Influence fading, 'Focus on the Family' to lay off workers
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 developed and spun off an influential political policy and lobbying arm, the Family Research Council. The organization continues to pour money into political initiatives, such as the anti-gay marriage Prop 8 on the California ballot this November.
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. When Dobson expressed dismay over the Republican presidential field and initially refused to support John McCain, he was looked on as being hubristic and out of touch. When he later accepted McCain (though without endorsing him), he was looked on as cynical.
The decline of FOTF follows the 2006 fall of Ted Haggard, another Colorado Springs Christian Conservative icon.
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Mary, you are priceless!
WOOF
Reminds me of a bumpersticker my sister-in-law spotted in Col springs which I think sums it up:
Focus on your own damn family.
rated and loved
Love it, o'stephanie!
Building a ministry around a "star" or "celebrity" preacher seems to work well. The dynamic preacher can build a nationwide or even worldwide following through print, audio, radio, and television media.
The problem is what happens if something goes wrong with the individual. Eventually the individual dies. Or there may be a scandal. Or sometimes, as may be the case with Dobson, the preacher's appeal begins to wane.
In the case of Ted Haggard, after the scandal membership in his New Life Church dropped from 14,000 to 10,000.
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article
/0,8599,1693306,00.html
Bakker's Heritage USA collapsed. Oral Roberts had to close his medical and law schools, as well as the City of Faith hospital. After two sex scandals Jimmy Swaggart's ministry became a fraction of what it was before.
I think Dobson's problem is that he is part of a religion that is uncompromising. But dabbling in politics necessarily involves compromise. So he can't have it both ways -- he can't preach an uncompromising message while at the same time supporting candidates based on which way the political wind is blowing. Short of an actual scandal Focus on the Family will no doubt continue. But Dobson is getting older, and I don't know who will be able to fill his shoes after he is gone.
Thanks, God.
However, for those of you who missed the news, Dobson remains influential enough, in tandem with his Council on National Policy, to grab the Republican presidential nominee by the short ones and tell him who gets on the ticket as #2. I can only pray that little gambit becomes his millstone as he sinks slowly beneath the waves of the 21st century.