James Dobson

==Career==
===Medicine===
In 1967, he became an Associate Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the [[University of Southern California School of Medicine]] for 14 years.<ref name="Hankins">Barry Hankins, ''American Evangelicals: A Contemporary History of a Mainstream Religious Movement'', Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, USA, 2009, p. 156</ref> 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."{{sfn|Gilgoff|2007|p=21–22}}

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 [[Relationship counseling|marriage-counseling]] center, in [[Los Angeles]].<ref>David Popenoe, ''War Over the Family'', Transaction Publishers, 2005. {{ISBN|978-0-7658-0259-0}}. Chapter 14: "Remembering My Father: An Intellectual Portrait of 'The Man Who Saved Marriages.'"</ref> 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.<ref name=Farley2021 />

===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.<ref name=Balmer2007>{{cite web |title=The Wizard of Colorado Springs |last=Balmer |first=Randall |url=http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=magazine.article&issue=soj0708&article=070833a |date=August 2007 |access-date=2008-06-26 |publisher=Sojourners Magazine |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080613174215/http://www.sojo.net//index.cfm?action=magazine.article&issue=soj0708&article=070833a |archive-date=June 13, 2008 |url-status=dead}} "his breakthrough book, Dare to Discipline, ... challenged the permissive child-rearing techniques of Benjamin Spock. The book, published in 1970, encouraged parents to spank their children with belts or switches and to leave such items on the child's dresser to remind her of the consequences of challenging authority"</ref> Popenoe wrote the book's introduction.<ref name=Farley2021>{{cite web |website=Religion and Politics |title=The Eugenics Roots of Evangelical Family Values |first=Audrey Clare |last=Farley |date=May 12, 2021 |url=https://religionandpolitics.org/2021/05/12/the-eugenics-roots-of-evangelical-family-values/
}}</ref> Dobson's book was a rebuttal to [[Benjamin Spock]], whose parenting ideas were more permissive.<ref name=Balmer2007 />{{sfn|Ridgely|2016|p=28}} 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.{{sfn|Du Mez|2020|p=78, 80}}

===Christian Broadcasting===
When the [[American Psychological Association]] de-pathologized homosexuality by removing it from their list of [[mental disorder]]s in 1973, Dobson resigned from the organization in protest.{{sfn|Ridgely|2016|p=29}} 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.{{sfn|Du Mez|2020|p=81}}

===Focus on the Family===
In 1977, he founded [[Focus on the Family]].<ref>Randall Herbert Balmer, ''Encyclopedia of Evangelicalism: Revised and expanded edition'', Baylor University Press, USA, 2004, p. 222</ref> 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 [[fax]]ing suggested sermon topics and bulletin fillers to thousands of churches every week.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Roberts |first=Steven V. |title=The Heavy Hitter |journal=[[U.S. News & World Report]] |date=1995-04-25 |volume=118 |issue=16 |page=34}} "Like a religious version of Walt Disney, Dobson started with a small idea and built it into a multimedia empire: 10 radio shows, 11 magazines (including specialty publications for doctors, teachers and single parents), bestselling books, film strips and videos of all kinds. Then there are the basketball camps and the curriculum guides, the church bulletin fillers and suggested sermon topics, faxed weekly to thousands of pastors."</ref> In 1995, the organization's budget was more than $100 million annually.{{sfn|Du Mez|2020|p=85}}

[[Jimmy Carter]] organized a White House Conference on Families in 1979–1980 that explicitly included a "diversity of families" with various structures.<ref>{{cite report |title=White House Conference on Families; Listening to America's Families |publisher=White House Conference on Families, Washington, D.C. |location=Baltimore/Minneapolis/Los Angeles |date=June 1980 |url=https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED198914.pdf |quote=Diversity of Families: American families are pluralistic in nature. Our discussion of issues will reflect an understanding of and respect for cultural, ethnic and regional differences as well as differences in structure and lifestyle. }} Dobson is pictured in the Research Forum section.</ref> Dobson objected to this, believing that only his preferred notion of the traditional family {{mdash}} one headed by a male breadwinner married to a female caregiver {{mdash}} 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.{{sfn|Ridgely|2016|p=180}}

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 Council]]s 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 City|Vatican]] of the [[Christian right|Religious Right]]" with Dobson imagined as an evangelical pope.{{sfn|Stephens|2019|p=4–5}}

===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 [[Opposition to pornography|anti-pornography]] groups and to anti-abortion groups.<ref name=WaTimes>{{cite news |last=Aynesworth |first=Hugh |title=Bundy lore lives decade after killer was put to death |newspaper=[[The Washington Times]] |date=January 24, 1999}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Blumenthal |first=Max |title=Republican Gomorrah Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party |year=2009 |publisher=Nation Books |isbn=978-1-56858-398-3 |page=[https://archive.org/details/republicangomorr00blum_0/page/77 77] |url=https://archive.org/details/republicangomorr00blum_0/page/77}}</ref>

===Alliance Defending Freedom===
Six conservative Christian men, one of whom was Dobson, founded [[Alliance Defending Freedom]] in 1994.<ref>{{Cite news |last=O'Hara |first=Mary Emily |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/law-firm-linked-anti-transgender-bathroom-bills-across-country-n741106 |title=This Law Firm Is Linked to Anti-Transgender Bathroom Bills Across the Country |date=April 8, 2017 |work=NBC |archive-date=August 5, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170805060139/http://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/law-firm-linked-anti-transgender-bathroom-bills-across-country-n741106 |url-status=live }}</ref> The group advocates for the [[criminalization of homosexuality]] in the US and abroad; it is among the most powerful opponents of LGBT legal rights.<ref>{{cite web |website=Southern Poverty Law Center |title=Alliance Defending Freedom |url=https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/alliance-defending-freedom }}</ref> 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''.<ref name=Johnson1998>{{cite journal |first=Eithne |last=Johnson |title=Dr. Dobson's Advice to Christian Women: The Story of Strategic Motherhood |journal=Social Text |year=1998 |number=57 |pages=55–82 |doi=10.2307/466881 |jstor=466881 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/466881 }}</ref>

===Support of Judge Roy Moore===
Dobson was an ally of Judge [[Roy Moore]] starting in the early 1990s.<ref name=Gattis2017 /> He rallied his audience in support of the judge in 1997{{sfn|Ridgely|2016|p=29}} and again in 2003<ref>{{cite news |work=CBS News |title=Commandments In The Closet |date=August 29, 2003 |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/commandments-in-the-closet/ }}</ref> 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,<ref name=Gattis2017>{{cite news |title=Evangelical leader James Dobson makes endorsement in Alabama Senate race |date=August 12, 2017 |first=Paul |last=Gattis |website=AL.com |url=https://www.al.com/news/huntsville/2017/08/evangelical_leader_james_dobso.html}}</ref> 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.{{sfn|Moslener|2015|p=98}} An employee of Dobson's created the first [[purity ball]] {{mdash}} a father-daughter dance event promoting female chastity {{mdash}} in 1998. Dobson promoted the purity balls on his radio show.{{sfn|Moslener|2015|p=184}} 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.{{sfn|Moslener|2015|p=167}}

===Gendered language in the Bible===
In response to a 1997 article in ''[[World (magazine)|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.<ref name=Olasky2021>{{cite magazine |first=Susan |last=Olasky |magazine=World |date=July 2021 |title=Translation manipulation: In 1997 WORLD uncovered a plan to reshape the most popular English translation of the Bible |url=https://wng.org/articles/translation-manipulation-1624941058 }}</ref> The group drafted the "Colorado Springs Guidelines" which require Bible translations to use [[Male as norm|male-default language]] such as [[Man (word)|the word "man"]] to designate the human race.<ref>{{cite web |website=Bible Research |title=Colorado Springs Guidelines |url=https://www.bible-researcher.com/csguidelines.html }}</ref> 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.<ref name=Olasky2021 /> According to ''World'', Dobson's 1997 meeting eventually led to the publication of the ''[[English Standard Version]]'' in 2001, which avoids gender-neutral language.<ref>{{cite web |website=Bible Research |title=English Standard Version |url=https://www.bible-researcher.com/esv.html }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{citation |title=James Dobson joins critics of gender-neutral NIV revision |first=Art |last=Toalston |date=February 6, 2002 |work=Baptist Press |url=https://www.baptistpress.com/resource-library/news/james-dobson-joins-critics-of-gender-neutral-niv-revision/ }}</ref>

===Ex-gay organization===
Focus on the Family established an [[Ex-gay movement|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.{{sfn|Ridgely|2016|p=189}} State-level affiliates of FotF drafted gay marriage bans in several states, starting with [[Nebraska Initiative 416]] in 2000.<ref>{{cite news |last=Baker |first=Tess N. |date=January 12, 2001 |title=Family Council celebrates. |newspaper=Lincoln Journal Star}}</ref> 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.{{sfn|Ridgely|2016|p=207}}

===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.{{sfn|Du Mez|2020|p=86}}

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.<ref>{{cite news |title=James Dobson resigns as Focus on the Family chair |date=February 27, 2009 |agency=Associated Press |url=http://www.nbcnews.com/id/29431308/ns/us_news-faith/t/dobson-resigns-chair-focus-family/ |access-date=2018-01-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180105070235/http://www.nbcnews.com/id/29431308/ns/us_news-faith/t/dobson-resigns-chair-focus-family/ |archive-date=2018-01-05 |url-status=live}}</ref> 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 (evangelist)|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."<ref>{{cite news |title=The Rest of the Story |date=2013-10-07 |access-date=2013-10-07 |url=http://drjamesdobson.org/about/commentaries/the-rest-of-the-story |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130817203753/http://drjamesdobson.org/About/Commentaries/The-rest-of-the-story |archive-date=August 17, 2013}}</ref> After he stepped down, Focus on the Family hired an orthodoxy expert to maintain Dobson's message.{{sfn|Ridgely|2016|p=33}} 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.{{sfn|Ridgely|2016|p=41–44}}

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.{{sfn|Gilgoff|2007|p=14–15}} 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.{{sfn|Brenneman|2014|p=135-136}} They consider [[LGBT rights]] to be a threatening "[[gay agenda|LGBT agenda]]."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://familypolicyalliance.com/issues/tag/lgbt-agenda/ |title=Who can you trust? |website=Family Policy Alliance |first=Nicole |last=Hudgens }}</ref>

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."<ref>{{cite web |title=Casting the first stone: the US Christian right's war on the Global Fund |first=Theo |last=Smart |date=23 June 2006 |url=https://www.aidsmap.com/news/jun-2006/casting-first-stone-us-christian-rights-war-global-fund}}</ref> He renewed his attack in 2023, falsely claiming that PEPFAR funds abortions.<ref>{{cite news |work=Health Policy Watch |first=Kerry |last=Cullinan |date=June 20, 2023 |title=Lives Are At Risk as Anti-Abortion Groups Attack HIV Programme PEPFAR |url=https://healthpolicy-watch.news/lives-at-risk-as-groups-attack-pepfar/ }}</ref> Focus on the Family received a grant of $49,505 through PEPFAR in 2017 to operate an [[Abstinence-only sex education|abstinence-only]] purity pledge program.<ref>{{cite web |website=USA Spending |title=Project Grant |url=https://www.usaspending.gov/award/50022480 }}</ref>

===Dr. James Dobson Family Institute===
In 2010, Dobson founded the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.drjamesdobson.org/about/history |title=Dr. Dobson's Ministry & History |access-date=2013-12-16 |quote=Dr. Dobson felt God directing him to start a new ministry, which he did in March 2010, to continue the important work of strengthening families, speaking into the culture, and spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. He called the new organization Family Talk. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131218133156/http://www.drjamesdobson.org/about/history |archive-date=December 18, 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref> 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 shooting]]s to "the LGBTQ movement" destroying the family.<ref name="Dobson2019" /> 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.<ref>{{cite web |title=Dr. James Dobson Family Institute Names New President To Succeed Dobson |first=Dale |last=Chamberlain |date=November 11, 2022 |website=Church Leaders |url=https://churchleaders.com/news/438422-dr-james-dobson-family-institute-names-new-president-to-succeed-dobson.html }}</ref>

===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 [[List of Christian denominations affirming LGBT people|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."<ref>{{cite web |title=Nashville Statement |url=https://cbmw.org/nashville-statement/#signers |website=Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood }}</ref>

Dobson frequently appears as a guest on the [[Fox News Channel]].<ref name=fox1 />