James Dobson, Republican Political Organizer and Activist, and Psychologist, Dead at 89

James Dobson, the child psychologist whose book and media business led to the founding of Focus on the Family, has died at the age of 89.  On the surface, the business he built, advocating for parents to use authoritarian force-feeding methods which he claimed were supported by principles of the Christian gospel, to control behavior and instill values in their children, looks like many other para-church ministries that derive their income from contributions of Christians and the sale of their over-priced products.  But the manner in which Focus on the Family operated, and used its influence and its reach into American media, identifies it more clearly as a political action committee, an organization aimed at recruiting members and raising money for Republican party candidates who claimed to be supporting the "family values" agenda pushed by Dobson.  

No doubt, he was, and will remain, an icon within conservative Evangelicalism, at least among those who have been radicalized to turn their faith into a political weapon.  His methods were controversial among professionals in the field of psychology.  He brought in a segment of the population that heard from the pulpit of their church on most Sundays that modern psychology was not to be trusted, because it "subverted the word of God," and is based on principles discerned from scientific research, and from successes in dealing with psychological disabilities and the emotional issues that come from them.  

Like most other para-church ministries which rely on faulty conservative Evangelical theology and doctrine when it comes to accurately interpreting and applying what is found in the Bible, usually distoring its historical context or missing it altogether while wandering frequently over into the Old Testament world to retrieve principles and conclusions which Jesus completely re-interpreted in the context of the Christian gospel, Dobson's model was not consistent with the core principles of Christianity.  

Driven by Politics Rather Than Christian Theology and Principle

Dobson used his influence and his following to promote Republican party politics.  That this was the main point of Focus on the Family is difficult to challenge, given the amount of time and money that this pseudo-Christian ministry spent on supporting Republican party candidates for office on some nebulous "family values" platform.  When it came to "family values," many of the candidates Dobson supported, and used his influence to help his own cause were hypocrites, since their behavior was anything but consistent with any kind of definition of "family values," especially not the high moral standards of Christian faith and practice.  

It is support for Trump that exposes the hypocrisy of Dobson, and of everyone who tried to associate the GOP with "family values."  Trump's moral bankruptcy is shocking even to a completely secular worldview.  The total lack of a conscience, and the open rejection of basic Christian theology, especially with regard to the Christian conversion experience, which Trump vehemently denies as being necessary to his own faith, should be appalling to serious Christians.  Supporting Trump and his politics is mutually exclusive of true Christian faith and practice.  It is not possible to be both Christian and MAGA.  

And that certainly defines the ministry, and the legacy of James Dobson.