James Dobson
James Clayton Dobson Jr.[a] (born April 21, 1936) is an American evangelical Christian author, psychologist, and founder of Focus on the Family (FotF), which he led from 1977 until 2010. In the 1980s, he was ranked as one of the most influential spokesmen for conservative social positions in American public life.[1] Although never an ordained minister, he was called "the nation's most influential evangelical leader" by The New York Times while Slate portrayed him as a successor to evangelical leaders Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson.[2][3][4]
For other people named Jim Dobson, see Jim Dobson (disambiguation).
James Dobson
2
Marriage Under Fire
Dare to Discipline
The Strong-Willed Child
Psychologist
Author
Radio Broadcaster
As part of his former role in the organization he produced the daily radio program Focus on the Family, which the organization has said was broadcast in more than a dozen languages and on over 7,000 stations worldwide, and reportedly heard daily by more than 220 million people in 164 countries. Focus on the Family was also carried by about sixty U.S. television stations daily.[5] In 2010, he launched the radio broadcast Family Talk with Dr. James Dobson.[6][7]
Dobson advocates for "family values" — the instruction of children in heterosexuality and traditional gender roles, which he believes are mandated by the Christian Bible. The goal of this is to promote heterosexual marriage, which he views as a cornerstone of civilization that must be protected from the dangers of feminism and the LGBT rights movement. Dobson seeks to equip his audience to fight in the American culture war, which he calls the "Civil War of Values".
His writing career started as an assistant to Paul Popenoe. After Dobson's rise to prominence through promoting corporal punishment of disobedient children in the 1970s, he became a founder of purity culture in the 1990s. He has promoted his ideas via his various Focus on the Family affiliated organizations, the Family Research Council which he founded in 1981, Family Policy Alliance which he founded in 2004, the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute which he founded in 2010, and a network of US state-based lobbying organizations called Family Policy Councils.
Early life and education
James Dobson was born to Myrtle Georgia (née Dillingham) and James C. Dobson Sr. on April 21, 1936, in Shreveport, Louisiana.[8][9] From his earliest childhood, religion played a central part in his life. He once told a reporter that he learned to pray before he learned to talk, and says he gave his life to Jesus at the age of three, in response to an altar call by his father.[10] He is the son, grandson, and great-grandson of Church of the Nazarene ministers.[11]
Dobson's mother was intolerant of "sassiness" and would strike her child with whatever object came to hand, including a shoe or belt; she once gave Dobson a "massive blow" with a girdle outfitted with straps and buckles.[12][13]
The parents took their young son along to watch his father preach. Like most Nazarenes, they forbade dancing and going to movies. Young "Jimmie Lee" (as he was called) concentrated on his studies.[14]
Dobson studied academic psychology and came to believe that he was being called to become a Christian counselor or perhaps a Christian psychologist.[10] He attended Pasadena College (now Point Loma Nazarene University) as an undergraduate and served as captain of the school's tennis team.[15][16] In 1967, Dobson received his doctorate in psychology from the University of Southern California.[17]
Career
Medicine
In 1967, he became an Associate Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Southern California School of Medicine for 14 years.[17] At USC he was exposed to troubled youth and the counterculture of the 1960s. He found it "a distressing time to be so young" because society offered him no moral absolutes he felt he could rely upon. Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War was blossoming into a widespread rejection of authority, which Dobson viewed as "a sudden disintegration of moral and ethical principles" among Americans his age and the younger people he saw in clinical practice. This convinced him that "the institution of the family was disintegrating."[18]
He spent 17 years on the staff of the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles in the Division of Child Development and Medical Genetics. For a time, Dobson worked as an assistant to Paul Popenoe at the Institute of Family Relations, a marriage-counseling center, in Los Angeles.[19] Popenoe counseled couples on the importance of same-race marriage and adherence to gender norms for the purpose of eugenics. Under Popenoe, Dobson published about male-female differences and the dangers of feminism.[20]
Dare to Discipline
Dobson became well known because of Dare to Discipline, his 1970 book about corporal punishment. In it, he encourages parents to strike children with switches or belts, which are to be kept on the child's dresser as a reminder of authority.[21] Popenoe wrote the book's introduction.[20] Dobson's book was a rebuttal to Benjamin Spock, whose parenting ideas were more permissive.[21][22] Though the book was not overtly political, Dobson considered his parenting techniques to be the solution to the social unrest of the 1960s. By returning to the authoritarian parenting style popular in prior eras, Dobson hoped to preserve order, obedience, and social hierarchy. The book quickly sold over two million copies, establishing Dobson as a trusted authority among parents bewildered by the rapid changes of the era.[23]
Christian Broadcasting
When the American Psychological Association de-pathologized homosexuality by removing it from their list of mental disorders in 1973, Dobson resigned from the organization in protest.[24] In 1976, he took a sabbatical from USC and Children's Hospital; he never returned. With funding from a Christian publisher he began to broadcast his ideas on the radio and in public lectures. Saying that he feared to repeat the mistakes of his own absentee father by being away on the lecture circuit, Dobson video recorded and distributed his lectures. He sent a representative around the country to solicit funding from Evangelical businessmen and distribute the videos. A video about absent fathers called Where's Dad? proved particularly successful; an estimated 100 million people viewed it by the early 1980s.[25]
Focus on the Family
In 1977, he founded Focus on the Family.[26] He grew the organization into a multimedia empire by the mid-1990s, including 10 radio programs, 11 magazines, numerous videos, and basketball camps, and program of faxing suggested sermon topics and bulletin fillers to thousands of churches every week.[27] In 1995, the organization's budget was more than $100 million annually.[28]
Jimmy Carter organized a White House Conference on Families in 1979–1980 that explicitly included a "diversity of families" with various structures.[29] Dobson objected to this, believing that only his preferred notion of the traditional family — one headed by a male breadwinner married to a female caregiver — should be endorsed by the conference. He also objected to the fact that he was not invited to the planning for the event. At Dobson's urging, his listeners wrote 80,000 letters to the White House asking for Dobson to be invited, which he eventually was. This demonstrated to Dobson his power to rally his followers for political ends.[30]
Beginning in 1980, Dobson built networks of political activists and founded lobbying organizations that advocated against LGBT rights and opposed legal abortion, among other socially conservative policy goals. He nurtured relationships with conservative politicians, such as Ronald Reagan. He was among the founders of Family Research Council in 1981, a federal lobbying organization classified as a hate group, and Family Policy Councils that lobby at the level of state government. When Focus on the Family moved to Colorado Springs in 1991, the city started to be called "the Vatican of the Religious Right" with Dobson imagined as an evangelical pope.[31]
Ted Bundy Interview
Dobson interviewed serial killer Ted Bundy on-camera the day before Bundy's execution on January 24, 1989. The interview became controversial because Bundy was given an opportunity to attempt to explain his actions (the rape and murder of 30 young women). Bundy claimed in the interview (in a reversal of his previous stance) that violent pornography played a significant role in molding and crystallizing his fantasies. In May 1989, during an interview with John Tanner, a Republican Florida prosecutor, Dobson called for Bundy to be forgiven. The Bundy tapes gave Focus on the Family revenues of over $1 million, $600,000 of which it donated to anti-pornography groups and to anti-abortion groups.[32][33]
Alliance Defending Freedom
Six conservative Christian men, one of whom was Dobson, founded Alliance Defending Freedom in 1994.[34] The group advocates for the criminalization of homosexuality in the US and abroad; it is among the most powerful opponents of LGBT legal rights.[35] Dobson is a member of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. He is a supporter of the Promise Keepers and a contributor to their 1994 book The Seven Promises of a Promise Keeper.[36]
Support of Judge Roy Moore
Dobson was an ally of Judge Roy Moore starting in the early 1990s.[37] He rallied his audience in support of the judge in 1997[24] and again in 2003[38] because of the Moore's refusal to remove a Ten Commandments display from the Alabama Judicial Building. Viewing Moore as "a man of proven character and integrity" Dobson endorsed Moore's political campaigns until 2017,[37] when allegations came to light of Moore's sexual misconduct toward teen girls.
Purity Balls
Dobson encourages "daddy-daughter dating" in which fathers and daughters set aside time for special activities together. Because he believes heterosexuality must be cultivated, Dobson intended these romanticized attachments to model proper heterosexual partnership to girls age six or younger.[39] An employee of Dobson's created the first purity ball — a father-daughter dance event promoting female chastity — in 1998. Dobson promoted the purity balls on his radio show.[40] Along with other fundamentalist figures such as Billy Graham, Dobson is considered a founder of purity culture, a Christian subculture in which sexual immorality by women or LGBT people is considered a national threat.[41]
Gendered language in the Bible
In response to a 1997 article in World magazine claiming that the New International Version of the Bible was going to be printed with gender-neutral language, Dobson called a meeting at Focus on the Family headquarters of influential men in the religious publishing business.[42] The group drafted the "Colorado Springs Guidelines" which require Bible translations to use male-default language such as the word "man" to designate the human race.[43] As a result, plans for the gender-neutral Bible version were halted. When Dobson discovered his own Odyssey Bible used gender-neutral language, he discontinued it and offered refunds.[42] According to World, Dobson's 1997 meeting eventually led to the publication of the English Standard Version in 2001, which avoids gender-neutral language.[44] He opposed publication of Today's New International Version in 2002 because of the "political correctness" of the translation and the publisher's rejection of the Colorado Springs Guidelines.[45]
Ex-gay organization
Focus on the Family established an ex-gay program called Love Won Out in 1998. The program promoted conversion therapy, the pseudoscientific practice of attempting to make gay people straight. Dobson increased his promotion of Love Won Out in 2000 upon discovering that opposition to gay marriage was helping the Christian Right gain members and voters.[46] State-level affiliates of FotF drafted gay marriage bans in several states, starting with Nebraska Initiative 416 in 2000.[47] Dobson broadcast that gay marriage was turning children from faithful Christian homes against God. His arguments caused large evangelical turnouts in support of the gay marriage prohibitions, resulting in defense of marriage amendments to thirty U.S. state constitutions.[48]
Shift to political activity
Around two thousand radio stations aired Dobson's program to an audience of six to ten million by the early 2000s. With over two million addresses on his mailing list, his organization launched a publishing house. He was an established power broker. Richard Land called him "the most influential evangelical leader in America" at that time, saying his influence was comparable to Billy Graham in the 1960s-70s.[49]
Dobson stepped down as president and CEO of Focus on the Family in 2003, and resigned from the position of chairman of the board in February 2009.[50] Dobson explained his departure as twofold: firstly, to allow a smooth transfer of leadership to the next generation, and in this case, to Jim Daly whom he directly appointed as his replacement. And secondly, because he and Daly had divergent views on policy, "especially when it comes to confronting those who would weaken the family and undermine our faith."[51] After he stepped down, Focus on the Family hired an orthodoxy expert to maintain Dobson's message.[52] Free to become more explicitly political without imperiling Focus on the Family's tax exemptions, Dobson rededicated himself primarily to lobbying instead of advice to families. While Daly attempted to appeal to a new generation of evangelicals with softened messages on abortion and homosexuality, Dobson remained hard-line. Focus on the Family removed archives of Dobson's writing from their headquarters and website.[53]
In 2004, Dobson founded Family Policy Alliance, a lobbying arm of his media empire. With a more permissive tax status than Focus on the Family, it is allowed to directly fundraise for political campaigns.[54] The Alliance also coordinates the action of Dobson's network of state-based Family Policy Councils. Together, these organizations seek to encode traditional gender roles into public policy and law.[55] They consider LGBT rights to be a threatening "LGBT agenda."[56]
Throughout its existence, Dobson has attacked the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a US government program to fight AIDS worldwide. In 2006, he claimed that "80 percent of this money is going toward terrible programs that are immoral as well as ineffective. For example, to promote condom distribution, people associated with these government programs have dressed up like condoms and created ceramic sculptures of male genitalia."[57] He renewed his attack in 2023, falsely claiming that PEPFAR funds abortions.[58] Focus on the Family received a grant of $49,505 through PEPFAR in 2017 to operate an abstinence-only purity pledge program.[59]
Dr. James Dobson Family Institute
In 2010, Dobson founded the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute,[60] a non-profit organization that produces his radio program, Dr. James Dobson's Family Talk. On this program, he speaks about his views, such as attributing mass shootings to "the LGBTQ movement" destroying the family.[61] He stepped away from leadership of the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute in 2022, naming Joe Waresak the new president. He continues to broadcast his radio show.[62]
Nashville Statement
In 2017, Dobson was among the first to sign the Nashville Statement, written by the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. The statement specifies conservative evangelical views on gender roles and sexuality, condemning LGBT-affirming Christians: "We affirm that it is sinful to approve of homosexual immorality or transgenderism and that such approval constitutes an essential departure from Christian faithfulness and witness."[63]
Dobson frequently appears as a guest on the Fox News Channel.[64]
Personal life
Dobson married Shirley Deere on August 26, 1960. The couple have two children, Danae and Ryan.[65]
Dobson turned control of some of Focus on the Family's youth-oriented magazine titles over to his son Ryan Dobson in 2009.[66] Danae Dobson received a golden key necklace as a gift from her father when she voiced her commitment to sexual purity at age ten. James Dobson encouraged other parents to give similar gifts.[67]
Awards
At the invitation of Presidents and Attorneys General,[68] Dobson has also served on government advisory panels and testified at several government hearings. He was given the "Layman of the Year" award by the National Association of Evangelicals in 1982, "The Children's Friend" honor by Childhelp USA (an advocate agency against child abuse) in 1987, and the Humanitarian Award by the California Psychological Association in 1988. In 2005, Dobson received an honorary doctorate (his 16th[69]) from Indiana Wesleyan University and was inducted into IWU's Society of World Changers, while speaking at the university's Academic Convocation.[5]
In 2008, Dobson's Focus on the Family program was nominated for induction into the National Radio Hall of Fame.[70] Nominations were made by the 157 members of the Hall of Fame and voting on inductees was handed over to the public using online voting.[71] The nomination drew the ire of gay rights activists, who attempted to have the program removed from the nominee list and to vote for other nominees to prevent it from being approved.[72][73] However, the program garnered enough votes and was subsequently inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame.[74]
Social views
Views on marriage
James Dobson is a strong proponent of marriage defined as "one where husband and wife are lawfully married, are committed to each other for life," and have a homemaker mother and breadwinner father.[75] According to his view, women are not deemed inferior to men because both are created in God's image, but each gender has biblically mandated roles.[76] He recommends that married women with children under the age of 18 focus on mothering, rather than work outside the home.[77]
Dobson views marriage as a transaction in which women exchange sex for protection:[36]
Ecumenical relations
Dobson and Charles Colson were two participants in a 2000 conference at the Vatican on the global economy's impact on families. During the conference, the two Protestants met with Pope John Paul II. Dobson later told Catholic News Service that though he has theological differences with Roman Catholicism, "when it comes to the family, there is far more agreement than disagreement, and with regard to moral issues from abortion to premarital sex, safe-sex ideology and homosexuality, I find more in common with Catholics than with some of my evangelical brothers and sisters."[167]
In November 2009, Dobson signed an ecumenical statement known as the Manhattan Declaration calling on evangelicals, Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians not to comply with rules and laws permitting abortion, same-sex marriage and other matters that go against their religious consciences.[168]
Criticism
U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, a fellow evangelical Christian who wanted Dobson as an ally in his battle against the AIDS crisis, was deeply disappointed when Dobson embraced pseudoscientific and homophobic claims about AIDS. "The Christian activity in reference to AIDS of both D. James Kennedy and Jim Dobson is reprehensible," Koop said in 1989. He viewed the AIDS crisis as "an opportunity for Christian service" that Dobson was squandering.[169]
In her 2020 book Jesus and John Wayne, Calvin University professor Kristin Kobes Du Mez criticizes the ideal of Christian masculinity created by Dobson, Mark Driscoll and others: "It was a vision that promised protection for women but left women without defense, one that worshiped power and turned a blind eye to justice, and one that transformed the Jesus of the Gospels into an image of their own making."[170]
Don Jacobson, who published books by Dobson and other conservative Christian authors at his Multnomah Press, later rejected the Christian nationalism his press had helped cultivate. After reading historical Christian justifications for murder and conquest of American Indians, he came to view American exceptionalism as incompatible with Christian love.[171]
Gil Alexander-Moegerle, a former Focus on the Family executive and radio show co-host, wrote the highly critical book James Dobson's War on America in 1997. In it, he says that Dobson's loving, caring public persona is a sham; the real Dobson is racist, sexist, homophobic, materialistic, power-hungry, and shameless. He says that the Nazarene religious concept of entire sanctification is key to understanding Dobson's views: "James Dobson believes that he has been entirely sanctified, morally perfected, that he does not and cannot sin. Now you know why he and moralists like him make a life of condemning what he believes to be the sins of others. He is perfect."[172]
Some fundamentalist Christians consider Dobson a heretic for presenting secular concepts from psychology and self-help literature as though they are justified by the Bible.[36]
Theologian Donald Eric Capps contends that Dobson's corporal punishment techniques exploit children by turning their natural need to be loved against them. Dobson's advice to "break the will" of the child is a recipe for child abuse, according to Capps, and is antithetical to loving one's child. He also argues that corporal punishment may sexualize children. For evidence of this, he points to Dobson's vivid childhood recollection of being beaten with his mother's girdle. Capps believed that using physical pain to heighten a child's relationship to God is "perverted."[36]