Popular Culture Review Vol. 16, No. 1, Spring 2005 | Page 53

Out of Focus on the Family
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reinforced with FOF’s own religious dogma and political agenda, James
Dobson—as well as Louis Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition, and
Jerry Falwell in his ministries’ publications—like to use down-home, folksy
rhetoric to portray themselves as “just average folk.” How many “average folk”
are regularly heard on 3,000 radio stations and 80 television stations in 116
countries? How many “average folk” command such political and financial
influence?
Dr. Dobson begins by focusing on three “reasons” for his first
“argument.” The first of these is:
When the State sanctions homosexual relationships and gives
them its blessing, the younger generation becomes confused
about sexual identity and quickly loses its understanding of
lifelong commitments, emotional bonding, sexual purity, the
role of children in a family, and from a spiritual perspective,
the “sanctity” of marriage. Marriage is reduced to something
of a partnership that provides attractive benefits and sexual
convenience, but cannot offer the intimacy described in
Genesis. (47)
Throughout his “arguments,” Dobson employs one-dimensional
straight-line logic: if X happens, Y
will as a direct, inevitabl
result. Such unqualified thinking doesn’t even work on the most simplistic of
levels. If I drop a book, it will fall to the ground. If I stick my finger into an
electrical outlet, I will get shocked. Right? Well, that depends. I’d have to be
standing on Earth—and not in the space shuttle—for the book to fall as I expect,
and the electrical outlet would have to be “live” to provide a shock. Nearly
every “simple” situation has a qualifier that could be applied to it. Dobson’s
simplistic thinking has no validity whatsoever in complex sociological
situations. There are far too many variables for such gross generalizations and
prognostications. That said, examine his first “reason” a little closer.
To assert that if gays marry, all members of “the younger generation”
will en masse become confused about their “sexual identity” is an exaggeration
at best. Most people know from an early age whether they are attracted to the
same or the opposite sex. True, there is a small minority of what have been
called “waverers,” pre- or just post-adolescent men and women uncertain about
their sexuality, so they experiment. This seems a natural expression of being
human: when confronted with conflicting data, experiment to find your Truth.
Experimentation can go very wrong, but most people need to do it. It’s how
humans grow and learn. It’s how individuals find out who they are and what
they are about. The alternatives to such self-discoveries are psychologically and
sociologically destructive: depression and repression, low self-esteem and self-