Dr. James Dobson – A Man For His Time

When I was a young husband and father, it just happened that Dr. Dobson’s Focus on the Family radio program was on during my drive to work. As I listened to him over the months and years, providing his wisdom on raising children, it was clear that God had called him to this ministry when he left a prosperous career as a child psychologist to establish Focus on the Family. His recent death at age 89 closed the book on an earthly life well lived in the service of Jesus Christ and families worldwide.

Like the mustard seed in Jesus’s parable, Focus started small and, during the 1980s and 1990s, burgeoned into a worldwide, multimedia giant. Meanwhile, Dobson continued to write best-selling books about raising children. He was vocal in his opposition to abortion and his support for the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman. His opposition to homosexuality and gay marriage earned him the enmity of the gay rights and later, the LGBTQ movement, and the media chorus supporting them joined in painting Dobson as an extreme right-wing religious kook. Perhaps the biggest lightning rod was the Love Won Out program established by Dobson and his team to convert gay people straight. There were some inspirational success stories in this program, but the constant drumbeat of criticism from the gay lobby and their media allies damaged the program and, by extension, Dobson’s reputation.

To gain some perspective on why Dobson’s ministry was so important to our times, it’s instructive to look at what the American family was disintegrating into during the late 1960s and 1970s. Divorce was going through the roof; the cost of living was forcing both spouses to work outside the home; children were often coming home from school to a vacant house; and so on. Overlying all of this was the spirit of rebellion that showed up in antiwar demonstrations, increasingly nihilistic rock music, and alternative lifestyles that often included sexual misconduct and drug usage. It was amazing how quickly our society devolved from Leave it to Beaver and Father Knows Best, to All in the Family, Three’s Company, and The Godfather. By 1977, Dr. Dobson had seen enough of this societal disintegration to believe he was being called to do something about it, something that could reach millions of people, versus the few in his circle of treatment as a child psychologist.

The 1980s are looked upon as a decade of greed and self-indulgence by the media players who have convinced the masses to discredit this decade as a time when Ronald Reagan and his rich friends on Wall Street lived high on the hog while the American middle class was struggling to pay their bills. While there is some truth to the indulgences of the “yuppie” movement and the chasing of increased prosperity, the 80s were about so much more than that. And Dr. Dobson was a major influencer in providing moral clarity at a time when it was desperately needed. Critics would say that the success of Focus on the Family and other large ministries led to the need for politicians, Republicans in particular, to find seats at the table for Christian leaders, and that religion and politics make a bad mixture. However, the positive effect was in giving the politicians the courage to take on issues like abortion and increasing crime in the cities. It could be argued that Dr. Dobson’s continued focus on the need for strong, faith-based families as the key building block of our nation has led to families using home-schooling to avoid the often-hostile public school system, a renewed sense of purpose for women who chose to stay at home as full-time mothers, and, in general, a greater appreciation for traditional values.

The arc of Dobson’s ministry followed a familiar pattern – tremendous success and acclaim initially, followed by controversies, discrediting, and ultimately apathy. This pattern is more reflective of the human condition than it is to any specific failures on Dobson’s part. In the meantime, the wave of Christian revival prevalent in the 1980s has slowed to a trickle these days, at least for now. A secular culture standing for everything Dr. Dobson stood against is seemingly stronger now than ever. However, in the longer arc of history, there is a sweet someday ahead where his contributions to family life will be looked upon with great favor once again.