Is James Dobson a Careful Bible Teacher?

by Hadley Robinson

To even suggest that James Dobson might not be an accurate and godly Bible teacher draws gasps and horrified looks among most evangelical Protestant churchgoers. But, as mentioned elsewhere on this website, it is not important for many whether one teaches accurate truth from Scripture. What counts is: Does it sound good? How do I feel? How does the teacher look? Is his manner gentle and smooth? Does it make sense to me? Does he intersperse Bible verses into his teachings?

And so are the values of the typical evangelical, especially evangelical women.

As one might expect, Dobson's teachings and writings are rarely subject to careful scrutiny. And, as a result, he is beyond criticism. To whom does he answer? A church council? A board of bishops? This is the reason why he could be the Roman equivalent of the Pope.

Generally, Dobson espouses a popular mix of modern psychology and Bible truth. It is all laced with religious humanism. While there are other popular teachers that do this, such as Laura Schlessinger, Dobson claims to be explicitly Christian. Like Schlessinger, he demonstrates a liberty to teach anything he wants. More on this later....

Dobson is also widely known for his forays into the political arena. In particular, his attempts to suppress the growing homosexual influence in the west, his tireless support of the sanctity of life in the womb, and his promotion of the concept that marriage should only be between a man and a woman.

Sadly, all of these worthy goals are doomed to failure because they are being imposed on a godless culture that cannot help itself but to plunge all the more into the moral abyss (Gal. 3:22). We are hopelessly immoral from the top to the bottom. As a consequence, there will never be broad support for Dr. Dobson's goals. This is true in the Church which has adopted most of the values of the culture in which she finds herself.

The result of Dobson's campaigns has been a disaster for the Church. He has come to be perceived by outsiders as a mean and persistent meddler in the private lives of others.

Rather than encourage the Church to be morally pure to the point that there is not even a hint of sexual misconduct (Eph. 5:3), James Dobson and his disciples strive to reform the culture as a whole. Consequently, the mass media has a field day as they gratuitously inform the public of the gross misconduct of Christians like Jimmy Swaggert, Jim Bakker, Jerry Falwell¹, and others.