It’s not every day that one gets to see private childhood home movies of someone famous. But I had such a privilege some 30 years ago, when I produced a feature on Dr. James Dobson, who died last week.
He founded and led for decades the worldwide ministry of Focus on the Family, which became a virtual media empire, reaching millions of people worldwide. After he left Focus on the Family, he created “Family Talk with Dr. James Dobson.” I was privileged to be a guest on that program a couple of times.
Gary Bauer, co-author with Dobson, continues programming for “Family Talk with James Dobson,” including broadcasts on our nation’s Christian roots.
But in 1993, I traveled to Colorado Springs to interview him for a Father’s Day TV segment for Coral Ridge Ministries. I’m still with the ministry, which was founded by Dr. D. James Kennedy, who died in 2007. And who delivered Dr. Kennedy’s eulogy? Dr. James Dobson.
The two of them joined forces in the 1990s with evangelical leaders Bill Bright, Larry Burkett, Marlin Maddoux and others to create the pro-religious freedom legal group now known as the Alliance Defending Freedom, or ADF.
But back to 1993. Despite his amazing accomplishments, Dr. James Dobson gave credit first, of course, to the Lord Jesus Christ, but also to one man. His own father, Rev. James Dobson Sr. What follows are some of Dr. Dobson’s (Jr.) remarks from our interview.
His father was a humble evangelist and pastor for the Nazarene denomination in some Western states. He was known for his diligent prayer life.
Dr. Dobson said of him in our interview, “He traveled an awful lot. He was gone for a month or six weeks at a time. But when he came home, he was mine.”
But as the son began to experience his early teens, he began to show signs of mild rebellion. So his father “decisively” changed his plans to devote time to his teenage son.
Dobson told me, “He had a four-year slate of revival meetings scheduled. He was probably the prominent evangelist in his denomination at the time. He instantly canceled that slate, all of those meetings.”
The senior Dobson sold their house, moved the family 700 miles south to Texas, and took a pastorate so that he could be home with James Jr. for the two years of high school. Notes the famous son with great appreciation: “He actually put me ahead of his profession.”
As I was putting this story together for said television segment on Christian TV, Dr. James Dobson lent me access to his private home movies, with the caveat that these scenes could only be used for that particular segment, which I obeyed. What a privilege to see those old black-and-white films of the Dobsons fishing, hiking and so on.
Years went by, and James Dobson Jr. had a family of his own. He earned his Ph.D. in psychology and became a professor of pediatrics at the University of Southern California and a psychologist at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles. Later, he shifted to the broadcast ministry to reach more people.
But Dr. Dobson was getting so busy that his father became concerned. So the father wrote a letter to his son, which said essentially, “Be careful, you could lose your children” upon “the altar of career ambition.”
Not only did his father help Jim Dobson focus on his own family, but he also helped play a key behind-the-scenes role in his son’s ministry. When the elder Dobson was fasting and praying at age 66 for direction for the rest of his life, he felt as if he heard from the Lord: “I know your love for My people. I know your love for the Gospel, and I’m going to answer your prayer, and you’re going to reach millions of people, coast to coast and around the world. I’m going to bless your ministry around the world, but it is not going to be through you. It is going to be through your son.” The next day, his father had a massive heart attack from which he never recovered.
The son never even learned about this insight his father received until he was told about it by his aunt seven years later. And the son recognized that his Dad played a pivotal role in the amazingly impactful ministry. Dobson said, “It really is true that this ministry is a product of my father’s ministry and especially of his prayer life.”
With the death of Dr. Dobson last week, we lost a great man. He reminded us of our need to focus on the family – a message modern America needs now more than ever. As has been said so well: “As the family goes, so goes the nation.”
