For political reporters and politicians, the news that Dr. James Dobson died on Thursday dealt a jolt. Dobson, founder of pro-family organization Focus on the Family, played a starring role in the molding of evangelical conservatism into a potent political force.
But Dobson, who was 89 at the time of his death, had been relatively quiet and removed from politics for nearly two decades. He did weigh in strongly for Donald Trump in 2016 — maintaining that the Republican nominee’s commitment to naming pro-life justices to the Supreme Court transcended any doubts that values voters may have had about his multiple trips to the altar and other personal issues.
But political statements such as this had been increasingly few and far between for Jim Dobson, and a far cry from the 1990s and early 20th century. As longtime conservative leader Richard Viguerie recalled to Newsmax, “Dr. Dobson’s death marks the last of the big three Religious Right leaders — Jerry Falwell [of the Moral Majority], Pat Robertson [of the Christian Coalition], and James Dobson. He didn’t get as much publicity or notoriety as Falwell or Robertson, but he was equally indispensable in bringing traditional moral values to the political arena.”
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