Dobsonianity?
January 12, 2005
Hugh Hewitt and Josh Clayborn are having a small argument as to whether or not James Dobson is, "the most influential individual not in government in the United States," as he is described in this article about him in U.S. News and World Report. I'm with Hugh, I think he is definitely the most influential Christian minister in the U.S., I sometimes refer to American Christianity as Dobsonianity. But because he is mostly on Christian radio stations he has a relatively low profile among non-Christians. The real question though is whether that is an entirely good thing?
While for the most part I admire the work that Dr. Dobson does I do believe his emphasis on moms staying at home and Christians taking their children out of public schools has put an incredible amount of stress on American Christian families. Moms, who already have a tough row to hoe, are made to feel somehow inferior if they have to work outside the home or if their children are in public schools. It's not unusual to find parents making tremendously stressful sacrifices to live up to the standards of Dobsonianity.
Frankly, public schools aren't that bad morally, educationally ( If you want to see bad academic preparation check our your average Christian school.) or even theologically. Surely Dr. Dobson realizes that a great many of the teachers in the public schools are Christians. As I recall, he was a public school teacher at one point.
As for mom's working outside of the home, I'm sure that there is some benefit to mom being home for the kids, but the economic stress this places on families also has consequences. Aside from the concrete advantages of having more money there is a definite social stigma in American to doing without. But I'm more concerned with the mom whom Dobson makes to feel like a second class Christian because she feels she has to work outside the home. The proverbs 31 woman would not be a virtuous woman in Dr. Dobson's world.