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James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, has died

Dr. James Dobson, a politically influential child psychologist who started a radio show counseling Christians on how to be good parents, founded the conservative ministry Focus on the Family and was long a campaigner against abortion and gay rights, died on Thursday
In a Tuesday, March 11, 2008 photo, Christian evangelical leader and founder of "Focus on the Family", James Dobson, listens to President Bush, not pictured, address the National Religious Broadcasters 2008 Convention at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, file)

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

In a Tuesday, March 11, 2008 photo, Christian evangelical leader and founder of "Focus on the Family", James Dobson, listens to President Bush, not pictured, address the National Religious Broadcasters 2008 Convention at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, file)
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Aug 21, 2025
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COLORADO SPRINGS, Co. (AP) — Dr. James Dobson, a politically influential child psychologist who started a radio show counseling Christians on how to be good parents, founded the conservative ministry Focus on the Family and was long a campaigner against abortion and gay rights, died on Thursday. He was 89.

His death was confirmed by the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute.

Dobson founded Focus on the Family in 1977, which had more than 1,000 employees at its peak and gave Dobson a platform to weigh in on legislation, advise White House panels and advocate against laws to ban conversion therapy to “cure” gay people.

Dobson left Focus on the Family in 2010 and founded the institute that bears his name and continued with the Family Talk radio show, which is nationally syndicated and is carried by 1,500 radio outlets with more than half a million listeners weekly, according to the institute

He served on President Donald Trump’s Evangelical Executive Advisory Board.

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