Conservative evangelical James Dobson retires from Focus on the Family
Dr. James Dobson, the conservative evangelical leader who founded Focus on the Family 32 years ago and turned it into a major political and media force with millions of followers across the country, suddenly resigned as chairman today.
The Colorado Springs group framed the resignation as part of an ongoing turnover of ministry leadership to the next generation. The 72-year-old Dobson's wife, Shirley, who is chairman of the National Day of Prayer, also left the Focus board.
A story on the organization's website said Dr. Dobson would continue his regular radio broadcasts from the Focus studios that are carried daily by hundreds of radio stations. He will continue to write for the Focus newsletter, which has 1.6 million monthly subscribers. And the couple said they wanted to spend more time grandparenting.
A statement attributed to the board said:
"One of Dr. Dobson's objectives during the last decade has been to help identify the next generation of leadership for the ministry, and to see it established securely before he stepped away from administrative oversight. That purpose has now been fulfilled, and we applaud Dr. Dobson for this concern for the future of the ministry."
Jim Daly, who's been Focus' chief executive since 2005, will continue in that role. Retired Air Force Gen. Patrick Caruana becomes the new board chairman.
While Dobson routinely sought to keep his conservative political views separate from his nonprofit organization's, he made little secret last year of his disdain for both Republicans Rudy Giuliani and John McCain, primarily over the Arizona's campaign finance work that put added political restrictions on public outreach by nonprofit groups like Focus. At one point he suggested he might not vote at all.
When it became clear that McCain would win the GOP nomination, Dobson endorsed former Baptist preacher and Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. He later said that, given the candidate put forth by the Democrats and his abortion stance, he had a moral obligation to vote, presumably for McCain.
-- Andrew Malcolm
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He and his wife plan to spend more time grandparenting? Sounds like a new twist on the "to spend more time with family" excuse that public figures usually use. He's 72 years old, for chrissake. If he wanted to grandparent full-time, he would have done it before now. What's the real deal? No doubt some scandal yet to come to light.
Posted by: Mae | February 27, 2009 at 07:29 PM
It seems to me that political theocrats like James Dobson have no less of a goal than to Christianize the US gov.
He has done this by three means:
1. He irrationally scared his Fundie base, already teetering unstably on the Rightwing edge, into thinking that issues such as Pro-Choice and and same sex marriage would lead to the demise of America.
2. He used the myriad of willing Rightwing media masticators like Savage, Hannidy, and North to convince otherwise clear-thinking citizens to demand that legislators introduce bills that would take away those rights from citizens.
3. By infiltrating schools on all levels, from student organizations to bureaucracy, he hoped to transform science taught in schools and universities into churchly metaphysics, hoping that those graduates who moved into gov. jobs would promote Christianity, at first clandestinity at first and later overtly.
By these three subversive sorts of political and social means, he attacked American rationality, hoping to transform our secular gov. into a Christian theocracy where the president would no longer preside over a free, independent peoples who are meant to hold diverse opinions and world views. No. He seems to want an absolutist form of gov. where a Fundie dictator takes on the role of legislator, judge, and jailer. This is not what my America is about.
As bad as Dobson is, TV preachers like Crouch are worse: He shows military war jets flying overhead while he and his group of altar-actors pray, sing, and give glory to God. Those who run media mega churches like James Dobson, Slick Benny Hin, and End-Timer Pat Robertson are war-mongering insulars and Medievelists who should be subject to a loss of tax exempt status for their religious interference in our secular government. While I welcome Dobson’s retirement, and I am happy that he and his wife are gone, I remain vigilant at his shenanigans because his oppressive policies remain to infect us.
Posted by: John Dingler | February 27, 2009 at 08:26 PM
The Lord on the Throne says:
"I am the Alpha and the Omega" the Beginning and the End. Revelation 21:6
Happy is the nation whose God is the Lord.Psalm 33:12
Though the Lord is supreme he takes care of those who are not proud. But he stays away from those who are proud.Psalm 38:6
Surely you know that the people who do wrong will not receive God's Kingdom: those who sin sexually, or worship idols, or take part in adultery, or men who have
sexual relations with other men, or steal, or are selfish, or get drunk, or lie abouit others, or cheat. 1 Cor. 6:9-10
Blessed is the nation whose God is Jehovah, and walks according to his Word.!
It is up to you to follow what God says or what men says.
Posted by: Miguel Martinez Isaza | February 28, 2009 at 06:33 AM
Personally, I don't think any particular scandal is to blame for this resignation. If that were the case he would have left a long time ago. I suspect that the loss of their over-powering grip on the government and the current dis-array in the GOP and the evangelical movement has made his efforts less satisfying. Perhaps he doesn't want to be blamed for leading the evangelical movement to it's own demise by being to pushy and greedy.
Posted by: Gipson Arnold | February 28, 2009 at 08:58 AM
Dingler's comments are hysterical. Good thing facts don't matter. Dobson doesn't "run a media mega church" (although you probably think all nonprofits are churches). And he's not an "evangelist" or a "preacher" as LGF labeled him in its headline and story. His Ph.D. is in Child Development and Psychology and he spent 16 years on the faculty of the USC School of Medicine, including writing a medical textbook, before founding the nonprofit FOTF.
Dingler's comments on Dobson's "infiltrating schools . . ." are also hysterical. It would be fun to hear an attempt to flesh that out. I'll leave the rants alone, just these observations of a few facts should help with the credibility of the rest of Dingler's comments.
Posted by: Mogulhopper | February 28, 2009 at 11:44 AM
I wish I had the time and energy to pick apart all these negative comments. Let's just say that they demonstrate people's general lack of understanding of Dr. Dobson. He's never taken a paycheck from Focus. He's a man of utmost integrity. Trying to Christianize America? Oh, please. Is this a joke?! At least try to understand people before you judge them. If any of these seemingly intelligent hacks were informed, there's no way they'd be saying what they're saying.
Posted by: I. Slipp | February 28, 2009 at 01:24 PM
Mogul and Slipp,
"...the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Foxman declared: “Today we face a better financed, more sophisticated, coordinated, unified, energized and organized coalition of groups in opposition to our policy positions on church-state separation than ever before. Their goal is to implement their Christian worldview. To Christianize America. To save us!”
Chris Hedges writes:
"The drive by the Christian right to take control of military chaplaincies, which now sees radical Christians holding roughly 50 percent of chaplaincy appointments in the armed services and service academies, is part of a much larger effort to politicize the military and law enforcement. This effort signals the final and perhaps most deadly stage in the long campaign by the radical Christian right to dismantle America’s open society and build a theocratic state. A successful politicization of the military would signal the end of our democracy."
"Jeff Sharet in the December issue of Harper's Magazine (writes) about how an organization called the Christian Embassy is working to evangelize the military and the Congress. Note that the Christian Embassy was founded by the same man who started the Campus Crusade for Christ in the 1970s."
Posted by: John Dingler | March 02, 2009 at 07:08 PM
May God continue to bless Dr Dobson, his family, and Focus on the Family. Dr Dobson and FOTF has been and is a blessing to America and all who have the opportunity to listen to his daily broadcast.
Posted by: Rod Wilson | March 03, 2009 at 06:03 AM