{"id":105116,"date":"2025-08-21T00:17:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T00:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/crcc\/?p=105116"},"modified":"2025-12-09T00:24:55","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T00:24:55","slug":"by-focusing-on-the-family-james-dobson-helped-propel-us-evangelicals-back-into-politics-making-the-religious-right-into-the-cultural-force-it-is-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/crcc\/by-focusing-on-the-family-james-dobson-helped-propel-us-evangelicals-back-into-politics-making-the-religious-right-into-the-cultural-force-it-is-today\/","title":{"rendered":"By \u2018focusing on the family,\u2019 James Dobson helped propel US evangelicals back into politics \u2013 making the Religious Right into the cultural force it is\u00a0today"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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\n\n \n James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, participates in the National Day of Prayer ceremony at the White House on May 3, 2007. Chip Somodevilla\/Getty Images\n\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
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By \u2018focusing on the family,\u2019 James Dobson helped propel US evangelicals back into politics \u2013 making the Religious Right into the cultural force it is\u00a0today<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n By<\/span>Richard Flory<\/a><\/strong>\n \n August 21, 2025<\/span>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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This article was originally published on The Conversation.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

For decades, one name was ubiquitous in American evangelical homes:\u00a0Focus on the Family<\/a>. A media empire with millions of listeners and readers, its messages about parenting, marriage and politics seemed to reach every conservative Christian church and school.<\/p>\n

And one man\u2019s name was nearly synonymous with Focus on the Family: James Dobson.<\/p>\n

Dobson, a primary figure of the Religious Right\u00a0who died on Aug. 21, 2025<\/a>, was born in 1936, when conservative Protestant Christianity was a far cry from what it is today. As\u00a0a sociologist of religion<\/a>\u00a0who has studied American evangelicalism for 30 years, I believe Dobson\u2019s influence and moral authority were instrumental in transforming the Religious Right into the powerful cultural and political force it has been for half a century.<\/p>\n

A household name<\/h2>\n

Dobson earned a doctorate in psychology from the University of Southern California, where he taught for several years. In 1970, he published \u201cDare to Discipline<\/a>,\u201d a book encouraging parents to use corporal punishment to instill unquestioned respect for authority in their children.<\/p>\n

\u201cDare to Discipline\u201d arrived at a time when many evangelicals were alarmed about how their children were\u00a0being influenced by \u201csecular\u201d American culture<\/a>. The book was updated in 1992 and reissued several times, and Dobson\u2019s introduction\u00a0to a 2018 version<\/a>\u00a0claimed that the book has sold over 3.5 million copies. \u201cDare to Discipline\u201d became an important source for Christian families seeking advice rooted in a \u201cbiblical\u201d understanding of family, parental authority and child development \u2013 and it made Dobson a household name.<\/p>\n

Capitalizing on that success, Dobson founded\u00a0Focus on the Family<\/a>\u00a0in 1977. The organization\u2019s signature radio program took his message about family and faith virtually anywhere people could go, and grew increasingly political. By 1995, Focus on the Family\u00a0had a budget of more than US$100 million<\/a>, and by 2008, the radio program had aired on\u00a0over 3,000 stations<\/a>\u00a0in 160 countries.<\/p>\n

\"Focus
Focus on the Family employees in Colorado Springs pray during a morning devotion in 2004, before listening to the James Dobson radio program. Craig F. Walker\/The Denver Post via Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The primary theme throughout Dobson\u2019s radio program and publications was that \u201cfamily values<\/a>\u201d were under attack by a godless society embracing abortion, gay rights and gender equality. His views hearkened back to \u201cDare to Discipline\u201d: Authoritarian patriarchal families with\u00a0distinct gender roles for men and women<\/a>\u00a0would preserve the family and the future of the country.<\/p>\n

From the family to the Supreme Court<\/h2>\n

Dobson left Focus on the Family in 2010 and founded\u00a0the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute<\/a>, originally named Family Talk. He and\u00a0like-minded hosts<\/a>\u00a0dispensed folksy advice, along with\u00a0guests well known to their audience<\/a>. But they also addressed\u00a0explicitly political issues<\/a>, such as opposing policies that support abortion, same-sex marriage and some protections for LGBTQ+ people that they believe\u00a0conflict with their religious liberty<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In addition, Dobson helped found other powerful evangelical organizations working toward the Religious Right\u2019s ideological and political goals, such as\u00a0the Family Research Council<\/a>\u00a0and the legal group\u00a0Alliance Defending Freedom<\/a>, which has supported several high-profile Supreme Court cases.<\/p>\n

In 2022 and 2023, the Supreme Court made three rulings that advance long-held goals of the Christian Right. A slim majority\u00a0overturned Roe v. Wade<\/a>, the decision which established the constitutional right to an abortion in 1973. The ruling in a Colorado case,\u00a0303 Creative LLC vs. Elenis<\/a>, determined that business owners could not be compelled to create messages that conflict with their \u201csincerely held beliefs\u201d \u2013 meaning, in this case, that a wedding website designer could refuse same-sex clients because of her religious beliefs. And the court continued to soften limits on\u00a0using state funding for students at religious schools<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Attorneys from the Alliance Defending Freedom\u00a0worked on the abortion case<\/a>\u00a0and 303 Creative<\/a>. The group\u00a0submitted an amicus brief<\/a>\u00a0in favor of using state money for religious instruction in the third case, Carson v. Makin.<\/p>\n

Retreat and reemergence<\/h2>\n

The\u00a0roots of contemporary \u201cevangelicalism<\/a>\u201d trace back to the\u00a0Protestant fundamentalist movement<\/a>\u00a0that emerged in the early 20th century. Ever since, the movement has opposed ideas that it believes could undermine the core of America as a Christian nation.<\/p>\n

In the wake of the Russian Revolution, for example, fundamentalists\u00a0identified \u201cBolshevism\u201d as a threat to Christian America<\/a>. Today, a century later, some Christian conservatives criticize many types of history education and diversity programs as \u201cneo-Marxist\u201d or \u201ccultural Marxism<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"1919
A 1919 political cartoon in \u2018The King\u2019s Business,\u2019 a magazine published by the Bible Institute of Los Angeles (Biola University).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Conservative Protestant groups have not always been such major political players, however. Around the turn of the 20th century, evangelical institutions like\u00a0the Moody Bible Institute<\/a>\u00a0in Chicago and\u00a0the Bible Institute of Los Angeles<\/a>, now called Biola University, focused on individual faith and Bible training. Personal faith was promoted as the engine for social change and resistance to \u201cun-Christian\u201d ideas and practices, not political advocacy.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

The famous\u00a0Scopes Trial<\/a>, the 1925 case that pitched Biblical teachings about creation against the theory of evolution, prompted some fundamentalist groups to retreat from public affairs and politics<\/a>. Following Scopes, evangelicals established broad networks of their own independent churches<\/a>,\u00a0K-12 schools<\/a>,\u00a0universities<\/a> and media organizations \u2013 including publishers<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0electronic media<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 thus creating a subculture within which to worship and raise their children.<\/p>\n

Yet these organizations also laid the groundwork for what would finally emerge in the late 1970s as\u00a0the Religious Right<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 with leaders like Dobson,\u00a0televangelist Jerry Falwell<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0pastor and novelist Tim LaHaye<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2018One nation, under God\u2019<\/h2>\n

Dobson\u2019s influence will continue through his writings and the organizations he founded and influenced. In particular, his legacy can be seen in conservative evangelicals\u2019 emphasis on the \u201ctraditional\u201d or \u201cbiblical\u201d family, defined as a married mother, father and children. He long promoted a gender hierarchy in marriage, with\u00a0the husband being in \u201cauthority\u201d over wife and children<\/a>, and\u00a0viewed LGBTQ+ rights as a threat<\/a>\u00a0to the family and to the nation.<\/p>\n

\"James
James Dobson spoke at a 2004 event in Seattle where approximately 20,000 people gathered to support defining marriage as between a man and a woman (Ron Wurzer\/Getty Images).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This conception of the family has found its way into most evangelical institutions. More broadly, within the conservative movement, the patriarchal family is understood as the authentic expression of God\u2019s law and is often viewed as\u00a0the ultimate model for social institutions<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 including\u00a0a Christian nation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Numerous fundamentalists and evangelicals have argued that evangelical Christianity should be\u00a0the true basis for a \u201cChristian America<\/a>.\u201d What distinguishes Dobson\u2019s approach was how he adapted\u00a0Christian nationalism<\/a>, framing it as a crucial issue for parents and families: translating ideas about Godly societies into guidance on \u201cproper\u201d child rearing and child development. His focus on the family as the foundation of Christian civilization\u00a0mobilized millions of American evangelicals politically<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 on a scale that previous leaders never approached.<\/p>\n

Click here to read the article on The Conversation.<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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