I Hate James Dobson

I was a child, islolated from the world and targeted by my family as the “bad one”. We had no access to media, except for Dobson. And as a VERY young child I fell asleep to Dobson’s talks on parenting and internalized every bit of it. I was an undiagnosed AuDHD child being raised by a bipolar schizophrenic mother whose spiritually driven delusions led to so much harm in my life. I became a “leader” in the church as a teen, was one of the early mommy bloggers, and finally walked away entirely years after my abusive marriage was blamed on me by the church and I figured out that the system wasn’t “broken” like I thought it was, but it was operating exactly as intended…

As a queer, trans, ex-vangelical 26 year old in school to become a queer family therapist… this feels like it is For Me. Contrary to the title of the episode, I do think I am healing and that this podcast has certainly prompted several lines of thought that I’ve been gently pushing away for a decade. I was raised by parents who lived by Dobson’s books, attended church groups to discuss them, etc. Listening to this “blog” has been such a sucker punch, and a great joy. I don’t believe my father will ever come around, but my mom has been having conversations with me and seemingly finally understands my deconstruction. I digress…. TL;DR thanks Jake for putting all this together and thanks Brooke for sitting through absolutely torturous and upsetting information new to you. P.S. you’ve mentioned covering both Fireproof and God’s Not Dead sometime in the future… I would love this. My family owned Fireproof on DVD and I had to sit through those godforsaken hours dozens of times in my adolescence. I sent the dreaded “God’s Not Dead” text to everyone in my contacts, like the movie told me to. I would LOVE to hear Jake’s retelling and Brooke’s reaction of these. Thank you both for doing this! I hope you’re having fun and that it doesn’t weigh too much.

Your podcast has made me nauseous, and then laugh, cry, scream and think deeply…I’m a gay guy who grew up in a homeschooled evangelical bubble. You both speak to my tortured soul! Which is why you need to cover Dr. Joseph Nicholosi. He was also a major part of my childhood, and a rant from you on him would be therapeutic to a whole new level. Thank you for all the content so far, it truly means so much to me. I felt so alone in my bubble, reading parts of these books you touch on between the ages of 7 and 12 to better understand my parents, and their sadness in my gay behavior. I was always in trouble. But now I know I wasn’t the only one being tortured by the beliefs of Dobson 🙌🏻

This great for everyone who hates this guy. Entertaining, educational, cathartic and well thought out and studied. This show is a true labor of hate for the patriarchal douche who ruined my childhood and a labor of love for every deconstructing ex evangelical.