THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, July 25, 1995 TAG: 9507250050
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Interview
SOURCE: BY ESTHER DISKIN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 227 lines
TWO YEARS AGO, Becky Phillips' cozy family world collapsed.
Her husband, a pilot at Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida, was killed in a helicopter crash. As the military searched for his body, the 33-year-old wife struggled with the sudden realization that she would have to raise three children - two bouncy youngsters, ages 5 and 6, and a baby just 8 weeks old - all alone.
She picked up the phone and called for help - to a man she had never met. She had heard Dr. James Dobson's voice, comfortable and reassuring as an old sweater, nearly every day on his radio show, ``Focus on the Family.'' She had heard him repeat the phone number to talk to counselors, but had never given a serious thought to using it.
She dialed and asked the question burning in her mind: ``Why did God do this?''
She can recall only one thing the counselor told her. She summarizes it now: ``God did not cause my husband's plane to crash. He allows these things to happen. . . for a reason, even if we can't understand it.''
In the days that followed, Phillips got a mail package from Dobson's Colorado-based organization with articles about how to hold a family together during a crisis. When she moved to Chesapeake to be closer to her parents, Dobson's voice came along for the journey.
On more than 2,000 radio stations across the country, his relaxed but compelling voice calls millions of listeners to focus their minds on issues of family life, from communication between spouses to educating and disciplining children. His 30-minute weekday ``Focus on the Family'' broadcast airs on three stations in Hampton Roads: WODC 88.5-FM; WYFI, 99.7-FM; WPMH, 1010-AM. The stations carry some of his other radio programs as well.
Dobson, a 59-year-old former professor of pediatrics and an evangelical Christian, has built his broadcasting and publishing empire called ``Focus on the Family'' around the goal of helping parents raise children in a culture gone awry. His nonprofit organization's $101-million budget funds 10 radio programs, 11 magazines and numerous books, films and videos, such as the popular animated video series for kids ``McGee and Me!''
His advice - contained in such books as ``Dare to Discipline,'' which has sold over 2 million copies since its publication in 1970 - blends common-sense psychology with a strong Christian foundation.
``Parents of faith are at war with the culture,'' Dobson said. ``They don't feel they are able to raise their kids with their values, in a culture which is like a river flowing in one direction. It takes everything downstream with it.''
When parents swim upstream, Dobson wants to help them stay afloat.
If the growth of his organization is any sign, he's onto something. In 18 years, he's moved from a solo operation in a two-room suite in Arcadia, Calif., to a $30-million complex in Colorado Springs, Colo., with 1,200 employees.
Inside that complex, counselors respond to a flood of phone and mail requests for child-rearing tips, counseling or products with such efficiency that Fortune 500 companies and the White House have studied the system.
Each day, the organization handles about 3,400 phone calls and 11,000 letters. In June, counselors responded to a monthly record-high 320,000 letters and calls. Every month, Dobson writes a letter to 2.1 million people on the organization's mailing list.
Everyone who calls gets an answer, Dobson said. ``There is a relationship that exists. This is not just a media ministry,'' Dobson said. ``This ministry is a dialogue. It is a conversation with a lot of people.''
The conversation keeps getting bigger, as Dobson finds new ways to reach out. This fall, Dobson will start the Institute for Family Studies, a joint effort with 84 Christian colleges to bring college juniors to the Focus complex for one semester of study.
Though he considers the two-parent family ``the foundation of the social order,'' Dobson launched a magazine called ``Single Parent Family'' last fall. The magazine, which goes out to 82,000 people every month, is designed to help single parents create a ``healthy, stable, godly home life,'' according to the organization's brochures.
Phillips has been an avid reader from the first issue, and says the magazine inspired her to start a group for single parents at her church, Atlantic Shores Baptist in Virginia Beach.
``I felt like, at our church, I didn't belong anywhere,'' she said. ``I didn't feel ready to join a singles group.''
Now, about a dozen single parents at the 4,000-member church meet twice a month to pray and give one another support in raising kids. Dobson's name comes up often, and his videos and books are part of the church's broader educational programs.
``Without question, he is a premier authority on the Christian family and the Christian home,'' said Atlantic Shores' pastor, the Rev. George Sweet. ``His ministry is primarily about strengthening the family, and that is what has vaulted him to national prominence.''
As Dobson's star rises, he's shown an increasing appetite for involvement in political issues. His interests - and sphere of influence - often overlap with another Christian media giant and political force, Pat Robertson.
The two men find common ground on many social issues, such as their opposition to abortion and homosexuality, and support for expanding the role of religion in schools and public places.
But there's a clear difference in their scope of activities. Robertson's $186-million Christian Broadcasting Network is a television ministry, with the weekday news and spiritual program ``The 700 Club'' at its center. Over the years, Robertson has branched out, founding Regent University, a Christian graduate school; the American Center for Law and Justice, a nonprofit legal group; and the Christian Coalition, a 1.5-million grassroots political organization.
Robertson has also spun off profit-making ventures, such as International Family Entertainment and Kalo-Vita, a multilevel marketing company that sells vitamins and cosmetics. IFE is led by Robertson and his son, Timothy, and Kalo-Vita was sold to a Dallas firm in November.
``They are much further out in the entertainment world and the profit-making world,'' said Paul Hetrick, a vice president in Dobson's organization.
Dobson and Robertson also have different ideas about being active in politics. Robertson ran for the presidency in 1988; Dobson says he'll never consider it.
``Robertson has been more explicitly political, running for president, which means that he sees himself in part as a politician,'' said John Green, a professor at University of Akron, who has studied the voting patterns of evangelicals. ``Dobson is more focused. He's interested in taking the view of the family, based on Scripture, and applying it to public policy.''
Robertson and the Christian Coalition have generally ``cast their lot with the Republican party'' and chosen to work from inside the system, Green said. ``Dobson cares less about sticking with the party, and he is less afraid to say where the bottom line is.''
Still, five Republican presidential hopefuls for the 1996 elections have come to consult with Dobson. Sen. Phil Gramm has met with him four times. He's also had meetings with Sen. Bob Dole, TV commentator Pat Buchanan, former Tennesee Gov. Lamar Alexandar and radio talk show host Alan L. Keyes.
He says he'll give all the advice they want, but not his stamp of approval. ``I thought it was a great mistake for Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell to endorse George Bush,'' Dobson said. ``You marry a politician, you can end up a widow the next four years. I would never do that.''
He may not marry politicians, but he doesn't mind being close friends. Photos of Dobson with Bush cover an entire wall at his Colorado headquarters. He regularly consulted with President Ronald Reagan and served on several family-oriented commissions, and received a commendation from President Jimmy Carter in 1980.
These days, he's sparring with one leading political figure, Haley Barbour, chairman of the Republican National Committee, over the party's ``big tent'' strategy. In March, he warned Barbour that evangelical Christians could turn away from the Republican party - possibly to a third-party candidate - if Republicans refuse to embrace a conservative social agenda, especially opposition to abortion.
The candidates, Dobson said, ``will not be able to double-talk, sidestep, obfuscate and ignore the concerns that burn within our hearts - you have my word on that.''
In September, his organization is sending a five-person delegation to oppose the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, which will be held in Beijing. The delegation will file reports on the conference, which will air on Dobson's radio show. Dobson's August letter to 2.1 million supporters calls the conference ``the most radical, atheistic and anti-family crusade in the history of the world,'' for its approach to sexuality and birth control.
Dobson says family issues catapult him into the political sphere, and he encourages his audience to get involved, too. Members of his staff have helped set up grassroots organizations in 35 states, including one based in Springfield, Va. The state groups get no funding from Dobson's organization.
Tackling political issue from the perspective of home and hearth is an approach that clearly resonates with his audience, which the group's surveys have shown mainly to be women ages 30 to 49. Most are married, and half have college or postgraduate degrees.
Maria Bedi, a 31-year-old mother of four in Chesapeake, tunes into Dobson's radio program every morning. As a busy mother, she likes the convenience of hearing his radio show while she cleans the kitchen and gives her kids breakfast.
She's listened to Dobson so often that she thinks of him like ``an uncle, a family member giving me advice.'' Once in awhile, she even calls her husband, John, a lawyer, and tells him to turn on ``Focus'' while he travels from his office to the courthouse.
Together, she and John are studying one of Dobson's books, ``Parenting Isn't for Cowards,'' and using it to discuss how to teach their brood of four, which ranges in age from 5 years old to 3 months. For example, she says, they talk about how they need to be consistent in their approach to punishing bad behavior.
Dobson, she says, ``has given me a lot of insight in how to deal with frustration, not to get upset myself when the children are upset.''
But Dobson's views on politics are also important to her, she says. His program gives her a quick overview of what's happening in national politics, she says, from a Christian perspective she's grown to trust.
``Because of his track record as a strong Christian, I would rely on his judgment,'' she says. ``You're comfortable with him. You feel like he's a normal person, down-to-earth. You feel like he's a friend you call for advice.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photos]
BOB JACKSON
Dobson greets visitors at Focus on the Family Welcome Center in
Colorado Springs. Insode, books, films, and computers teach tourists
about Dobson's philosophy.
MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN
Becky Phillips, with Lauren, 8, Blake, 2, and Landon, 7, called
Dobson for help after her husband's helicopter crashed.
WHEN & WHERE TO LISTEN
Dobson's 30-minute radio show ``Focus on the Family'' airs from
Monday through Friday on these stations in Hampton Roads:
WPMH 1010-AM, 8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m.
WODC 88.5-FM, 7:30 p.m.
WYFI 99.7-AM, 1 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.
Some of these stations also air Dobson's 60-minute weekend show
and his four-minute news segments, ``Family News in Focus.''
IN HIS OWN WORDS
Dr. James Dobson, founder of ``Focus on the Family,'' gives a
Christian perspective on family life in his books and on his
syndicated radio program.
On American culture:
``What concerns me today, is that parents of faith are at war
with the culture. Their own kids are hearing and experiencing things
that shock the parents. . . . The elements within culture that are
destructive, violent and immoral, those are louder voices than they
have ever been before.''
On politics:
``I have been very frustrated with the Republican party,
especially chairman Haley Barbour of the Republican National
Committee, with his attempt to move the Republican party away from
moral issues and take the safe approach, to talk only about taxes,
reorganizing government, the deficit. . . . As though the only thing
Americans care about is money!''
On the 1996 presidential race:
``If the Republican party would abandon the values that I've been
talking about, I think out of frustration and anger and other
things, there are many conservative Christians, especially
pro-lifers, who would vote for a third party candidate as a
protest.''
KEYWORDS: CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGIST PROFILE by CNB