Digby: Focus On The Hucksters

James Dobson is not just an average run of the mill preacher. In fact, he's not a preacher at all --- he's a child psychologist:

Dobson holds a doctorate in child development from the University of Southern California (1967). He was an Associate Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Southern California School of Medicine for fourteen years. He spent seventeen years on the staff of the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles in the Division of Child Development and Medical Genetics.

His organization, Focus On The Family, is allegedly based on an amalgam of Biblical precepts and psychology and he dispenses his child rearing and marital advice in modern psychobabble terms. He's more than a religious leader --- his followers look to him as a doctor, particularly in the field of child psychology.