On April 8, 1966, Time magazine’s cover posed a profound question: “Is God Dead?” The article noted: “It is a question that tantalizes both believers, who perhaps secretly fear that he is, and atheists, who possibly suspect that the answer is no.” By posing the question, Time helped launch the late 20th-century culture wars.
At that time, 98% of Americans believed in God. One of the 98% was James Dobson.
Born into a lineage of Church of the Nazarene ministers, Dobson graduated from Pasadena College — a Nazarene college in Los Angeles now known as Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego — in 1958 with a psychology degree. First working at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, in 1967 he earned a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California and took a position at USC’s School of Medicine (now the Keck School of Medicine).
Dobson viewed the 1960s as “a distressing time” for young people. Amid “a sudden disintegration of moral and ethical principles,” he believed “the institution of the family was disintegrating.” Like many other white conservative Christians, Dobson blamed anti-war activism, civil-rights demonstrations, long-haired hippies, revealing clothes, rock-n-roll, pot, LSD, pushy women, open homosexuality and changing sexual practices.
In his book Dare to Discipline (1970), Dobson summarized his take on the era: “God is dead; immorality is wonderful; nudity is noble; irresponsibility is groovy; disrespect and irreverence are fashionable; unpopular laws are to be disobeyed; violence is an acceptable vehicle for bringing change (as were childhood tantrums).”
Youth were rebelling. Children needed discipline. “Never has a society abandoned its concept of morality more suddenly than occurred in America during the decade of the sixties.” He called for parents to retain corporal punishment. Striking a child with switches or belts was fine; keeping those tools of punishment on a child’s dresser could serve as a reminder of authority.
“It is not necessary to beat the child into submission; a little bit of pain goes a long way for a young child,” Dobson asserted. “However, the spanking should be of sufficient magnitude to cause the child to cry genuinely.”
Bent on policing American sexuality, Dobson and other traditionalists were especially incensed in 1973 when the Supreme Court, in Miller v. California, introduced a new, expanded definition of obscenity. Worse still, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) removed homosexuality from the list of mental disorders in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual.
By then, Dare to Discipline had made Dobson a popular speaker in churches, PTA meetings and local media outlets, leading to the publication of What Wives Wish Their Husbands Knew About Women (1975) and The Strong-Willed Child (1978). A public voice of angry white conservative evangelicalism, Dobson uniquely merged religion, family therapy and politics in helping anchor a coalescing Christian Nationalist movement increasingly at war with popular culture.
Empowered, Dobson founded Focus on the Family in 1977, an organization combining parenting programs with political activism. Soon the organization cemented Dobson’s standing alongside top Christian Nationalists Pat Robertson, founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network in 1960; Phyllis Schlafly, who opposed the Equal Right Amendment and founded the Eagle Forum in 1972; and Jerry Falwell, founder of the Moral Majority in 1979.
In 1980, while serving as the lone conservative on the task force summarizing the findings of President Jimmy Carter’s White House Conference on the Family, Dobson rejected Carter’s inclusive faith and politics — and played a key role in Ronald Reagan’s victory over Carter in the 1980 election. Unchecked “liberal” advances ground to a halt.
Emboldened, Dobson in 1981 founded the Family Research Council, a think tank and lobbying organization devoted to promoting social conservatism. Politically well connected, Dobson in 1982 was appointed by President Reagan to the National Advisory Committee for Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. A seat on the Reagan-era Commission on Pornography — led by U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese — followed.
To conservatives’ dismay, the commission’s report — known as the Meese Report — failed to identify a link between pornography and child molestation. Worse still, Bill Clinton’s win in the 1992 presidential election further dented Dobson’s hopes of making America biblical.
Upon President Clinton’s backing of stem-cell research, Dobson, an ardent opponent of abortion, bemoaned the “cannibalizing” of “tiny bodies of living babies – even for humanitarian purposes.” Worse, he said, “Growing babies only to be dismembered for the use of their organs appears to be on the horizon.”
In 2002, Dobson expanded his culture warring to include opposition to marriage equality, becoming part of a group promoting a [failed] constitutional amendment to prohibit such marriages. Ever more political, he endorsed and campaigned for George W. Bush, then opposed Barack Obama in 2008.
In 2010, Dobson departed Focus on the Family to found the James Dobson Family Institute, charged with advancing “the sanctity of human life, God-honoring sexuality, religious freedom, respect for the American founding; and righteousness in the culture.” As did other Christian Nationalist leaders, Dobson taught that “religious freedom” was the right of conservatives only.
In 2015, Dobson decried Obergefell v. Hodges, the U.S. Supreme Court decision granting same-sex couples the right to marry. Had his work been in vain? The court decision was “about control of the public schools and it’s what happens in universities,” he insisted in an interview. “It’s about the economy and it’s about business and it’s about the military and it’s about medicine. It’s about everything. We lost the entire culture war with that one decision.”
But soon finding new hope for punishing liberals, Dobson in 2016 came out in support of presidential candidate Donald Trump, whom he insisted would “lead the country righteously, honorably, and wisely.”
Following Trump’s 2024 presidential reelection victory, Dobson had even greater cause to celebrate. “On day one of the [second] Trump administration, President Trump signed an executive order titled ‘Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,’” Dobson enthused. “No political partisan is needed to see that President Trump’s directive has done nothing less than reaffirm reality as created by God,” he insisted.
In actual reality, Dobson over the course of a half century played a critical role in helping birth and shape modern white Christian Nationalism. Focus on the Family radio programs are now broadcast on thousands of stations reaching many millions of listeners. The James Dobson Family Institute has a similar reach, as well as tremendous influence within the current Trump administration.
Partially due to Dobson’s influence, 12 states have now imposed total abortion bans, while 29 states restrict abortions based on gestational duration (e.g., 6 weeks); only nine states and the District of Columbia do not restrict abortion on the basis of gestational duration. In addition, according to Trans Legislation Tracker, to date in 2025, nearly 1,000 anti-transgender bills have been introduced in 49 states; 121 have passed.
James Dobson will long be remembered for steering America away from actual religious freedom — guaranteed by constitutional church-state separation — and toward a theocracy.
David Rosen is a prolific author whose work focuses on media-tech, politics, sexuality and American life. (This article represents the personal views of the author and does not necessarily represent the views of Americans United.)