When "Daring to Discipline" Failed A Generation

Love, Control, and the Dethroning of Authorities

“Christian parents who wish to sell their concept of God to their children must first sell themselves,” Dr. James Dobson writes in his first book Dare to Discipline. “If they are not worthy of respect, then neither is their religion or their morals, or their government, or their country, or any of their values.”¹ In a moment of reckoning for American evangelicalism, Dobson’s words take on a different tenor. Perhaps you caught this article in The Atlantic last week, where John Fea defends American evangelicalism via an apologetic for Dobson’s ministry. Kelsey and I had a good Instagram live conversation about Fea’s arguments, but here I’d like to consider Dobson’s teaching itself.