James Dobson

James Dobson’s Focus on the Family announced Wednesday that it’s cutting 75 jobs due to a decrease in profits and donations, according to the Denver Post. The organization, which works to prevent expanded rights for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community, has cut more than 40 percent of its workforce over the last year. [...]

Focus on the Family, James Dobson’s anti-LGBT empire and the largest organization in the religious right, announced earlier this week that it would be selling off its ex-gay therapy program called “Love Won Out.” The organization says it’s part of an effort to downsize in the wake of record profit losses of nearly $6 million. [...]

Considered by many to be the nation’s most influential evangelical leader, Focus on the Family’s James Dobson is stepping down after founding the organization more than 30 years ago. The Associated Press learned on Friday that Dobson would be relinquishing his spot as chairman of the evangelical Christian organization, based in Colorado Springs, Colo. Dobson [...]

When a top lobbyist for the country’s largest organization of evangelical Christians publicly acknowledges he supports civil unions and voted for Barack Obama, it’s practically a sin. And it’s something that’s sent Rev. Richard Cizik, a 28-year lobbyist for the National Association of Evangelicals looking for a new job. After sharing his views on National Public Radio last week, he was asked by NAE president Leith Anderson, a pastor at Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s Eden Prairie church, to resign as the NAE’s chief lobbyist.

For decades, Republicans have won the battle on wedge social issues at the polls in suburban districts, while Democrats quietly tried to shoo those wedge issues away. But Democratic candidates in tough districts are slowly coming to openly support equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, and they are being led by a new crop of unlikely pioneers — military veterans. DFLer Ashwin Madia is one such candidate.

Erik Paulsen has diminished his record on a number of issues and present himself as moderate, so much so that any mention that he’s running as a Republican is absent from his campaign website. But his past is catching up with him: Focus on the Family’s James Dobson is throwing his support behind the candidate based on Paulsen’s conservative record on controversial wedge issues.

The religious right never goes down without a fight, and given the dwindling chance that their candidates, Sarah Palin and John McCain, can win the White House, they’re taking the fight to extreme new levels. Prominent figures are comparing supporters of Sen. Barack Obama to the Nazis, warning that God will condemn Americans if they don’t vote for McCain, accusing Obama’s family of witchcraft and foretelling a future when Christianity is criminalized by an Obama administration. Are you prepared for Obamageddon?

On Nov. 8, Focus on the Family will be inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame, a move that has sparked outrage among gay and lesbian activists who denounce its founder, James Dobson, for a “long record of extremism” and “bigotry, hatred, intolerance” toward LGBT people.

Sen. Norm Coleman’s record of opposing abortion rights as well as opposing benefits for same-sex couples has garnered him the support of the religious right’s most influential figure: James Dobson of Focus on the Family. The PAC for Focus on the Family is sending out mailers in Minnesota criticizing Al Franken and praising Coleman. The mailer also gives lukewarm support to Sen. John McCain and rails against Sen. Barack Obama.

An initiative spurred by the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), a religious right legal outfit affiliated with James Dobson’s Focus on the Family, has prompted complaints to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), including one against Minnesota’s Warroad Community Church. The ADF says that at least 30 churches participated in its Pulpit Freedom Sunday and endorsed presidential [...]