James Dobson
American Evangelical Christian psychologist, author, and radio broadcaster (1936–2025)
James Clayton Dobson Jr. (April 21, 1936 – August 21, 2025) was an American evangelical Christian author, psychologist and founder of Focus on the Family (FotF), which he led from 1977 until 2010. In the 1980s, he was ranked as one of the most influential spokesmen for conservative social positions in American public life. Although never an ordained minister, he was called "the nation's most influential evangelical leader" by The New York Times while Slate portrayed him as being a successor to evangelical leaders Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson.
As part of his role in the organization he produced the daily radio program Focus on the Family, which was broadcast in more than a dozen languages and on over 7,000 stations worldwide, and heard daily by more than 220 million people in 164 countries. Focus on the Family was also carried by about 60 U.S. television stations daily. In 2010, he launched the radio broadcast Family Talk with Dr. James Dobson.
Dobson advocated for "family values"—the instruction of children in heterosexuality and traditional gender roles, which he believed are mandated by the Bible. The goal of this was to promote heterosexual marriage, which he viewed as a cornerstone of civilization that was to be protected from his perceived dangers of feminism and the LGBTQ rights movement.
“James Dobson” enters the record as american Evangelical Christian psychologist, author, and radio broadcaster (1936–2025). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what James, Dobson and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q955266. VIAF identifies the subject as 90052685. The Library of Congress control number is n79070038. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1936, 2025, 1977 and 2010.
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This entry incorporates text from “James Dobson” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.