Dobson's Jesus Machine
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Thu Mar 08, 2007 at 11:45:10 PM EST
The Economist has an interesting article on James Dobson which references Dan Gilgoff's new book, "The Jesus Machine: How James Dobson, Focus on the Family, and Evangelical America are Winning the Culture War."
An excerpt from The Economist article:

The religious right is in a dismal state at the moment. In 2004 social conservatives marched in lockstep behind a triumphant Republican Party. But two years later they lost a succession of high-profile races and ballot initiatives. And today they are desperately casting about for a like-minded presidential candidate. Mr Giuliani is too liberal, Mr Romney is too much of a flip-flopper, Mr McCain is too independent-minded, particularly on stem-cell research and a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. A recent meeting of the Council for National Policy, a secretive group of social conservatives, was reportedly a study in despair.

Mr Dobson is at the heart of his movement's difficulties, just as he used to epitomise its success. He owed much of his unique influence to the idea that he was a reluctant politician. He built his career offering advice on family problems (his radio show still gets over 6m listeners a week). He refused to run for political office--unlike Messrs Reed and Robertson--and even refused to endorse a presidential candidate until 2004. His insistence on saving America's problems one soul at a time had the paradoxical effect of giving his rare ventures into politics great force.

But since stepping down as head of Focus on the Family in 2003, he has been spendthrift with the political capital he took so long accumulating. He stomped the country for social conservatives in 2004--and devoted a fearsome amount of effort to unseating Mr Daschle. He repeatedly threatened the Republican establishment with severe punishment if it failed to "deliver" for the people who put the party back in power in 2004. Why was George Bush spending so much time trying to reform Social Security, he thundered, when he should have been trying to repair the country's morals?

The problem is that Mr Dobson is not all that good at politics. He displays all the characteristic weaknesses of evangelical politicos--overreaching hopelessly and then blaming failure on want of political courage. He was the prime force behind both the fight to keep Terri Schiavo's feeding tube in place and the push for a gay-marriage ban. But a majority of evangelicals disapproved of the first and a large number of his fellow social conservatives warned, rightly, that the second was a waste of effort.

There have been other miscalculations. He wasted political capital supporting Harriet Miers's doomed nomination to the Supreme Court. He strongly opposed the 2006 Evangelical Climate Initiative. He accused SpongeBob SquarePants of participating in a "pro-homosexual video". He argued that "The Da Vinci Code" "has all the evidence of something cooked up in the fires of hell" (wouldn't it have been better written if it had been?). He compared Bill Frist's call for increased federal funding for stem-cell research to Nazi experiments.

The 70-year-old Mr Dobson (who has already suffered a heart attack and a stroke) is increasingly looking like a relic of an ancien régime rather than a harbinger of a new order. The average age of people on Focus's mailing list is 52. Mr Dobson and his acolytes are rapidly being displaced by what Mr Gilgoff calls a New New Right--people who are concerned about international justice and climate change as well as abortion and gay marriage, and people who are willing to work with liberal pressure groups over issues such as Sudan and sex slavery.

All this suggests that the battle for the "values voters" will be more complicated than it was in 2004--and certainly will involve a lot more than kissing Mr Dobson's ring. In the Republican "evangelical primary" rising stars like Rick Warren, another reluctant politician, may count for as much as the old war horses. And Democrats such as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama--who both like to stress their religious credentials--have a chance of picking up disillusioned evangelicals. The Jesus machine is changing fast.




Display:
Melissa Rogers (http://melissarogers.typepad.com/melissa_rogers/2007/03/the_avera ge_age.html) for the links.

by Carlos on Thu Mar 08, 2007 at 11:47:42 PM EST
...with Dan Gilgoff, though I've not seen the book.  he struck the same themes regarding Dobson, and makes the central thesis that the RR was really in dissarray and collapsing until Dobson re-united them between 98-00.  One can only hope this was true.  It is quite plausible that the malaise of the RR between '92 and '98 was the result of both Pat Roberston and Jerry Falwell, similarly old to Dobson, had peaked and were waning - largely due to their 'failure to deliver'.  I hope this is true for Dobson today.  

In the larger, more general sense, one hopes that this rear-guard, reactionary response to the 'modern' world - to a new, enlightened understanding of the world whcih results in tolerance rather than hate born of fear - is itself on the wane.  I suppose people thought the same thing after the 60s.   That's probably overly-optimistic, and  so long as we have socio-economic upheaval - the growing gap between the rich and poor in this country, I suspect there will always be fresh, fertile soil in which to plant the seeds of social intolerance, which at it's heart is what distinguishes the Religious Right movement from broader Christianity.

Although it seems like the 'New New Right' is likely to be just as reactionary, perhaps they will be somewhat more splintered, and their hold over an entire national party will weaken.  We can only hope.  

by montpellier on Fri Mar 09, 2007 at 09:23:17 AM EST
Parent

I share you hopes and concerns. I would add that Dobson also miscalculated with his recent Time magazine article on gay parenting where he deliberately misinterprets the work of various researchers.

by Carlos on Fri Mar 09, 2007 at 11:48:46 AM EST
Parent



  The Economist' article was 'right-on' about Dobson's political naivete and ineptness -- following faithfully in the path of Falwell and Robertson. The ability of the GOP to manipulate this particular faction of the Christian Right is Legion (or is that Legend? :-)
The Bush/Neo-con faction of the GOP has been stunningly effective at turnning the Fundamentalist/Rapture warmongering Zionist withersoever they wish.

  The question Dobson, Kennedy, Baur and LaHaye must now answer is whether they will continue to be dupes for Gulliani or McCain.

  Note -- there is a sizable part of the GOP and especially the Christian Right that despises what Bush and the Neo-cons have done to Foreign Policy, Civil Rights, the Military Budget.. and the list goes on... and the list...
 

by Steward on Sat Mar 10, 2007 at 11:29:21 AM EST


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