Evangelical leader's legacy destroyed with exposure of church's destructive practice
On Thursday, August 21, James Dobson — founder of Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council — passed away at 89. Dobson was one of the most influential far-right evangelical Christian fundamentalists in the United States; along with the Moral Majority's Rev. Jerry Fawell Sr. and the Christian Broadcasting Network's (CBN) Pat Roberson, Dobson played a key role in the Religious Right's takeover of the Republican Party during the 1980s.
Dobson was an extremely polarizing figure, pushing a movement that drew scathing criticism from both the left and the left. Liberal television producer Norman Lear founded People For the American Way to combat the Religious Right, a movement that conservative Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-Arizona) believed was terrible for the GOP and terrible for conservatism.
Esquire's Charles P. Pierce didn't mince words in a blistering article published the day of Dobson's death, commenting, "One of the most truly horrible humans ever inflicted on this country has ceased to be, and all say, 'Amen' and 'about g------ time." And Anthea Butler, a religious studies professor at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, was highly critical of him in an op-ed published by MSNBC that day — arguing that Dobson championed a "harsh, disciplinarian Christianity" and "vilified gay people."
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Gay author Timothy Schraeder Rodriguez examines Dobson's use of anti-gay "conversion therapy" in an article published by Religion News Service on August 22, emphasizing that his experience with that practice brought him nothing but misery.
"For LGBTQ+ people like me," Rodriguez laments, "his legacy was one of shame, rejection and the lie that we needed to be 'cured.' His radio show and books reached millions, and his political influence stretched from Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump. Dobson was the man who dared a generation of parents to discipline strong-willed children and to guard their homes against what he claimed were corrupting cultural influences, especially homosexuality…. For parents listening to Dobson in their minivans, for youth pastors playing his cassette tapes for their students, that wasn't just commentary — it was a license to treat queer people as dangerous and sexuality as something that needed to, and must be, changed."
Rodriguez, author of the forthcoming book, "Conversion Therapy Dropout: A Queer Story of Faith and Belonging," adds, "I know, because I was one of those queer kids sitting in the audience."
"Conversion therapy," according to Rodriguez, is not only traumatic and harmful to gays — it doesn't work.
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"Conservatives mourning Dobson this week will call him a defender of the family," Rodriguez writes. "Franklin Graham praised him as someone who 'stood for morality and Biblical values.' Others say his impact will echo for generations; they're not wrong. But for LGBTQ+ people like me, his legacy means broken families, rejection and years lost to self-hatred…. I do not celebrate James Dobson's death, but I will not mourn him the way his followers do."
Rodriguez continues, "His influence shaped American evangelicalism for nearly half a century, and for LGBTQ+ people, that influence was beyond toxic — it was tragic. His death doesn't heal the lives or families torn apart by his teachings. And it doesn't absolve him of the shame and hatred he spread in the name of Christian love."
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Timothy Schraeder Rodriguez's full article for Religion News Service (RNS) is available at this link.
