Free Republic

After an extensive audit, the Internal Revenue Service has exonerated Focus on the Family Chairman James Dobson of accusations from liberal watchdog groups that he violated his organization's non-profit status by endorsing GOP candidates -- including President Bush -- during the 2004 election. "No dings. No criticisms. Not a single allegation was found to have substance," Dobson said regarding charges made against him in 2005 by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and Citizens Project, a Colorado group that states its purpose is "creating a community valuing diversity, equality and religious freedom." [ snip ] CREW's original complaint,...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Religious conservative leader James Dobson will sit out the 2008 presidential election if former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani is the Republican presidential nominee, he wrote Thursday in an online column. In a piece published on the conservative Web site WorldNetDaily, Dobson wrote that Giuliani's support for abortion rights and civil unions for homosexuals, as well as the former mayor's two divorces, were a deal-breaker for him. "I cannot, and will not, vote for Rudy Giuliani in 2008. It is an irrevocable decision," he wrote. "If given a Hobson's -- Dobson's? -- choice between him and Senators...

Former Sen. Fred Thompson is considering running for president; he has the strong conservative credentials the major Republican candidates are lacking. Many conservatives are urging Sen.Thompson to enter the fray, but James Dobson is not a supporter. From USNews.Com: "Focus on the Family founder James Dobson appeared to throw cold water on a possible presidential bid by former Sen. Fred Thompson while praising former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who is also weighing a presidential run, in a phone interview Tuesday. 'Everyone knows he's conservative and has come out strongly for the things that the pro-family movement stands for,' Dobson said...

"Everyone knows he’s conservative and has come out strongly for the things that the pro-family movement stands for,” Dobson – considered the most politically powerful evangelical figure in the U.S. – said in a phone call to Dan Gilgoff, senior editor at U.S. News & World Report. "[But] I don’t think he’s a Christian. At least that’s my impression.” Thompson’s spokesman Mark Corallo took issue with the statement. "Thompson is indeed a Christian,” he said. "He was baptized into the Church of Christ.”

James Dobson is the Godzilla of the religious right. Other leaders have blazed for a while and then guttered out—Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson because they were incapable of buttoning their lips, Ralph Reed and Bill Bennett because, in different ways, they fell prey to the temptations of casinos. But until now Mr Dobson has gone from strength to strength. Mr Dobson has long enjoyed unrivalled clout with Christian conservatives. Who else could have derailed a bankruptcy bill that was beloved by business (in 2002) or ejected Tom Daschle from his South Dakota Senate seat (in 2004)? The Dobson-inspired House...

Christian Right Labors to Find ’08 Candidate WASHINGTON, Feb. 24 — A group of influential Christian conservatives and their allies emerged from a private meeting at a Florida resort this month dissatisfied with the Republican presidential field and uncertain where to turn. The event was a meeting of the Council for National Policy, a secretive club whose few hundred members include Dr. James C. Dobson of Focus on the Family, the Rev. Jerry Falwell of Liberty University and Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform. Although little known outside the conservative movement, the council has become a pivotal stop for...

Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy will be the guest of honor next month at a major fundraiser for one of the lead homophobic organizations in Indiana, the Indiana Family Institute. The IFI is affiliated with super homophobe James Dobson and his extreme right, anti-gay Focus on the Family. But what's even worse, the Colts appear to have endorsed the fundraiser, apparently permitting their logo to appear on the event's official flyer, and permitting the coach to appear in the flyer in uniform and on the job. Yes, in America you have the right to be a homophobic bigot and lend...

There are now multiple web sites that make a sport of attacking those who take a stand for decency. These sites question traditional Bible based morality as they labor to twist our society towards their own confused values. They use their sites as attack dogs that they aim at the conservatives whom they personally identify as the “Right Wing-Nuts.” These web sites are growing in number, their influence is increasing and they are a part of a bigger process that is working to morally collapse our culture. To distance God from our children, they clump themselves together and fight to...

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., Dec. 31 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Focus on the Family founder and Chairman James C. Dobson, Ph.D., issued the following statement today as D. James Kennedy, pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., convalesces following a heart attack: "My prayers and the prayers of all of us at Focus on the Family are with Dr. Jim Kennedy and his family during this time of illness. It has been my honor and pleasure to know him not only as a broadcasting colleague and a gifted pastor, but also as a dear friend for the past 30 years....

A number of social conservatives, myself included, have recently been asked to respond to the news that Mary Cheney, the Vice President's daughter, is pregnant with a child she intends to raise with her lesbian partner. Implicit in this issue is an effort to get us to criticize the Bush Administration or the Cheney family. But the concern here has nothing to do with politics. It is about what kind of family environment is best for the health and development of children, and, by extension, the nation at large.With all due respect to Cheney and her partner, Heather Poe, the...

Conservative Christian leader James Dobson accused the Republican Party of abandoning values voters in the midterm elections - and paying the price by losing control of Congress. "What did they do with their power?" Dobson said in a statement. "Very little that values voters care about." Finger-pointing abounded in the days after Democrats seized control of Congress after 12 years in the minority. Dobson, chairman of Focus on the Family, issued a statement railing against the Republicans for letting their majorities slip away. "They consistently ignored the constituency that put them in power until it was late in the game,...

COLORADO SPRINGS, Nov. 3 /Christian Newswire/ -- Focus on the Family founder and Chairman James C. Dobson, Ph.D., issued the following statement today after learning the Rev. Ted Haggard had acknowledged some "indiscretions" involving accusations made against him by a gay prostitute in Denver: "All of us at Focus on the Family are heartsick over the allegation, not yet confirmed, that Ted has had a private life with a homosexual for several years. We will await the outcome of this story, but the possibility that an illicit relationship has occurred is alarming to us and to millions of others. "Ted...

Of the hundreds of thousands of words employed in this year's election campaign, none is more likely to have an impact on post-election politics than Dick Armey's characterization of Christian evangelicals in the Bush Republican Party as "thugs." Armey is no outsider taking shots at a GOP in trouble. He was an architect of the 1994 GOP campaign that brought Republicans to power in Congress, was House GOP majority leader, and is an evangelical himself. But Republicans now in control in Washington are guilty of pandering to Christian conservatives, especially to evangelical leaders like James C. Dobson, founder of Focus...

SHARONVILLE, Ohio -- If Republicans still have an ace up their sleeve in this fall campaign, it's people like Phil Burress. Mr. Burress, a thrice-married, self-described former pornography addict, is president of Citizens for Community Values, a statewide network of politically active Christian conservatives. His work here in 2004 helped turn out evangelical voters who put President Bush over the top in Ohio -- the state that made the difference between victory and defeat. This time around, Mr. Burress isn't nearly so happy with the president and his party. In fact, he can hardly say enough about how fed up...

Criticizes the Media For Trying To Supress Conservative Vote.

Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey has launched an attack on Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, saying Dobson and his "band of thugs” are "nasty bullies” and accusing the Republicans of pandering to the Christian right. In an interview with Ryan Sager, author of the book "The Elephant in the Room: Evangelicals, Libertarians, and the Battle to Control the Republican Party,” Armey said the GOP was "adrift and rudderless” in its commitment to small government. When pressed by Sager about what he feels is wrong with today’s Republican Congress, Armey – who became majority leader when the GOP...

They started marching Monday, from the state Capitol toward Colorado Springs. And as the week progresses, their numbers will grow into the hundreds as they converge Saturday at the campus of Focus on the Family, where an estimated 1,000 people will pray for its founder, James Dobson. I plan to be there, to witness a courageous act: Hundreds of gays and lesbians praying for a man whose powerful organization lobbies for anti-gay legislation and spews damaging mistruths about gay people. The 1000-Watt March is being organized by Soulforce, a non-profit organization that confronts homophobic religious organizations and leaders using the...

Many comments have been made about the decision of Dr. James Dobson and Focus on the Family to back a bill creating "Reciprocal Beneficiary" agreement within the State of Colorado. Some have alleged this to be a great betrayal of traditional values. I find it strange that anyone who knows Dr. Dobson and his work would make such an allegation. The Reciprocal Beneficiary Agreement has been mischaracterized as marriage light. That's not the intent of the sponsors. Vermont, which has Civil Unions, also has Reciprocal Beneficiaries Agreements available. Most of the Bill's Rights already can be obtained by a contract...

A Washington-based group has asked the Internal Revenue Service to investigate whether Focus on the Family or its founder James Dobson violated IRS rules by electioneering. James Bopp, an attorney for the Colorado Springs-based conservative Christian group, said the group has fully complied with IRS code. The complaint, filed Monday by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, also asked the IRS to investigate whether the tax-exempt status of Focus on the Family should be revoked. Tax-exempt organizations cannot participate in campaigns for or against candidates for public office. The group alleges that news articles showed Dobson endorsed candidates for...

A federal appeals court's dismissal of a lawsuit by parents outraged that a school district surveyed their elementary school-age children about sex is "frightening," says family advocate James Dobson. "I think that's one of the most frightening examples of judicial tyranny that has come down," said Dobson, founder and head of Focus on the Family, on his daily radio broadcast. Dobson called the 9th Circuit "the most out-of-control, imperious, unelected, unaccountable court in the country." The court determined there is "no fundamental right of parents to be the exclusive provider of information regarding sexual matters to their children." "What parents...