Dobson 'stuns' fellow fundies with Gingrich slander

In a meeting of 150 powerful evangelical Christian leaders last week in which the group voted to endorse former Sen. Rick Santorum, Focus on the Family founder James Dobson "stunned" fellow attendees when he attacked another candidate, former Rep. Newt Gingrich. Contrasting Santorum with the former House Speaker, who is infamous (apparently even among right-wing Christians!) for dumping two wives before settling on his present one Callista, Dobson said:

I want to tell you that I've gotten to know Karen [Santorum] and she is just lovely. She set aside two professional careers to raise these seven children. She would make a fabulous first lady role model. And Newt Gingrich's wife, she was a mistress for eight years. ... Who do you want as your first lady?

-- politico.com

A "chill" set in the room, an attendee said, adding that many present were offended. That makes sense, as Gingrich, having converted to Catholicism to marry his present wife, has made the requisite apologies and repentences for dumping his first wife while she was in the hospital for cancer and cheating on his second during the same time he was leading the charge in Congress to impeach President Bill Clinton for like behavior. And in the evangelical world, you can be forgiven for anything. So for an evangelical to bring it up in a gathering of other evangelicals would indeed be shocking.

But all it really shows is Dobson's decreasing influence, even within the evangelical world. Like Pat Robertson, his high profile is about all that's left of his formerly dominant position; these withered eminences may still have their box seats, but they're like Marge Schott at a Reds game: not only do they no longer control the team, but the whole organization is embarrassed by them.

Meanwhile, Twitter is ablaze with rumors that a prominent interview with Gingrich wife no. 2 will be aired tomorrow on a major network. The former Marianne Gingrich spoke with Esquire in 2010 (via @hollybdc)

Focus on the Fundies: Dobson 'jubilant' over anti-gay election wins

Focus on the Family head James Dobson was "jubilant" over passage of gay marriage bans in Florida, California and Arizona, the Colorado Springs Gazette reported. While Dobson praised the election of Barack Obama as "historic," he also said he was concerned that Obama is "in favor of much of the homosexual agency" (sic -- don't know whether this is a typo in the news story or just a brain fart by the sexegenarian Dobson; he undoubtedly meant to refer to the well-known, if non-existent, homosexual agenda).

Dobson's group contributed half a million dollars to help pass California's Proposition 8, which intends to amend the state's constitution to disallow gay marriage. Pro-marriage groups sued Thursday to keep the vote from being enforced.

technorati: James Dobson, Focus on the Family, gay marriage

Focus on the Fundies: FOTF to shed more employees

Focus on the Family, the influential fundamentalist media empire headed by Dr. James Dobson, will lay off 46 employees after sales of videos, books and other products failed to meet expectations, an article in the Colorado Springs Gazette reported.

The Colorado Springs company -- which has radio, television, publishing, marketing, distribution and internet divisions -- has been highly influential over the last 25 years in creating the politicized Christian Right. In addition to initiatives like the antigay Love Won Out, which claims that gay people can be converted to heterosexuality, and Pure Intimacy, which addresses porn addiction and other sexual problems among evangelicals, the group has an influential political policy and lobbying arm.

But with disillusionment with the Republican Party spreading among evangelicals, FOTF's influence has also lessened, with donations and newsletter subscriptions way down, according to a January 2008 Time article.

technorati: Focus on the Family, Dobson, evangelicals, Fundies, Christian Right

Focus on the Fundies: Dobson gives Gingrich a pass

In his continuing stealth campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, Newt Gingrich appeared on foamer James Dobson's Focus on the Family radio show yesterday, confessed his sins, which included committing adultery at the same time he was leading the congressional charge against Bill Clinton.

Jerry Falwell was quick to get in on the story, also obsolving Gingrich and inviting him to speak at Falwell's college.

That he chose Dobson's show for this odd forgiveness ritual -- odd because Dobson, for all his power in the religious right, is not even a minister but only a psychologist -- is a transparent attempt to appeal to the far religious right.

technorati: Newt Gingrich, Jerry Falwell, James Dobson

Focus on the Fundies: Haggard's church in 12% staff layoff

New Life Church, the former fiefdom of Ted Haggard, has suffered such a drop in attendance and donations that it has been forced to lay off 44 staffers, about 12% of its 350-strong workforce.

Of course it's not just the drop in attendance and dough. They also paid at least $130,000 as go-away money to the formerly influental Republican fund-raiser and secret cock-sucking meth snorter. That could have paid for more than a few staffers, because I'll bet most of the minions at a place like that get paid pretty bad -- and are expected to tithe ten percent of it back to their employer, to boot.

In other news, a blogger asks, "Why is Ann Coulter the darling of the religious right?" That's a good question, as she ought to scare them nearly as much as she does blue-staters. But by calling John Edwards a faggot, she showed how much she has in common with foamers like Rod Parsley and Ken Blackwell.

In other news, there's a new book out called The Jesus Machine, about James Dobson and his ilk; its author was interviewed on Terry Gross today. Contrary to the book's subtitle ("How James Dobson, Focus on the Family, and Evangelical America Are Winning the Culture War"), the interview was mainly about how the generation of Dobson and Jerry Falwell is about to pass from the scene and the Christianists have no one obvious to replace him with, especially now that Haggard is out.

technorati: Ted Haggard, James Dobson, Jesus Machine, New Life Church, John Edwards, Ann Coulter

Stream of Haggard news slows to a trickle

Now that everyone has fully reported, analyzed and digested the Ted Haggard affair, the amount of news about it is greatly diminished. There was something six days ago about how Focus on the Fundies Family chief James Dobson said he didn't have time to participate in Haggard's rehabilitation, evoking laughter from the peanut gallery. Now a FOTF lieutenant, H.B. London, has signed on. The only remotely thing interesting about this is:

London told The Associated Press last week that Haggard's restoration could take three to five years and would likely involve counseling, in groups and alone, and prayer. He said it could sometimes be confrontational, and that only about half the ministers who enter such programs succeed.

Emphasis mine. Wow, wouldn't you love to be a fly on the wall during the confrontations? "What the h - e - double - eck is this, Ted? An issue of GQ? Where's that Playboy we gave you?!"

Focus on the Family, Ted Haggard, James Dobson, H.B. London,fundies, restoration therapy

Dobson inadvertantly confirms some Haggard details

The pope (as it were) of right-wing Christians in Colorado Springs, Focus On The Family head James Dobson, tackled brother Ted Haggard's mess today on his organization's daily broadcast, and along the way confirmed something about Mike Jones' story for the first time.

Up to now, Jones -- the Denver male prostitute whom Haggard called "my accuser" has said that he had a three-year sex-for-pay relationship with Haggard. Haggard denied that early on, and when he subsequently dribbed out various confessions and admissions, it became unclear just what he was confessing to. As Haggard said in his letter to his former church, "The accusations that have been leveled against me are not all true, but enough of them are true that I have been appropriately and lovingly removed from ministry."

Until this morning, no one had said anything about which of the allegations the "board of overseers," appointed by Haggard's church to look into the matter, had confirmed. But this morning Dobson blurted out that Haggard's "sins" had stretched out over "several years." I take that to be a confirmation that either Haggard's visits to Jones had indeed taken place over the three years claimed by Jones, and/or that Haggard had had other same-sex encounters over "several years." We're clear on that now.

Another interesting note was struck by one of Dobson's radio guests, a preacher named Ravi Zacharias, who said twice that problems of "sexual sin" like Haggard's often "begin in the home" and are the result of marital problems and "often a loss of sexual intimacy." (Racy talk for the Christianists!) So all this foofah about how great Haggard's wife is, and how none of this could possibly be her fault -- the implication is that things weren't all that great between them.

Of course, none of this matters, who cares about these people's problems -- EXCEPT for two things. One, these people put themselves on a pedestal as wonderful examples of everything that's good and Christian, and they influence many thousands of people, so it matters when they say one thing and do another; it speaks directly to their credibility. Not only that, but Haggard took part in the weekly teleconference between evangelical leaders and Karl Rove's staff -- he can hardly claim not to have been in a position of power and influence. And two, these were the very people who jumped all over Clinton for his little sexual indiscretion, and you can bet they made hay over that FOR YEARS. So excuse me for talking about this twerp Haggard for a few days.

Finally, there is clearly one aspect of this whole thing the Christian conservatives have decided not to talk about at all: the drug problem. Not a single word on Dobson's broadcast, and not a single word yesterday at Haggard's former church. Isn't that interesting?

Ted Haggard, James Dobson, Ravi Zacharias, rightwingchristians