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>This is the guy who wants to tell us how to parent?

23 comments on ><i>This </i>is the guy who wants to tell us how to parent?

This is the guy who wants to tell us how to parent?

: Max Blumenthal reports that James Dobson — the scary guy who wants to censor what you watch and tell you how to parent — ran ads on ABC while a church could not:

During [Sunday’s] season finale of ABC’s schlocky reality show, “Supernanny,” James Dobson’s Focus on the Family will be running ads promoting its “Focus on Your Child” program, which advises parents on how to implement the parenting principles outlined in his best-seller, “Dare to Discipline.” These include spanking with “sufficient magnitude to cause the child to cry genuinely.” Children have to be taught respect for authority at an early age, Dobson preaches, or they’ll never develop respect for governmental authority or God.

Dobson’s theory on corporal punishment reveals the political underside of his self-help work….

Once parents bite Focus’s bait and join up, they may learn some valuable techniques for improving their relationship with their children. At the same time, they will become immersed in the subculture of the Christian right, where they will meet Macho Jesus and the gay/pedophile deviants who are out to destroy the very fabric of their marriage. Family counseling is merely the net Dobson casts to bring folks on board with his political agenda.

Focus’s ad buy is its first in prime time TV. It has ostensibly purchased the ads through its 501 c-3, the self-help component of its organization, so it can claim legally that the ads are not political. But they are, and it’s absurd to say they’re not. On his radio show, Dobson shamelessly begs for money for his 501 c-4, Focus on the Family Action, his organization’s political arm. FOF Action is the entity which collaborated with the Family Research Council to bring us the memorable event known as “Justice Sunday,” where Dobson blamed the Supreme Court for “the worst Holocaust in human history.” Given that the political and family components of Dobson’s empire are so indistinguishable, I think it would be appropriate and necessary to file a complaint with the FCC over Focus’s insidious ad buy.

Furthermore, ABC’s accomodation of Focus smacks of hypocrisy. Last winter, ABC’s broadcast network refused to an ad by the United Church of Christ promoting its inclusive policy to gays and other groups explicity forbidden from belonging to churches under the ideological sway of Dobson and his ilk.

23 responses to “>This is the guy who wants to tell us how to parent?”

  1. David Hershkovits Avatar
    David Hershkovits

    I’ve been told that in England corporal punishment of children is against the law.
    As a father, I’m appalled by the pro-spanking lobby. It really is unnecessary. Children learn best by example. They want to emulate their parents’ behavior. Guess Dobson was slapped around when he was a kid and now he wants to get even by doing it to is kid too.

  2. cal Avatar
    cal

    You sound so paranoid and act as if it is a cult. You say they will be “immersed in the Christian right”. Gosh man, give people some credit. People will go there and see what’s it about and choose to stay and return or leave and never come back. You make it seem as if they’ll be drinking kool-aid.
    What should spanking do? Make them laugh? If you would read further into it, he says to give 2 or 3 smacks and only on the butt or legs. He’s not advocating beating kids. Then you tell the child how much you love them and explain what they did wrong and ask them for an apology. You then forgive them. He also says you never hit your kids out of anger, but only out of discipline.

  3. cal Avatar
    cal

    “Guess Dobson was slapped around when he was a kid and now he wants to get even by doing it to is kid too.”
    Yeah, that’s what it’s all about. I bet you’ve read into a lot too. Or not.

  4. Soldier's Dad Avatar
    Soldier’s Dad

    I have 4 children…the “evil eye” was enough to get one back in line, timeout was enough for 2 more…but there was one…nothing short of a sharp slap to the thigh would keep him from running out into a busy street. From my own narrow persective…75% percent of children never need a spanking. But then, I am sure there are those that will claim that drugging a 3 year old is preferable to a sharp slap on the thigh.
    Always and Never people are scary.

  5. Brian Avatar
    Brian

    “Always and Never people”. I don’t think anyone could possibly come up with a better description of Dobson and his followers. And yes, to those of us who don’t think in those terms, they are quite scary.

  6. Tom Tucker Avatar
    Tom Tucker

    Hey Jeff, care to elaborate on what you mean by the phrase “Macho Jesus”?

  7. jackson Avatar
    jackson

    I was spanked, I deserved it, I’m ok. That however is not the point, the point is this guy is out there, on TV, telling people how to raise their kids – what’s wrong with that? I’ll tell you, many people in this country want somebody else to raise their kids, through TV, school, government…..Parenting calls for judgement, there are no rules, no handbook, you do your best, and pray a whole lot.

  8. Timothy Avatar
    Timothy

    My parenting strategy has been and will remain: don’t have kids, because there are the children of people like James Dobson out there.

  9. Sweetie Avatar
    Sweetie

    First comes the spanking and then we’ll have a resurgence of lynching. It’s a slippery slope argument, okay.
    jackson has it right, I think. But I think Dobson fits into this scheme: do some research and then figure out what makes the most sense for you and your child. Adapt as needed.
    I worry about how my daughter’s playmates influence her development but the source of that worry has never ever been because they might have been spanked. Watch too much TV – check. Too ‘grown up’ because they have older siblings – check. Inapprporiate language – check. They may have been spanked causing them to be violent – I’ll have to get back to you.

  10. Jim S Avatar
    Jim S

    Might I suggest that something far more damaging to your children’s long term future that they see on TV is the constant reinforcement of the idea that school is bad, school is always boring, being smart is something bad, getting good grades marks you as a geek and only by being dumb can you be cool.

  11. Hunter McDaniel Avatar
    Hunter McDaniel

    If any of you guys ever bothered to read “Dare to Discipline” you might realize that Dobson is no advocate of slapping kids around. Indeed he only advocates corporal punishment in response to open defiance by the youngster, and only within a rather narrow age range. And if one is not prepared to spank hard enough to cause pain (not injury), then there really isn’t any point to it.
    Nothing he said would have been even slightly controversial before the 1970’s.

  12. Greg Avatar
    Greg

    Dobson is only taking advantage of campaign finance law the same as every other supposedly nonpolitical group. Better to remove as many restrictions as possible than push for everyone to be equally muzzled.

  13. eddy Avatar
    eddy

    Might I suggest that something far more damaging to your children’s long term future that they see on TV is the constant reinforcement of the idea that school is bad, school is always boring, being smart is something bad, getting good grades marks you as a geek and only by being dumb can you be cool.
    Unfortunately, that seems to be the reality in school. Constant reinforcement from television won’t change that fact…only schools can and, from my experiences in public school, the teachers and administration are either reluctant or totally unwilling to change the status quo.
    It’s people in general that are damaging to our childrens’ long-term future…could Dobson be a part of that? Maybe yea, maybe nay.

  14. Taddy Avatar
    Taddy

    The only “scary” people are the left-wing extremists who oppose corporal punishment. Those who think spanking isn’t widely accepted are both insane AND out of the mainstream. According to a 2002 national poll by ABC, almost 70 percent of the public approve of corporal punishment as a form of discipline. Also a 1995 survey by Gallup found that nearly 90 percent of parents used physical punishment on their 3-year-olds, and one-third of parents spanked babies one and under. Also, more than 75 percent of parents said they had used corporal punishment on children between 6 and 12 years old. Like it or not, it seems pretty clear that Dobsons views on spanking represents majority opinion.
    Crap, even too-far-gone-to-recover uber-liberal Canadians –http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/LondonFreePress/News/2004/02/01/331887.html — understand that spanking is basically harmless.

  15. Jersey Exile Avatar
    Jersey Exile

    Hmmm… who am I going to believe, James Dobson or Johns Hopkins?
    Spanking in early childhood and later behavior problems: a prospective study of infants and young toddlers.
    Slade EP, Wissow LS.
    Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Health Policy and Management, Baltimore, Maryland, USA. eslade@jhsph.edu
    OBJECTIVE: To explore the relationship of spanking frequency before age 2 with behavior problems near time of entry into school. METHODS: Children who were younger than 2 years were followed up approximately 4 years later, after they had entered school. The likelihood of significant behavior problems at follow-up was estimated in multivariate analyses that controlled for baseline spanking frequency and other characteristics. Participants were mothers from a large-scale national study and their children. Statistical analysis included an ethnically diverse sample of 1966 children aged 0 to 23 months at baseline. Two dichotomous indicators of behavior problems were used. The first indicated that maternal rating of child behavior problems exceeded a threshold. The second indicated that a mother met with a school administrator to discuss her child’s behavior problems. RESULTS: White non-Hispanic children who were spanked more frequently before age 2 were substantially more likely to have behavior problems after entry into school, controlling for other factors. For Hispanic and black children, associations between spanking frequency and behavior problems were not statistically significant and were not consistent across outcome measures. CONCLUSION: Among white non-Hispanic children but not among black and Hispanic children, spanking frequency before age 2 is significantly and positively associated with child behavior problems at school age. These findings are consistent with those reported in studies of children older than 2 years but extend these findings to children who are spanked beginning at a relatively early age.
    PMID: 15121948 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]
    /no-brainer

  16. Ruth Avatar
    Ruth

    Seems Jeff is more objecting to the use of non-profit status to get free airtime than on the particular policies. I agree, just because an organization claims it is non-profit should not be the basis for awarding it free airtime. When it blatantly abuses that privilege to make fundraising appeals, it should pay for its time.
    the particular discipline Dobson espouses is not pretty, but the principle of establishing parental authority is one I can agree with. If it’s done by showing admirable qualities, it will be more likely to inspire admirable kids.
    I always hate to see anyone resort to violence to establish dominance, it sets back civilization milennia.

  17. UML Guy Avatar
    UML Guy

    “Always and Never people”. I don’t think anyone could possibly come up with a better description of Dobson and his followers. And yes, to those of us who don’t think in those terms, they are quite scary.

    Hey, Brian, I think you missed Soldier Dad’s point: Always people and Never people are different people, but both are scary. In other words, people who say “Never spank” are scary in their own way.

  18. Joel S. Avatar
    Joel S.

    I don’t have a huge problem with spanking (I wouldn’t do it, but maybe your kid needs it). I just don’t understand how disciplining your kid and seeking to restrict what’s on TV are consistent. The former points specifically to a parent’s responsibility for his or her kids. The latter says, essentially, “I can’t be bothered to monitor what my kids watch on TV, so I want someone to do it for me.”

  19. Cal Avatar
    Cal

    Jersey Exile-
    The portion of the study you listed barely scrathces the surface of what spanking encompasses. It gives no idea as to how they did it, where they did it and what other aspects it included. Did they explain what their children do wrong, did they include forgiveness and love? Or did they just haul off in anger when the kid did something wrong.
    And for Ruth spanking is not violence. It’s not the kind like I received–my dad getting the belt and making that awful snapping sound. Mostly I wish people would read deeper into this and any subject instead of going off on a blurb they read on a blog.

  20. Ruth Avatar
    Ruth

    Spanking is essentially hitting your child (or whoever), whether it is with an open hand, a belt or anything else. How hitting can not be violence is something I don’t see.

  21. Hunter McDaniel Avatar
    Hunter McDaniel

    Ruth – if spanking is “violence” then time-out is “imprisonment”. It doesn’t really help our understanding to use such monikers.
    Can corporal punishment be taken too far? Of course it can. But so can verbal punishments as well, the main difference being that the marks aren’t visible externally.
    I’m not a huge fan of Dobson politically, but his advice on corporal punishment is really quite moderate. It is a useful tool in certain limited situations.

  22. JD Avatar
    JD

    But you people haven’t (by and large) even taken the thirty seconds to look at what Dobson has said before you write him off as a crazy right zealot.
    Oh well, I guess it IS much easier to look only at what Jeff says and assume it’s gospel without spending any time actually thinking about what’s being said.
    Ironic how that’s what you were blaming the FOTF folks for.
    hypocrites.

  23. acrooker Avatar
    acrooker

    Where is the proof here? Spanking makes kids violent! It seems to me we have quite violent children here. None of them were probably spanked, society frowns on that now as the cause of everything so why go to school shoot anyone and everyone and blow up the building. Maybe these kids should have been spanked. If you never have a pain how can you understand the pain you bring to others? Spanking is unfortunate, so is bad behaviour. If the kids do not like to be spanked they could try cooperating, obeying, showing respect etc. I was never spanked when I was being a cooperative child, I am not even a genius. Most kids should ne smart enough to figure this out. As for Dr. Dobson, he nowhere
    recommends “beating children.” Such inflamatory language is not helpful.