I had heard a while back that Dobson appeared to be losing his empire, but this appears to be confirmation.
Dobson is - was - THE leader of the religious right. They didn't come any badder than him. I remember a Republican friend telling me, only a few years back, that the GOP tended to think of the religious right as nutballs, other than Dobson. Dobson they feared.
Not any more.
A prominent friend and supporter of James Dobson believes Dobson was pushed aside by the new leadership of Focus on the Family, who want the powerhouse evangelical ministry to project a softer image on issues ranging from abortion to gay marriage to relations with President Obama.
"[T]the board of directors voted privately on Wednesday -- before we got there -- to ask for my resignation, although their request was made with kindness and respect. We can only guess the reason for their decision because frankly I don't fully know," Dobson said. "But it apparently has to do with the desire for closure on my tenure and the beginning of another."The article goes on to quote our good friend, arch-homophobe Pastor Ken Hutcherson. You might remember Hutcherson from a few years back when we were both sparring over Microsoft's support for gay rights (I won).
This article substantiates everything Joe and I have been writing for the past year. The LEAD religious right group forces out the LEAD religious leader because he's too harsh on abortion and gay rights.
So what are the two issues that Democrats still routinely cave on? Abortion and gay rights. Well, they cave on everything. But there's still a special place in the White House's and Congress' hearts for caving on choice and the civil rights of gays and lesbians.
So what does this tell us? That the White House and the Democrats in Congress are deeply out of touch with the American people. Think about it. Not only have Republicans pretty much refused to make gay rights an issue over the past year (with the sole exception of Kevin Jennings). But we now see the religious right pulling back on those issues. You'd think the Democrats would smell an opportunity, or at the very least would stop being afraid to stand up for those constituencies.
But they don't.
That's because there is something seriously wrong with the thinking in the White House and Congress. A kind of fear seems to paralyze both locales. I have no idea what we can do about it, though it seems pretty clear what they voters are thinking of doing about it. Voting the Democrats out in 2010, and quite possibly doing the same on a larger scale in 2012.
