I’ve made this point before, but I recently made it again on a WNYC (New York City’s National Public Radio station) podcast called “On the Divided Dial.” (It was repackaged and rereleased last week). I appreciate journalist Katie Thornton willingness to put my James Dobson and Christian radio story in her reporting. Listen below. I come in around the 29 minute mark.
Not everything I said in the interview made it into the final production. I told Katie Thornton that as a result of listening to James Dobson, my working class, non-college-educated father, a former Marine, a general contractor, a staunch disciplinarian of his children, and, at times, a pretty scary guy became a better father and husband as a result of his born-again experience. And James Dobson helped him do that. In other words, the story of James Dobson’s ministry is not as flat as some historians make it out to be . Feminist historians of evangelicalism have done a nice job of complicating the picture of American evangelicalism by showing the way the movement has treated women. But I don’t think I’ve ever read a scholarly historical treatment of Dobson that takes seriously the experience of my father and many others like him. (If there is such a book, I am eager to learn about it). Such a book would require taking seriously the influence Dobson, and Christian radio writ-large, had on working-class families.
This is the complicated work of the historian, right? No one has a simple, black and white history. It is always complicated, complex — and moreso when we’re still relatively contemporary to the history. Evangelical media of the late 20th century is more than power, politics, and patriarchy … though all of those are present, too.
John, your piece in the Atlantic took an undeserved potshot at Kristen Dumez and Beth Barr, calling their work “flat.” Just because it didn’t match your own experience does not make it “flat.” This is lazy writing on your part and a serious mischaracterization. Sincerely, a pastor working the “front lines” and working to repair the damage done by evangelicals like Dobson and his followers on a daily basis.