatollah to remove the video from the Focus On The Family website and to claim that the video had been always intended as a joke.

My daughter and I are certainly happy about the prospect of hearing Barack Obama accept the Democratic Party's nomination for President, but we are also proud that Obama's vision of America embraces something greater than the theology of self-interest preached by Grand Ayatollah James Dobson.