Evangelical demagogues: two down, two to go!

September 11, 2007 by Pastor Dan.

After writing about the death of Rev. D. James Kennedy yesterday, I begun musing about the passing of the generation of homophobic evangelical leaders. Two of the four heavy hitting homophobes are left: Pat Robertson and James Dobson. Robertson renounced his ministerial status in order to run for President in 1988. Dobson is not and never has been a Christian minister of any kind. Yet the two control much of what America hears about the Christian faith.

Although Robertson is on record with the most outlandish views about virtually everything in the world (examples:  in 2005 he publicly called for the United States to assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez; in 2001 he concurred with Falwell that the September 11 attack by Saudi terrorists wa brought on by the ACLU, feminists, abortionists and homosexuals with God’s permission), James Dobson is probably the scarier of the two surviving septuagenarians. He sounds more reasonable to middle Americans and conservative Christians. Dobson is a licensed psychologist, not a minister, but comes from a long line of ordained Nazarenes. (The current Wikipedia article on him seems to be balanced.) Backed by a $150 million annual budget (nearly twice that of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s $82 million), Dobson runs a veritable publication and broadcast empire to disseminate his opinions.

Because of his unfettered access to Republican leaders and to broadcast media, he pontificates on virtually everything in American society, including whom he would support for President of the United States. How does he keep his tax exempt status? See, for example, this article in Reason Online from last May in which columnist Jeff Taylor calls Dobson a “small tent Republican.”

(Dobson, you will remember, was once the employer of John Paulk, the “ex-gay” poster-child who, with an “ex-Lesbian” wife at home, backslid his the way into a well-known homosexual bar in Washington, DC., was photographed by TWO’s Wayne Besen and, after this hit the media was finally pushed out of Focus on the Family’s employment.)

Dobson has also espoused views that border on the edge of incredulity, such as saying two years ago on his radio broadcast that legalizing same-gender marriage would set the table for polygamy, lead to daddies marrying little girls and a man marrying his donkey. (That idea from Dobson at least might be a good idea, since it would mean that human beings of similar intelligence would not have to be born out of wedlock.) According to this, Dobson has said: “Homosexuals are not monogamous. They want to destroy the institution of marriage. It will destroy marriage. It will destroy Earth. ”

In his own words: http://mediamatters.org/static/audio/dobson-200510070004.mp3

His thesis (in his book Marriage Under Fire) is that when a judge may rule on the basis of civil rights, it is a flimsier ground on which to base marriage than what Dobson gives as it’s historic grounds: tradition, legal precedent, theology and an overwhelming support of the people. In short, He doesn’t know the history of marriage, let alone Christian marriage and, IMHO, doesn’t want to or need to.  In fact, James Dobson is not qualified as a historian, lawyer, thoelogian or public pollster, yet he uses his non-profit pulpit, Focus on the Family, to take aim against our rights, our relationships, our lives.

But if you really want to be scared, read John W. Whitehead’s interview of Chris Hedges, “Is the Christian Right a Fascist Movement?” You thought you knew how bad it was, but Hedges will show you it is far worse than any of us imagined.                                  

— Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

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