Family : James Dobson (1936-2025)

My first visit to Focus on the Family headquarters in Colorado Springs was in the early 1990s. Colorado Springs was essentially the evangelical “Mecca” of North America, where numerous Christian organizations had their headquarters. Focus on the Family was by far the largest Christian organization operating in Colorado Springs, home to the Focus on the Family radio program hosted by psychologist James Dobson, who died on Thursday, August 21, 2025.

Focus on the Family was originally known for Dr. Dobson’s books, aimed at helping Christian parents to more effectively parent their children. His 1970 Dare to Discipline gave practical tips to parents frustrated with how to best discipline their children, and raise them to become responsible young adults, and to hopefully pass their Christian faith to the next generation. Other popular Dobson books, like The Strong Willed Child and Bringing Up Boys, followed over the years. Dobson’s methods were seen to be a more traditional alternative to the popular, more secular-oriented approach to parenting advocated by another psychologist, Dr. Benjamin Spock, author of the 1946 best-seller Baby and Child Care, who opted for more permissive methods.

Focus on the Family was founded in 1977, becoming a media empire providing resources for Christian parents. In 1987, Adventures in Odyssey became the most well-known radio resource, aimed at instilling Christian values in kids, with over 1,000 recorded shows to date. The program has featured 30-minute comedy-drama episodes revolving around children in a small Midwest town, associated with an ice cream shop and emporium operated by a Mr. John Avery Whitaker.

While James Dobson was primarily known for integrating child psychology with Christian values, he became increasingly more involved in political causes, particularly through the 1990s. Dobson believed that there was a cultural collapse of “family values,” stemming from the rise of the counterculture movement of the 1960s. Dobson urged that Christians get more involved in political affairs, as a means defending against what he saw as attacks on the family.

In particular, James Dobson was opposed to the increasing public acceptance of same-sex marriage, and toleration for homosexuality in general across American society at large. He viewed same-sex attraction to be a result of environmental factors, and not something associated with birth. Dobson also opposed abortion and in more recent times spoke out against the transgender movement.

Despite being controversial in the wider culture, Dobson was controversial in certain Christian circles as well. In the early 2010’s, The Truth Project produced by Focus on the Family, narrated by Del Tackett, was a small-group curriculum program developed for churches, which aimed at developing a “Christian worldview.” Enthusiasts for The Truth Project appreciated the program’s “family values” orientation and encouraging Christian civic involvement, while critics of the program objected to what was seen as promoting a twisted view of science, with critics on one side claiming that The Truth Project was teaching anti-science propaganda, while those on another side objected to an attempt to smuggle in harmful, modernist psychotherapy into the church. Others were concerned about The Truth Project trying to politicize the Gospel, by hitching Christianity wrongly to right-wing politics.

There are countless stories of children growing up in the 1990’s in evangelical Christian homes, who recall long car trips with their parents, while their parents turned on the radio to listen to various Focus on the Family broadcasts. Some of these kids look back on those times in the car with fond memories. Other kids, not so much.

Dobson grew up in a home where his two parents were traveling evangelists in the Nazarene church. Despite James Dobson’s background growing up in a relatively egalitarian family, he became a stalwart advocate of complementarian theology, believing that men and women were equal in the sight of God, but that they occupied different roles in the home and in the family. Dobson believed that Christian husbands and fathers should be leaders in their homes, and that women should not serve as elders in their local churches.

James Dobson was a supporter of the Danvers Statement, which led to the creation of the Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood in 1987. In 1997, Dobson learned that the version of the Odyssey Bible which Focus on the Family published used gender-inclusive language. Dobson promptly discontinued use of this edition of the Odyssey Bible, offering refunds for purchases of the Bible.

The incident encouraged Dobson to call together Christian leaders to speak out against efforts by Zondervan’s New International Version of the Bible to produce any future gender-inclusive Bible versions.  What came out of that meeting was something called the Colorado Spring Guidelines, which argued for a “gender-accurate” as opposed to a “gender-neutral” approach to Bible translation.

The NIV Committee on Bible Translation still went ahead with publishing a toned-down “inclusive” version of the Bible, the TNIV (Today’s New International Version), which still had some gender-neutral language in it. The controversy with the TNIV in 2005 eventually led to the version being discontinued. In response, a new Bible translation, the English Standard Version (ESV) was developed independently from the work of the NIV, favoring a more complementarian theology, particularly in the Bible study notes. Furthermore, the NIV Committee on Bible Translation revamped and produced yet another revised version, the NIV 2011, which sought to find some kind of halfway meeting spot between complementarian and egalitarian Bible scholars, along the lines of conforming to the Colorado Springs Guidelines. So while James Dobson was not a Bible scholar himself, his pervasive influence in evangelical circles has had a significant impact on what today’s Bible translations among evangelicals look like today.

That year I was in Colorado Springs visiting Focus on the Family, I once spotted what I thought was a bumper sticker that said: “Keep Your Focus on Your Own &#%@*!! Family.”

While Dr. Dobson had many detractors, particularly among “ex-evangelicals,” his gentle demeanor won him many other admirers. Millions of listeners still tune into radio or Internet programs founded or inspired by the work of James Dobson.

In 2010, James Dobson left Focus on the Family, helping to pave the way for new leadership under Jim Daly. Dobson was now in his mid-70s, and he felt it best that a new leader take Focus on the Family towards having a softer, less-political message that would appeal more to young families. Dobson died at the age of 89. Tributes to Dr. Dobson’s legacy from a number of Christian and other cultural leaders can be found at Focus on the Family’s website.

Below is short interview by California pastor Greg Laurie with James Dobson: