My piece today at The Atlantic

It is titled “Part of Me Will Always Be Grateful for James Dobson.” The subtitle is “Americans deserve a fuller accounting of evangelicalism’s role in our country’s life.” Regular readers of Current will recognize some of these ideas.

Here is a taste:

My father did not need James Dobson to teach him how to be a patriarch. He was a patriarch years before he picked up a copy of Dobson’s Dare to Discipline or tuned in to Focus on the Family on WFME radio broadcasting out of New York City. Dobson had a different influence on him. My father took to heart Dobson’s lessons that as the male head of the household, he had the responsibility to lead the family with love and compassion. Such an approach to family life was countercultural to the working-class, patriarchal, immigrant culture in which he was raised. His life, and our family, took a 180-degree turn for the better. During my teenage years, when my little sister came along, my parents made sure that she was raised in an evangelical household. It was a completely different upbringing from the one I had experienced: defined by Christian love, tenderheartedness, and a father committed to the spiritual health of his family. For all this, a part of me will always be grateful for James Dobson’s life and ministry.

Read the entire piece here.