James Dobson, a controversial and deeply influential Christian activist who advised several presidents, including US President Donald Trump and campaigned against abortion and LGBTQ rights has died.
Dobson died on Thursday at the age of 89, according to the Dr James Dobson Family Institute, which highlighted his role in “creating one of the largest faith-based organizations in the world”. No cause was given for his death.
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Born in 1936 in Shreveport, Louisiana, Dobson, who was a child psychologist, started a radio show counselling Christians on how to be good parents and in 1977 founded Focus on the Family.
At the height of his influence in the 1980s, Dobson was viewed as one of the most powerful figures in the so-called “religious right” or “Christian right”. Critics viewed him as an agent of intolerance, but he had broad support in the US heartland, where his folksy style and love for hunting went down well.
His organisation at its peak had more than 1,000 employees and gave Dobson a platform to weigh in on legislation and serve as an adviser to five presidents.
Dobson successfully pushed for conservative Christian ideals in US politics alongside fundamentalist giants, such as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, campaigning for bringing religious conservatives into the political mainstream. With his daily radio broadcasts heard on more than 3,000 radio stations in North America, he promoted his conservative agenda and encourage like-minded people to vote for candidates who reflected their views.
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This usually meant Republicans, although Focus on the Family’s tax-exempt status prevented it from explicitly endorsing parties or candidates.
Decades later, Dobson served on a board of evangelical leaders that advised Trump in 2016. He supported Trump in all three of his presidential campaigns.
Dobson was a ferocious opponent of abortion rights and gay marriage, viewing both as attacks on the “traditional family” and, by extension, his vision of a functioning society. But he denied charges from opponents that he was a bigot.
“It is primarily the homosexual activist community that has an agenda and sees me as a threat to it, and so they mischaracterise me as hateful and vicious. I’ve been on the radio for 30 years and you will not find one single comment [like that],” he told Reuters in an interview in 2007.
He celebrated the 2022 overturning of Roe v Wade – including Trump’s conservative appointments to the US Supreme Court credited with the landmark decision that allowed states to ban abortion.
“Whether you like Donald Trump or not, whether you supported or voted for him or not, if you are supportive of this Dobbs decision that struck down Roe v Wade, you have to mention in the same breath the man who made it possible,” he said in a ministry broadcast.
On social media, while some mourned his loss, many highlighted the trauma they had endured as a result of his work. Dobson had encouraged corporal punishment of children and was a fierce advocate for so-called conversion therapy, a pseudoscientific practice aimed at forcibly changing the sexual orientation or gender identity of LGBTQ youth.
“I know we’ll have to contend with James Dobson’s legacy for a long time, but I felt such relief this morning,” Sarah Jones, a New York Magazine writer, posted on X. “He committed his entire life to violence and cruelty and now he’s gone. I’ve been waiting to write his epitaph since I was a child.”
Zach Lambert, a Texan pastor, wrote on X: “It’s genuinely hard to quantify the pain he and his organization are responsible for. I’ve walked with hundreds and hundreds of people who experienced severe trauma (spiritual, emotional, physical, etc.) because of his teachings.”
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