James Dobson, influential founder of conservative Christian group Focus on the Family, has died

[drumdude]

Even though he wasn’t LDS, this man was instrumental in creating and fueling the awful culture wars that Mormonism has embraced along with much of Evangelical Christianity.

Progress is made through the death of monsters like this. I am hopeful that the LDS church may one day cut its ties with the disgusting bigotry that men like him and his organization promoted.

Good riddance. And if there is a hell, hopefully Dobson is enjoying the fruits of his labor.

[GiordanoBruno]

Couldn't agree more. An extended take on this odious character:

https://www.friendlyatheist.com/p/james ... vangelical

[Rivendale]

Good riddance. If you don't focus on the family all you get is a blurry family.

[I Have Questions]

Peterson liked him

A recent example is illustrative: Dr. James Dobson, for many years a very prominent Evangelical writer, lecturer, and radio personality who focused on issues relating to families and parenting, passed away yesterday, 21 August 2025, at the age of 89. Years ago, I listened to portions of his radio program a few times. I never really followed him much, and I hadn’t heard him or his name for a long time, but what I had heard from him seemed to me both reasonable and congenial. It was certainly always expressed in kind and calm terms.

I wonder if Peterson followed Dobson’s advice…

Dobson has been criticized for his statement that for "[a] boy's father ... to mirror and affirm his son's maleness ... He can even take his son with him into the shower, where the boy cannot help but notice that Dad has a penis, just like his, only bigger."

So Peterson approves of a guy who tells men to shower with their sons so they can check out Dad’s penis. Folks, you cannot make this up.

[drumdude]

DCP took great offense at my calling out this toad. I suppose he feels great solidarity towards a fellow culture warrior.

[Rivendale]

DCP took great offense at my calling out this toad. I suppose he feels great solidarity towards a fellow culture warrior.

My youth was filled with LDS parents who took Dobson's advice on hitting their kids. Specifically when it came to attending church. It wasn't spanking either, it was closed fist contact.

[Tom]

In his highly influential parenting book, Dare to Discipline (Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, 1970), Dr. Dobson provided timeless counsel on disciplining children that was both reasonable and congenial. Such guidance was certainly always expressed in kind and calm terms. Some examples:

Nothing brings a parent and child closer together than for the mother or father to win decisively after being defiantly challenged. This is particularly true if the child was “asking for it,” knowing full well that he deserved what he got. The parent’s demonstration of his authority builds respect like no other process, and the child will often reveal his affection when the emotion has passed. For this reason, the parent should not dread or shrink back from these confrontations with the child. These occasions should be anticipated as important events, because they provide the opportunity to say something to the child that cannot be said at other times. It is not necessary to beat the child into submission; a little bit of pain goes a long way for a young child. However, the spanking should be of sufficient magnitude to cause the child to cry genuinely. After the emotional ventilation, the child will often want to crumple to the breast of his parent, and he should be welcomed with open, warm, loving arms. At that moment you can talk heart to heart. You can tell him how much you love him, and how important he is to you. You can explain why he was punished and how he can avoid the difficulty next time. This kind of communication is not made possible by other disciplinary measures, including standing the child in the corner or taking away his firetruck. (35) (emphasis added)

I was attempting to teach the art of good discipline to the mother of a fifteen-month-old girl, and she related an incident to me which illustrates the desired outcome. Suzie decided she didn’t want to mind her mother, Mrs. Butler, when told not to run out the back door. It was sprinkling and Mrs. Butler did not want her to go outside because she was barefoot. Suzie’s mother went out to get some firewood and told her to wait in the doorway. The child knew the meaning of the command because she learned to talk quite early; nevertheless, she came toddling across the patio. Mrs. Butler caught her and took her back, giving the same order more sternly. As soon as her back was turned, Suzie ran out again. On the third trip, her mother stung her little legs a few times with a switch. After the tears had subsided, Mrs. Butler was putting the firewood in the fireplace when Suzie came to her and reached out her arms, saying “Love, mommie.” She gathered her child tenderly in her arms, of course, and rocked her for fifteen minutes, talking softly about the importance of obedience. (35-36) (emphasis added)

In a revised version of this book, The New Dare to Discipline (1992), Dobson relates the same story while replacing references to “Mrs. Butler” and “Suzie” with references to his wife and his young daughter. Dr. Dobson needed to teach his wife how to administer discipline to their then-fifteen-month-old child, but such lessons are best learned when wives are new mothers and children are well under age two.

How much better it is to use action to get action. There are hundreds of tools which will bring the desired response, some of which involve pain while others offer the child a reward. The use of rewards (bribes) is discussed in the next chapter, and thus will not be presented here. But minor pain can also provide excellent motivation for the child. The parent should have some means of making the child want to cooperate, other than simply obeying because he was told to do so. For those who can think of no such device, I will suggest one: there is a muscle, lying snugly against the base of the neck. Anatomy books list it as the trapezius muscle, and when firmly squeezed, it sends little messengers to the brain saying, "This hurts; avoid recurrence at all costs." The pain is only temporary; it can cause no damage. When the youngster ignores being told to do something by his parent, he should know that Mom has a practical recourse. (38-39) (emphasis added)

There will be those among my readers who feel that the deliberate, premeditated application of minor pain to a sweet little child is a harsh and unloving recommendation. I ask those skeptics to hear me out. Consider the alternatives. On the one hand, there is constant nagging and strife between parent and child. When the youngster discovers there is no threat behind the millions of words he hears, he stops listening to them. The only messages he responds to are those reaching a peak of emotion, which means there is much screaming and yelling going on. The child is pulling in the opposite direction, fraying Mom's nerves and straining the parent-child relationship. But the most important limitation of these verbal reprimands is that their user often has to resort to physical punishment in the end, anyway. Thus, instead of the discipline being administered in a calm and judicious manner, the parent has become unnerved and frustrated, swinging wildly at the belligerent child. There was no reason for a fight to have occurred. The situation could have ended very differently if the parental attitude had been one of confident serenity. Speaking softly, almost pleasantly, Mom says, "Henry, you know what happens when you don't mind me; now I don't see any reason in the world why I should have to make you feel pain to get your cooperation tonight, but if you insist, I'll play the game with you. When the buzzer sounds you let me know what your decision is." The child has a choice to make, and the advantages to him of obeying his mother's wishes are clear. She need not scream. She need not threaten to shorten his life. She need not become upset. She is in command. Of course, Mother will have to prove two or three times that she will apply the pain, if necessary, and occasionally throughout the coming months her child will check to see if she is still at the helm. But there is no question in my mind as to which of these two approaches involves the least pain and the least hostility between parent and child. (39-40) (emphasis added)

When disciplinary measures fail, it is usually because of fundamental errors in their application. It is possible for twice the amount of punishment to yield half the results. I have made a study of situations where the parent has told me that the child ignores the spankings he receives, going back to violate the same rule. There are four basic reasons for the lack of success: (1) The most recurring problem results’ from infrequent, whimsical punishment. Half the time the child is not punished for a particular act of defiance; the other half of the time he is cuffed about for it. Children need to know the certainty of justice. (2) The child may be more strong-willed than the parent, and they both know it. If he can outlast a temporary onslaught, he has won a major battle, eliminating punishment as a tool in the parents repertoire. Even though Mom spanks him, he wins the battle by defying her again. The solution to this situation is obvious: outlast him; win, even if it takes a repeated measure. The experience will be painful for both participants, but the benefits will come tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. (3) The parent suddenly decides to employ this form of punishment after doing nothing for a year or two prior to that time. It takes a child a while to respond to a new procedure in this manner, and the parent might get discouraged during the adjustment period. (4) The spanking may be too gentle. If it doesn’t hurt it isn’t worth avoiding next time. A slap with the hand on the bottom of a multi-diapered thirty-month old is not a deterrant to anything. It isn’t necessary to beat a child, but he should be able to feel the message. (58-59)(emphasis added)

One of my greatest concerns in recommending corporal punishment (spanking) is that some parents might apply the thrashings too frequently or too severely. Generally, however, parents are less likely to become violent with their children when they know how to handle small behavioral problems before they reach a stage of extreme irritation. (60)

In the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre (2012), Dr. Dobson implied that the murders of 20 school children and six adults could be attributed to divine judgment. He said:

Our country really does seem in complete disarray. I'm not talking politically, I'm not talking about the result of the November sixth election; I am saying that something has gone wrong in America and that we have turned our back on God.

I mean millions of people have decided that God doesn't exist, or he's irrelevant to me and we have killed fifty-four million babies and the institution of marriage is right on the verge of a complete redefinition. Believe me, that is going to have consequences too.

And a lot of these things are happening around us, and somebody is going to get mad at me for saying what I am about to say right now, but I am going to give you my honest opinion: I think we have turned our back on the Scripture and on God Almighty and I think he has allowed judgment to fall upon us. I think that's what's going on.

Naturally, some have criticized Dr. Dobson’s reasonable and congenial wisdom on demonstrating parental authority and confronting and battling with disobedient and defiant young children, including through administering physical punishment and pain, as deeply flawed, harmful, abusive, and immoral. Some have faulted him for suggesting that God allowed the Sandy Hook murders to punish people for not believing in him, getting abortions, and redefining marriage. Such critics apparently disapprove of strife and of anything that savors, even remotely, of moral judgmentalism.

[Xenophon]

DCP took great offense at my calling out this toad. I suppose he feels great solidarity towards a fellow culture warrior.

My youth was filled with LDS parents who took Dobson's advice on hitting their kids. Specifically when it came to attending church. It wasn't spanking either, it was closed fist contact.

You can draw a direct line between Dobson and heaps of violence laid on children. My wife got an overwhelming sense of relief at the news.

I'm usually a little more nuanced than this, but earnestly “F” Dobson and the horse he rode in on. If there were a hell, there would be a special place just for him.

[Kishkumen]

Dobson was filth. Hopefully he figures out the error of his ways if there is an afterlife in which he can do that.

[drumdude]

I suppose I should quote DCP here in case he tries to edit it away:

Very occasionally, the good folks over at the Peterson Obsession Board attack people other than Y’r Humble Servant. For instance, although he doesn’t receive even five percent of the gentle ministrations that I do, my friend Louis Midgley is sometimes an object of their attention, which is always given with the same kindness and charity that they show to me. Once in a while, though, they even look beyond the Latter-day Saint community for people on whom to bestow their blessings.

A recent example is illustrative: Dr. James Dobson, for many years a very prominent Evangelical writer, lecturer, and radio personality who focused on issues relating to families and parenting, passed away yesterday, 21 August 2025, at the age of 89. Years ago, I listened to portions of his radio program a few times. I never really followed him much, and I hadn’t heard him or his name for a long time, but what I had heard from him seemed to me both reasonable and congenial. It was certainly always expressed in kind and calm terms.

think it instructive to compare the tenor of that article with the announcement of James Dobson’s death — made by one of my own chief critics there, the pseudonymous poster who styles himself something like Dumb-Dud — over at the Obsession Board. Even though he wasn’t a Latter-day Saint, Dumb-Dud writes, Dr. Dobson was a principal figure

in creating and fueling the awful culture wars that Mormonism has embraced along with much of Evangelical Christianity.

Progress is made through the death of monsters like this. I am hopeful that the LDS church may one day cut its ties with the disgusting bigotry that men like him and his organization promoted.

Good riddance. And if there is a hell, hopefully Dobson is enjoying the fruits of his labor.

Dumb-Dud apparently disapproves of strife and of anything that savors, even remotely, of moral judgmentalism[sic].

He titles the blog entry “I can imagine worse deaths.”

I agree with Dr. Peterson, I can imagine the death of Hitler, for example, was even worse. So apparently in DCP’s mind, that somehow minimizes the damage that Dobson has done since it is lower in comparison.

That’s the hard hitting and very insightful take you get only from an emeritus BYU professor.