The Dobson way
An evangelical leader steps squarely into the political ring
COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. --The biggest portrait in the office of Focus on the Family founder James Dobson--the best-known leader among America's 50 million-strong evangelical Christians--isn't of Jesus Christ. It's of Winston Churchill. "Churchill knew in '41 he could never beat Germany," says Dobson, rising to pull a biography of the master statesman from the bookshelf. "So his hope was to help the British people hang on until the Americans came." Dobson, helmsman of a multimedia empire--his radio show reaches nearly 2 million listeners daily and the volume of constituent mail to his organization requires a separate ZIP code--says it's a role he relates to. "For the last 20 years, all the centers of power have been influenced by a different worldview than what we share as evangelical Christians," he says, mentioning Congress, the judiciary, universities, and Hollywood as examples. "Our strategy has been to let people who see things the way we do know what's at stake and encourage them to hang on until change occurs."
For Dobson, his followers, and many American evangelicals--who made up nearly a quarter of the electorate last Election Day and who voted for President Bush by a factor of almost 4 to 1--change might finally be in the offing. Next week brings the second inauguration of the most religious evangelical president in modern history; he is expected to fill a string of Supreme Court vacancies with strongly conservative voices. And a handful of newly elected senators allied with the evangelical movement have already taken their seats on Capitol Hill.
Evangelicals haven't stood as much chance of molding Washington since they began organizing politically in the wake of Roe v. Wade. "This kind of hope was present after the 2000 election," recalls David Barton, who advised the Republicans on evangelical outreach for the election. "But it's grown from hope to confidence that something will change. It's the strongest emotion of expectation I've seen in decades." Those expectations include new curbs on abortion, a renewed push for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, and a more conservative federal judiciary, including the Supreme Court.
And yet, the evangelicals' conservative political leadership is far from euphoric, recalling past disappointment on the heels of Republican victories. "In the past, evangelicals have been, if not shafted by the [Republican] party, then certainly not rewarded," says Georgetown University Prof. Clyde Wilcox, who notes that evangelicals turned out for Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush's first White House run but saw little movement on social issues. "What's different this time is a really concerted effort to trumpet their role in order to get credit and domestic policy."
Unrivaled. Dobson, perhaps more than anyone, will be most credible in leveraging evangelical power at the voting booth. That's partly because, politics aside, he's unrivaled as an evangelical leader. "Given Billy Graham's advanced age," says Richard Land, president of the 16 million-strong Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, "it's James Dobson who's stepped in to fill the void." Unlike Graham, though, Dobson's not a preacher. Over the past 35 years, Dobson, a child psychologist, has published upwards of two dozen books on child rearing and maintaining relationships (including a handful of runaway bestsellers), has hosted a daily radio show carried by 2,000 U.S. stations, and has helped Focus assemble an active mailing list of 2.5 million names. But stepping so squarely into the political ring threatens to alienate some of Dobson's mostly apolitical fans--not to mention Republicans who see the GOP's future as a "big tent."
Dobson, for his part, is ready to play hardball, having already sent letters to 1.2 million supporters in which he threatens to challenge six "red" and "purple" state Democratic senators up for re-election in 2006 if they filibuster Bush's conservative judicial nominees: Florida's Bill Nelson, Minnesota's Mark Dayton, West Virginia's Robert Byrd, North Dakota's Kent Conrad, New Mexico's Jeff Bingaman, and Nebraska's Ben Nelson. U.S News has learned that Focus, a network of 36 "state policy councils" associated with the group, and other Christian organizations are planning to capitalize on the success of the 11 state ballot initiatives outlawing same-sex marriage that passed in November to promote similar measures in up to 15 more states in the next two years. The initiatives' backers hope their success will make it harder for senators in Washington to withhold support for a federal marriage amendment. And Dobson is also keeping an eye on the GOP. "There's a window which may remain open only a short time to make critical changes," he said in a recent interview with U.S. News. "If Republicans . . . in the White House and Senate squander this opportunity, I believe they will pay a price for it in four years--and maybe in two."
Dobson has never been so baldly political. Before the election, he stepped down from the presidency of Focus (he's still chairman) to launch Focus on the Family Action, a fundraising and grass-roots organizing engine free of the political spending limits imposed on the nonprofit Focus. The move allowed Dobson to make his first presidential endorsement (for President Bush), to write to hundreds of thousands of Focus constituents in states with tight Senate races with political advice, and to appear in ads to unseat then Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle in South Dakota. Last fall, Dobson hosted huge "stand for family" rallies--widely seen as supportive of Republican candidates--in close Senate race states, while Focus helped distribute an eye-popping 8 million voting guides. "I can't think of anybody who had more impact than Dr. Dobson" on social conservatives this election, says Richard Viguerie, the GOP direct-mail pioneer. "He was the 800-pound gorilla."
At the same time, Dobson, 68, hasn't exhibited the personal political ambitions of televangelist Pat Robertson, former Christian Coalition chief Ralph Reed, who joined the Bush-Cheney re-election effort, or values crusader Gary Bauer, another onetime White House hopeful. But "Dobson is more prominent and popular right now than Robertson, Reed, or Bauer were at their high points," says John Green, director of the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron. "It's because his popularity didn't come from his work in politics. It came from his communications network."
That network dates to 1970, when Dobson published Dare to Discipline , an antidote to permissive parenting that eventually sold 3 million copies. Where child development guru Benjamin Spock had encouraged mothers to get in touch with their children's feelings, Dobson told parents to assert their authority in an age of moral relativism--through spanking, if necessary. "You, Mom and Dad, are the boss," Dobson writes in The New Strong-Willed Child , a recent update of a book originally published in 1978.
A former professor at the University of Southern California School of Medicine (he has a Ph.D. in child development) and a veteran of Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, Dobson left medicine in 1977 to launch a California-based radio program. Today, it's translated into more than two dozen languages for what Focus estimates is an international audience of at least 200 million. On one recently taped show, Dobson encourages parents to talk to their kids about sex and sexuality before the onset of puberty. In his book Preparing for Adolescence , Dobson opines that masturbation, a controversial subject among traditionalist Christians, "is not much of an issue with God." And even as he is uncompromising on premarital abstinence (he writes that the most severe consequence of premarital sex is the "judgment of God in the life to come"), he emphasizes that it's never too late to reverse course to become a "secondary virgin."
His practical parenting wisdom has earned Dobson an overwhelmingly female listenership. "He's a Christian with similar values who was able to relate to the day-to-day world and give me practical things to use as a mother, like, 'Am I yelling at my daughter too much?' " says 45-year-old Elizabeth Melhorn of Selinsgrove, Pa., who listened to Dobson's program while raising two kids.
Political equity. When Dobson switches from self-help to public policy or politics mode on air, his listeners tend to regard him as a trusted adviser rather than a talking head or GOP shill. "I can't think of anyone with more equity . . . in a heartland state," Gary Bauer tells U.S. News . "If I go into South Dakota and say vote for [incoming Sen. John] Thune or against Daschle, people say, 'Of course he's going to say that--Bauer's a political operative.' When Dobson says it, he has impact."
Although much of Dobson's political power derives from his ability to connect with the grass roots, he is more plugged into Washington than he lets on. "I have a very close relationship with Jim," Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, the Senate's No. 3 Republican, tells U.S. News . "I consider him a friend." Indeed, "his influence [in Washington] is huge," says Land, who is widely seen as closer to the White House than Dobson. "He may not be an insider, but he can shut down the phone lines in Congress."
Just after Election Day, he almost did, encouraging listeners to phone Congress to block Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter--who had warned Bush against judicial nominees who would overturn Roe --from assuming the chairmanship of the Judiciary Committee. Some Hill offices logged a thousand-plus calls from abortion opponents after Dobson's broadcast.
In a show of how disciplined and organized the Christian right's leadership has become, a recently formed coalition of powerful religious activists known as the Arlington Group convened a conference call during which its members--including Dobson--agreed that it would be wiser to straitjacket Specter than to derail him. Paul Weyrich, a conservative Christian activist who heads the Free Congress Foundation, says gaining the GOP support necessary to chasten Specter would have been impossible without the strong turnout among "values" voters on Election Day and victories by conservative Christian Senate candidates. "It showed the realization by the majority leader [and] other leaders of that committee," he says, "that you simply cannot give our coalition the finger."
Weyrich tells U.S. News that, in a meeting with Specter after his public vow of support for Bush's nominees, he secured an additional pledge from the senator to allow conservative committee members to appoint some committee staff. (An aide to Specter denies he struck a deal but says the senator is "open to hiring good conservative candidates.") The Arlington Group, meanwhile, with roughly 75 members, will hold a strategy meeting in Washington during inauguration week in which U.S. News has learned that Texas Sen. John Cornyn, a Judiciary Committee member, is slated to speak.
With the makeup of the Supreme Court in the balance, the Specter flap may have been the opening shot in an all-out war to fill what Bush himself has reportedly predicted will be up to four or more vacancies on the high court during his second term. It's why Dobson fought to unseat Daschle and why he's threatening Democratic senators in '06: to strip Senate Democrats of their filibuster power--broken only with 60 votes--so that Bush's judicial nominees will survive confirmation. In Dobson's eyes, appointing "strict constructionists" is the only way to overturn Roe and to ensure 1996's federal Defense of Marriage Act--which bans same-sex marriage and gives individual states the right to disregard marriage licenses issued in other states--won't be overturned.
Abortion foes. In two early victories for religious conservatives, Bush announced last month that he would renominate 20 judicial appointees who failed to get a vote in the last Senate, while the GOP Senate leadership appointed two ardent abortion foes and marriage-amendment proponents--Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback and Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn--to the Judiciary Committee. "Many of the things Dobson and evangelicals have been fighting for hinge on [having] judges that have taken off in a direction totally different than the foundational principles of this country," Coburn tells U.S. News . "Replacing those judges is one of the most important things" on the agenda. And with Bush citing the Supreme Court's two most conservative members, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, as models for future appointees, both the religious right and its opponents are expecting a hard-right conservative.
With gains in the House and Senate by conservative Republicans, the Christian right will most likely see passage of the Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act, which requires women seeking abortions to be notified that their fetus might feel pain during the procedure, and a law that criminalizes transporting a minor across state lines for an abortion to skirt parental notification laws. But evangelical leaders like Dobson say the political will to pass a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage is unlikely to materialize until a federal judge strikes down the Defense of Marriage Act. "It's inevitable," says Dobson. "What that will do is cut the legs out from under the senators who said it's not necessary and can be handled at the state level."
But Dobson says he is what Richard Land calls a "reluctant crusader" who'd rather be advising families than campaigning or lobbying. In fact, Focus devoted just 6 percent of its $146 million budget last year to influencing public policy through "grass-roots lobbying" and voting education and registration. The news media "say we're a right-wing hit squad," says Dobson. "That's really a small percentage of what we do."
At its 81-acre campus headquarters in Colorado Springs, whose four brick buildings resemble a corporate office park, 150 phone attendants--of 1,400 total employees--field 5,000 daily phone calls from Focus constituents. People call Focus to request one of thousands of Focus resources, from brochures about beating alcoholism to CD s of old broadcasts on domestic violence to prayer books to 11 different Focus magazines (not including orders placed online, the most popular method). Calls to Focus's 800 number are answered by a person within three rings, and orders ship within 24 hours from a 75,000-square-foot warehouse. "It's not a customer ordering a book," says one employee, explaining the speedy, personalized service. "It's a woman whose daughter is considering abortion."
Callers with those kinds of serious concerns--about 1 in 10--are routed to a team of 60 specialists who recommend Focus resources based on a caller's circumstances. One recent caller worried that her husband was too strict with their college-age daughter; she was sent one of Dobson's parenting books, at a cost of about $20. Another felt depressed and wanted information on herbal remedies; a Focus rep prayed with her over the phone and sent a book on alternative medicine by a Christian doctor at a 75 percent discount, because the caller was tight on money.
Callers with still more pressing problems are transferred to one of 16 state-licensed counselors, who conduct a phone therapy session before referring callers to a Focus-approved therapist in their area. When a pastor's wife called to say her husband was verbally abusing her, a Focus counselor homed in on the husband's use of pornography. "If you continue to enable him to walk in sin," the counselor said, "you are allowing him to walk into hell." It's not the only controversial aspect of Focus's counseling, which treats homosexuality as a psychological condition that's correctable through therapy.
Strident stands. In pushing vigorously for a federal marriage amendment and in claiming some credit for the GOP's successes in November, Dobson and some other evangelical leaders have drawn fire from within their own ranks for appearing too strident or extreme. "Not everyone feels western civilization is going to rise and fall on a marriage amendment," says Richard Cizik, a lobbyist for the National Association of Evangelicals, which claims 30 million members. "My fear is we're bringing on criticism that we're modern-day ayatollahs." Dobson, for his part, won't budge. "The poor and needy are important," he says. "But . . . with the killing of 43 million babies, it's not in the same league--we're talking the unborn holocaust." The only other issue on par, for Dobson, is banning same-sex marriage. "You have to decide the things that matter most," he says. ". . . If that makes us sound extreme, I'll take it."
That kind of self-assurance may stem from Dobson's upbringing as a Nazarene (his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather were ordained ministers), a denomination that holds adherents responsible for living personally holy lives. But with about 90 denominations under the evangelical umbrella, the community is diverse, theologically and politically, and part of Dobson's success comes from his ability to cut across denominational lines. "Most evangelicals could not tell you what denomination Dobson is," notes the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life's Luis Lugo. Dobson has also maintained a spotless personal reputation in a world of scandal-plagued media evangelists that includes Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Bakker. His wife of 44 years is his college's homecoming queen, Shirley Dobson, who chairs the National Day of Prayer, and their grown son and daughter are active on the Christian speaking circuit. Dobson keeps a modest condominium in Colorado Springs, has never collected a salary from Focus (he lives off book sales), and, since suffering a heart attack in 1990, has been a health nut. "Yesterday was my 4,002nd day of exercise since Dec. 14, 1993," he said without blinking in a December interview. "I've missed 14 days of exercise in 11 years."
Two months after Election Day, it's difficult to gauge just how politically mobilized evangelicals are. After an exit poll found more voters saw "values" as their top issue than did any other--suggesting that evangelicals turned out in force--the finding was attacked for its ambiguous definition of values (chart, Page 66). Still, polling analysis by the University of Akron's Green suggests 78 percent of evangelical voters supported Bush this year, up 7 points from four years ago, and that overall evangelical turnout was up about 3.5 million, though evangelicals constituted the same share of the electorate as in 2000.
But Dobson points out that evangelical turnout--and its support for Republicans--in presidential elections has dipped and swelled according to how socially conservative their candidate was, from strong backing for Reagan and George H. W. Bush's first presidential run to weaker showings for Bush's 1992 re-election bid and Bob Dole's 1996 run. "I am not owned by the Republican Party," says Dobson. "I'm concerned about family and about moral issues." When Dobson felt that the GOP was ignoring values issues in 1998, he threatened to stage an evangelical mutiny (landing on the cover of U.S. News that May) and got actual results from Capitol Hill Republicans.
Even in 2004, evangelical mobilization was probably more of a grass-roots response to events like last year's Massachusetts high court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage than it was a testament to the organizing prowess of the Bush campaign or the GOP. "I'm gratified that [Bush political aide Karl] Rove recognized the importance of the evangelical vote, but [evangelical turnout] was not a result of a strategy from the White House," says Dobson. "People were very alarmed by the moral principles of John Kerry."
With the election over, Dobson and other evangelical leaders say their policy success now depends on keeping evangelicals politically engaged. "The doctor doesn't want to become Chicken Little, saying the sky is always falling," says John Fuller, who cohosts Focus's daily broadcast. "But there is a sense with the election that the troops are mobilized, and we have to keep them active." Even as Dobson loosens his grip on Focus's reins, preparing the organization for a future without him, he's likely to spend more of the equity he's built in calling on supporters to phone Washington. "My purpose in living is not to take a good reputation to the grave," he says. "I want to do what I think God wants me to do, and I want to do it as wisely and judiciously as possible and let the chips fall where they may."
MORAL VALUES: HOW IMPORTANT?
An Election Day exit poll found that more voters cited moral values as their top concern than any other issue. Initially cited as vindication for Bush adviser Karl Rove's strategy to mobilize red state--- largely evangelical---America, the poll later drew criticism for defining moral values too vaguely. But another poll, released by the Pew Research Center, found that moral values did matter, especially for Bush supporters.
In the Pew survey, two groups of voters were asked which issue mattered most. One group was provided a list of options; the other group could answer any way it wished. Roughly 1,140 people were polled.
Multiple-choice poll
Percentage saying that moral
values matter most Bush voters Kerry voters
44 7
Other issues that matter
most:
Iraq 11 34
Economy/Jobs 7 36
Terrorism 24 3
Open-ended poll
Percentage saying that moral
values matter most Bush voters Kerry voters
27 2
Other issues that matter
most:
Iraq 11 39
Economy/Jobs 3 21
Terrorism 17 <1
567 people were asked if they Said moral Said moral
DEFINE MORAL VALUES AS ... values values did not
Mattered most matter most
Social policies (gay marriage,
abortion, stem cells) 44 pct. 18 pct.
Other policies 9 pct. 8 pct.
Candidate qualities 23 pct. 17 pct.
Religious references 18 pct. 11 pct.
Traditional values 17 pct. 35 pct.
Meaningless 2 pct. 15 pct.
Note: Numbers in these charts do not add up to 100 percent because they are selections of only the most numerically significant survey categories.
Source: Pew Research Center for the People & the Press; USN&WR
With Bret Schulte
This story appears in the January 17, 2005 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.