The making of Arrogance--Dr. James Dobson

I sent this letter from the Focus on the family web site on January 25, 2005. On the web site they had a link to inudate five hand picked Dobson scapegoats who did not show him enough respect about his Sponge Bob square pants comments. Maureen Dowd, Matt Lauer, Keith Oberman, James Carville, and Michael Ventre were the five that a mass mailing was being sent to. I wrote the following to let those five know that many Christians supported them and not James Dobson. Here is my email:


Thank you for your courage in standing up to the arrogant ego of James Dobson. He does not speak for all Christians and he does not speak for me. His ridiculous attack on Sponge Bob has degenerated into hate filled missives about the homosexual life style and its supposed threat to our children.

I once supported him. But his ego and arrogance and nastiness have led me to oppose him. I have even met him in person when he came to speak at the Nazarene Church in Porterville where his former tennis partner at Pasadena Nazarene College, Wil Spaite, was our pastor. That was in 1980 or 81.

Since that time Dobson has seen Pistol Pete Maravich die of a heart attack in front of him, suffered his own heart attack, been on the Presidential Commission on Pornography (where he viewed hundreds of hours of porn), moved his base of operations from Southern California to Colorado Springs. Each of those events has changed him for the worse.

He was once a voice of moderation and tolerance in the Nazarene Church, but no more. He is surrounded by “yes men” in Colorado Springs who treat him like a deity. He hears only one viewpoint over and over. That repetition has reinforced the nastiest, increasingly strident and mean version of Christianity that he now advocates with the same charming voice he was blessed with by God. He used that voice for good in the seventies and eighties.

The death of Pistol Pete scared him witless especially when he suffered his own heart attack shortly after. The fear he felt seemed to drive him to become ever more extreme in his religious views.

The porn he viewed he apparently found both appealing and repugnant. I think it is safe to assume he felt deep revulsion at his interest in the materials he viewed. After his time on the Commission he became much more intolerant, mean, nasty and full of his own self righteousness.

Please accept my apologies for the hundreds or thousands of emails that his faithful are sending you. Those Christians just want to feel like they are part of a cause. That they are making a difference by attacking a scape goat (you) that he has identified. He is using them and their Love of the Lord for revenge because he feels you made fun of him. His actions in using good people to do evil on his behalf is something he will have to answer for at the Throne of Christ.

Continue exposing Dr. Dobson for the ridiculous, mean and arrogant things he keeps saying. How can he continue to call himself a Christian when he misuses those who trust him? How can his organization be tax exempt when he threatens senators? If he is going to run a political organization shouldn't he as a Christian obey the rules or start paying taxes? What would Jesus do?