Part One: Focus on the Family: James Dobson | BEHIND THE BASTARDS

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Part One: Focus on the Family: James Dobson | BEHIND THE BASTARDS
Garrison Davis is joined by Robert Evans to discuss James Dobson and Focus on the Family.
Original Air Date: September 29, 2020
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There’s a reason the History Channel has produced hundreds of documentaries about Hitler but only a few about Dwight D. Eisenhower. Bad guys (and gals) are eternally fascinating. Behind the Bastards dives in past the Cliffs Notes of the worst humans in history and exposes the bizarre realities of their lives. Listeners will learn about the young adult novels that helped Hitler form his monstrous ideology, the founder of Blackwater’s insane quest to build his own Air Force, the bizarre lives of the sons and daughters of dictators and Saddam Hussein’s side career as a trashy romance novelist.
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[@neintales1224]

When I was seeing a supposedly LGBT+ friendly therapist at a small town organization's clinic, they'd have the radio on the local country station in the lobby, unchangeable, and almost every time I went in there Focus on the Family was ranting about something. I complained about this to the therapist on my third time seeing her, and she was SHOCKED my gay ass with a history of abuse and religion-related traumas didn't like hearing that while waiting. She said she'd always felt that Dobson was one of the most intelligent, kindest, and gentlest men in the world? I decided to no longer see her, because it seemed either she wasn't really LGBT friendly, or she was incredibly unobservant and unempathetic, maybe dumb, or she was from an alternate timeline and I really didn't want to get caught up in multiverse shenanigans.

[@cowbatboots282]

It's really sad and telling of our nation that we have to have specific LGBT therapists. I'm sorry for that shitty experience you had. I hope you were able to find a proper therapist.

[@maymadisson6140]

I grew up with Focus On The Family, particularly Adventure's In Odyssey so this entire thing is bringing up repressed memories.

[@JohnShrader]

Adventures in Odyssey sounds familiar…

[@Zomonitan]

I had a pack of (I think) 6 audio cassettes of Adventures in Odyssey as a kid, and I remember listening to it on the radio...God, I sound so old...

[@ReallyBadJuJu]

I was obsessed with radio theater growing up...love old time radio dramas. Adventures in Odyssey was one of my favorite things in the world. Additionally, I listened to their talk radio programs, learned about adolescence from James Dobson VHS tapes my grandfather had, and essentially was raised under the Focus on the Family philosophy of physical domination. It fucked me up pretty good, but I'm proud to say I've never laid a finger on my child and I suppose at the very least, I can be grateful I didn't come out until I was an adult...so I never got sent off to one of their conversion camps.

[@23ADJ93]

I still have some of my cds from childhood. No longer have my evangelicalism though.

[@ShadowPa1adin]

@@Zomonitan There's this podcast called "The Worst of All Possible Worlds" that occasionally does episodes where they riff on old episodes of the "Adventures in Odyssey" radio-drama ("Whit's Endless Summer). I almost forgot all that weird stuff about Whit's CIA-connections and how he helped to create a viral bioweapon for the U.S. gov't.

[@ItsNket]

Garrison is so fun to listen to, the breathy excited laugh he does when you can tell he wants to talk and laugh at the same time is so endearing, I love him.

[@anxiety4daysmusingmedic891]

I have no words. The last few months have been mind bending for me. Focus on the family was my primary entertainment in childhood. So. Much. Trauma. I appreciate the humor and how this information is being presented, this is gonna take me days (literally) to work my way through. The fact that i was born into a cult and continually brainwashed for most of my life, is upsetting. I was/am oblivious to how severe it actually was.

[@darkstrifequeen1458]

If my parents passed on their copy of the strong willed child to me, I’d pull a sinead o Conner with it. You know that iconic gesture she did live on snl.

[@chasel.9704]

Sometimes, I listen to an hour and ten minutes of someone talking, and I’m blessed to have been born with the ability to breathe through my nose

[@5ivearrows]

This one hits. I was directly traumatized by my parents because of their adherence to this and related dogma. My parents aren't evil, they weren't out to get me- they did what they thought was right- but this had a severe and traumatic impact on me.

[@GabrielRodriguez-vv6lb]

This episode is a real treat for all the former church kids in the audience

[@darkstrifequeen1458]

Get Jen from fundie fridays on the show. She has so much to say.

[@bretthansen3739]

This episode is amazing! My mom was a huge Dr Dobson fangirl (lucky me), so this episode really hits home. It's sad to hear that kids are still going through the same things now that I did in the 80s and 90s.

[@200131240]

Has anyone developed an intergenerational trauma theory of American conservatism? Because that’s what it feels like this is building to.

[@cowbatboots282]

I like your funny words magic man. Lol jk, I think you're right.

[@txcats]

I am forced to assume this is the intent.

[@cowbatboots282]

@@txcats intent? No. Side effect? Yes.

[@txcats]

@@cowbatboots282 Maybe it is silly of me to assume that parents think about their children. Sure.

[@jy3n2]

I grew up in FotF's backyard. You think the ways Dobson distorted national politics is bad, just imagine what he did locally.

[@tonyraffetto931]

My ex was tortured by these people all her young life. Its criminal what they do

[@ReallyBadJuJu]

So much trauma to relive! Nice work, guys!

[@cabbagezonk]

"the strong willed child" was always used as a sort of threat in our homeschool family. "Don't act up or we'll finally read that book we bought about you!" Guess it's a good thing they were too lazy to read 🤷‍♀️

[@dogearflopper7011]

"My young ward" Sophie confirmed grandma

[@AlanCanon2222]

I may not be able to listen to this one for more than five minutes at a time, but I'm going to listen to the whole thing.

[@ocularpatdown]

TBH, I find Focus to be a nexus of evil.

[@MrPooleish]

Didn't Chick-fil-A give out Adventures in Odyssey cd's at one point? This sounds familiar.

[@regulusmasamuneryuku8657]

Welp. Finding out AIO had an anti DnD episode was a gut punch straight to my childhood Also incredibly ironic. Cuz I have learned more about how to love and respect others, and have healthy relationships, from listening to Critical Role than I have from any other Christian related media, sermon, or almost every Christian I know or interact with. *Rubs temples* I still follow Christ's teachings. I constantly ask myself 'how do I speak to other Christians and tell them that what they are doing isn't in line with what Christ calls us to do: 'love others how I have loved you.''. Cuz I feel like I'm screaming into a void about how 'religious' beliefs are destroying lives.

[@daniexists6]

For context to the McGee and Me bit, the animation was done by Startoons, a Chicago based animation studio who wasn't actually Christian oriented, but really just did outsource work. Their work on stuff like Animaniacs was so good that a lot of those guys ended up helping shape a lot of animation now. But it does suck they participated in it as a result.

[@ShinobiSora]

I remember Adventure's In Odyssey. We even had the tapes, I think we bought them from church. I don't remember any of the episodes at all or that they showed what any of the characters looked like. Maybe I blocked it out.

[@Aurora_Ultima]

All I remember is some old guy with like a dog or something who hung out with kids for some reason & one time he got framed for soemthing? The only image is fake Walt spray painting a camera while looking nefarious. I remember nothing else.

[@Aurora_Ultima]

I have DID from James Dobson's teachings. If he didn't exist, I'd just be a trans girl with adhd. I got hit so much for being myself that I fractured into dust.

[@Jwend392]

Please do an episode about Star Trek's Rick Berman.

[@foundersolaris]

On my hands and knees begging for this.

[@gajoratte]

Hey can anyone link me to John Oliver discussing Focus on the Family ?

[@markgould9322]

I think it was in his piece on Mike Pence.

[@StampeSkovgaard]

John talks a bit about Focus on the Family in the episode about Mike Pence.

[@gajoratte]

Thanks

[@patricksinger357]

How dare they make a show with Odyssey in the title that's not about a Greek dude fighting monsters, chattung with pagan deities, and banging magical chicks. Its like they have no respect fir the western literary canon at all!

[@AzaleaJane]

The fact that Zach Callison used to voice for Focus on the Family, then went on to voice the main character in one of the gayest shows to ever gay, that makes me happy.

[@TheWinterscoming]

1:40 Sophie letting the audience know that she will try really hard to keep machetes, knives, guns and chemical weapons from being used in this coup

[@Pikepaw]

I grew up listening to so much Adventures in Odyssey. It got me into audio programs leading me into podcasts. It is an entertaining show with high level production design. It is effective propaganda. I know along with a black family they had ONE hispanic family. It is sickening to learn how horrible James Dobson is. Will they talk about his hatred of DnD?

[@Pikepaw]

Update they did! Sorry I am live reacting. I have a LOT of thoughts on Adventures in Odyssey…they had pro Vietnam War episodes.

[@ChristyeLynn]

I loved McGee And Me. Mom loved Plugged In and The Strong-Willed Child and Bringing Up Boys. Adventures In Odyssey was popular.

[@darkstrifequeen1458]

Anyone else want to burn the fotf books you were raised on? I’m using the strong-willed child as an offering to Loki to have Loki expose these fraudulent people and pastors.

[@l.gonzalez9488]

Yeah, we enjoyed these... They were fun! ❤

[@marsbars007]

Dr James Dobson ruined most of my teenage and childhood years.. Ugh.

[@Brutuscomedy]

Mister Whitaker? You mean Tim Whitaker over at TBN? 🤔 I mean TNE? 😁 @thenewevangelicals

[@kevintaylor791]

Robert, you're a terrible guest. Let the man Host. (I kid, great episode)

[@crunchthenumbers]

The forbes article legit?

[@TheWinterscoming]

3:00 3 min to wako

[@pnarco]

It'd be kind of funny if Dobson had come out with a book called 'BEAT YOUR KIDS' and then in small print underneath this it would say 'At Checkers!' and so you read the book and it says that if your kid wins while playing checkers with you, they're actually undermining your authority and so he advises that you should whip them with a belt. But anyway, yeah what a creep. Who knows how much damage that man caused.

[@l.gonzalez9488]

@38:00 Sure, so it's good to run away. Huh?

[@EtakehOh]

So Robert got Rush Limbaugh, Garrison got James Dobson. I got Paul Harvey. I guess that's the rest of the story. sorry.

[@meowmixe]

He poisoned people's minds with his con. That phony snake oil salesman act was evident to me as a child.

[@BluetheRaccoon]

Dobson is a drama queen, who makes me wish leaded girdles were really a thing. If he thinks girdles commonly weighed 16lbs, I've got a tower to sell him.

[@jeremysmetana8583]

It's not unusual for people to live to 87 nowadays, and one day when you are middle-aged and some ignorant kid starts making it sound insane that anybody older than 40 should still be alive, you will finally understand first-hand why you deserve random people slapping you on the street. Yes, I get that Dobson probably doesn't deserve long life (who am I to say, but "evil lives long," as has been pointed out), but that's not quite the way you phrased it, is it? Meantime, waaaay back when I was a teenager, my first real "steady" girlfriend was part of a family of very white, very conservative ex-Orange County CA Christians, and her mother was addicted to Focus on the Family and their hideous, disgusting newsletter, and a good chunk of their lives was centered around what she "learned" from it. Being a native Northern California progressive son of a hippy, I found discussions based on this "material" intolerable. Not surprisingly, these terrible people (not-to-distantly-related, it turned out, to an actual notorious Nazi) raised a daughter who could rightly be diagnosed as a sociopath. The relationship scarred me for life. True story. Not an exaggeration. Scarred for life. A lot of people who knew them back then walked away... changed.

[@l.gonzalez9488]

Nah!

[@l.gonzalez9488]

Intellectuals...

[@l.gonzalez9488]

Language...

[@reneerougeaux7046]

I'm literally shocked that y'all said his other offenses are worse than his racism. White people love to minimize the effects of racism.

[@Luizi08]

You didn't really understand what they were talking about there then...