07/17/2006
Hating Begins at Home: The Creation of James Dobson
James Dobson, head of Focus on the Family, was abused as a child, according to a recent profile in Denver magazine 5280. He also enjoyed a family life punctuated by shin-kicking contests and dogfights, and his formative view of gay life seems to come from these earlier experiences and his participation in Ed Meese's commission on pornography, in which he experienced, first-hand, the lurid Times Square sex shops of the mid-80's.
A couple of choice excerpts, the first on how he was brought up:
"Myrtle Dobson was an amiable and social woman, but she didn't hesitate to whack her son with a shoe or belt when she felt it was required. Consequently, Dobson writes, he learned at an early age to stay out of striking distance when he back-talked to his mother. One day he made the mistake of mouthing off when she was only four feet away and heard a 16-pound girdle whistling through the air. 'The intended blow caught me across the chest, followed by a multitude of straps and buckles wrapping themselves around my midsection.'"
His high school years:
"...Dobson had two years of high school left, and when he started classes he found himself the target of a couple of bullies. Rather than turn the other cheek, Dobson wheeled around and threw his schoolbooks in the face of one annoying youth. 'By the time he could see me again I was on top of him,' Dobson writes. Dobson also tried a little bullying himself, targeting a boy whom he sized up as a "sissy." But the boy gave him such a thrashing that Dobson concluded bullying wasn't for him."
And, after the jump, his experience with Attorney General Ed Meese during the Reagan Administration:
"In the mid-’80s, Meese asked Dobson to serve on a blue-ribbon commission on pornography. For the next 14 months, the preacher’s boy from the heartland immersed himself in the world of hard-core porn.Times Square was Beelzebub’s turf in the mid-’80s. Buildings bathed in the red glow of XXX signs, blocks of “adult bookstores,” and businesses offering sex aids and cellophane-wrapped magazines. Deciding they needed to sample their subject matter firsthand, members of the Meese Commission descended into the belly of the beast. Commission member James Dobson, middle-aged and beefy, ducked into one of the adult bookstores, which in other cities might offer visitors a private cubicle and 90 seconds of pornographic video. But in Times Square the fare was more, well, sumptuous: Customers pushed coins into a slot and a screen rolled up revealing an orgy. “Everything that is possible for heterosexuals, homosexuals, or lesbians to do was demonstrated a few feet from the viewers,” Dobson later wrote. “The booths from which these videos or live performers are viewed become filthy beyond description as the day progresses. Police investigators testified before our Commission that the stench is unbearable and that the floor becomes sticky with semen, urine, and saliva. Holes in the walls between the booths are often provided to permit male homosexuals to service one another.”
It would be an understatement to say such spectacles were a mind-warping experience for Dobson, who had been switched, paddled, and pummeled for sassing back and forbidden from saying “geez”—a man whose courtship with his wife included passing notes in soda bottles."
And on the Eighth Day, Dr. Dobson Created Himself [5280]
Sphere: Related ContentPosted 11:00 AM EST by Andy in Evangelical Christians, JAmes Dobson, Religion | Permalink
Like it?
Subscribe to FREE Towleroad daily headlines with our RSS feed!
RECENT STORIES:
Comments
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.
Unfortunately, much of Dobson's abuse and tormet have rendered him a masochist in my respects as well, as evident by his wing-nut organization promoting "family values."
Many of these EVangelical types are damaged goods, plain and simple. Be it physical or sexual, unless confronted and worked through in therapy, the after affects will often manifest themselves in different ways.
The old adage of the closet homosexual preaching about "sins" yet sleeping with male prostitutes on the side is very real indeed.
I shudder to think of how Dobson raised his children. All we need to observe is the polygamy phenomena of the LDS to see that we do indeed have victims of extremism on our very own soil.
I wonder when Rick Santorum's story will be released? If I remember correctly, he is an italian catholic... perhaps a priest put his hand in Rick's cookie jar one too many times.
Posted by: Jason | Jul 17, 2006 11:18:59 AM
Dobson's story is not unusual and others with a similar one have turned out to be normal. What Dobson needs instead of focusing on himself is to develop empathy by reading about the typical life stories of L&G people, wherein he might see some overlap with his own.
Posted by: Anon | Jul 17, 2006 11:39:29 AM
No one with any ability to think, can believe anything Dobson has to say is worthwhile.
Fortunately for him, there are a lot of lemmings out there who will swallow any bile he can purge.
Posted by: dc-20008 | Jul 17, 2006 11:40:31 AM
Gee, if it all it takes to get him to change his position is a sound thrashing....I volunteer.
Posted by: Hoya86 | Jul 17, 2006 1:11:37 PM
Well, FINALLY. this explains it all..
He's ticked at us because he went to a porn store in NYC and no one came onto him...
I'd be pissed too.
Posted by: Darren | Jul 17, 2006 1:38:41 PM
the thrashings didn't sound abnormal, just his obession with routing out us gays. You'd think he'd want to get us out of the bookstores and into the pews...
Posted by: Tim | Jul 17, 2006 1:51:57 PM
it's rather lame that he even gets a mag profile. he's a nobody with a big voice.
Posted by: rod | Jul 17, 2006 3:56:31 PM
It doesn't take a PHD in psychology to see the connection between childhood bullying and Right Wing intolerance.
As for his mother... she must have subscribed to the Fundamentalist mantra, Spare the Rod...
Posted by: mark | Jul 17, 2006 6:33:22 PM
Ah, SpongeDob, lunatic supreme. Here's some of his parenting advice to dad's who worry that their sons might be fags: "Meanwhile, the boy's father has to do his part. He needs to mirror and affirm his son's maleness. He can play rough-and-tumble games with his son, in ways that are decidedly different from the games he would play with a little girl. He can help his son learn to throw and catch a ball. He can teach him to pound a square wooden peg into a square hole in a pegboard. He can even take his son with him into the shower, where the boy cannot help but notice that Dad has a penis, just like his, only bigger".
Freak.
Posted by: Henry Holland | Jul 17, 2006 7:47:44 PM
^Yikes!
Posted by: Jason | Jul 17, 2006 8:11:36 PM
H.H. : I'm no fan of Dobson (NEEDLESS to say) but I find it hard to believe he would say something so obviously suggestive of child molestation.
Posted by: Joe T. | Jul 17, 2006 11:03:06 PM
Joe,
I've seen that quote attributed to Dobson numerous times. I believe it is taken from one of the books he wrote. And I believe it is correctly attributed to him.
Posted by: peterparker | Jul 18, 2006 6:05:32 AM
Okay, Peter. I still find it a hard one to believe, but....I'll see if I can find it sometime.
Posted by: Joe T. | Jul 18, 2006 3:22:44 PM
Dobson was quoting "A Parent's Guide to Preventing Homosexuality," written by clinical psychologist Joseph Nicolosi, Ph.D.
Here is the link to Dobson's site where he quotes Nicolosi saying how important it is for fathers to flash their young sons in the shower.
http://www.focusonthefamily.com/docstudy/newsletters/A000000264.cfm
Posted by: Tim | Nov 27, 2006 1:01:03 PM