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"Why are we here?" asked H. B. London at a meeting of the executive cabinet at Focus on the Family. London, vice president of ministry outreach and James Dobson's cousin, opened the meeting with a devotional, citing projections that the influence of Christianity would decline in the next millennium. Then he read from Esther: "For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?" (4:14).

During the meeting the cabinet addressed the problem of a backlog of unresponded-to correspondence. In October, the constituency response department received over 260,000 letters or calls, which was 20,000 more than the average. "Creative broadcasting scheduling" in October accounted for the higher-than-usual response (the topics included the killing of homosexual student Matthew Shepard, Y2K, and Frank Peretti). At the time of this mid-November meeting, the constituency response team was backlogged by about 38,000 letters or calls that had not been answered, and they were concerned about "how long someone out there [was] waiting for a reply."

Twelve thousand people a day write or call 1-800-AFAMILY ordering resources or soliciting advice. This does not include the radio listeners who hear Dobson's broadcasts on 2,500 stations in 95 countries (in six languages); or the 600 million radio listeners in China. There are "easily a billion" worldwide, according to one Focus VP. Focus has 75 outreach ministries and an annual operating budget of $116 million.

Why are they here?

There is more than one way to answer that question. One VP at the meeting answered it this way: "America has lost its story," implying that part of Focus's mandate was to help America rediscover its story. James Dobson himself answered it, echoing London's devotional: "We're here by divine appointment, for such a time as this." Others might see it another way: They are here because James Dobson rescued millions of struggling moms who responded with such force that it took his creating a multimillion-dollar ministry machine to handle the estrogen-empowered inquiries.

A rising star
Things are changing for James Dobson. Not in terms of the moms who love him and the dads who thank him that their wives are no longer candidates for Sally Jesse Raphael. But as the culture continues its "moral free fall" (as he calls it), a lot more people are listening to what James Dobson has to say about it.

Dobson is being pursued by secular television and radio markets because of the increasing popularity of his nonreligious family-oriented programming. His 30-minute religious program is now heard on almost 2,000 stations around the country. This broadcast is largely limited to Christian stations, and his listeners are Focus's main constituency.

But he is moving into a wider general audience and is winning a hearing among non-Christians. He presently runs 90-second radio spots on 230 secular stations and is third only to Paul Harvey and Charles Osgood in radio popularity.

He is in discussion with ABC about assuming a new three-minute radio slot modeled after other popular short features. He writes a syndicated newspaper column that appears in 600 newspapers a week (reaching 9 million homes). And more than 60 secular television affiliates show a TV version of his 90-second family commentaries.

His radio voice and folksy family advice are reaching Middle America—a constituency not totally composed of churchgoers. These listeners may not even be Republicans; they may, in fact, be numbered among "the American People" who said Clinton shouldn't be removed from office. Many are, nevertheless, raising kids and looking for answers. Dobson provides them that guidance.

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March 1 1999, Vol. 43, No. 3