12/7/2009

in

Rev. James Dobson to retire from the "culture war's" frontline.

Joseph Gentile

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Bigotry has lost another voice as James Dobson, the Christian fundamentalist behind the Focus on the Family ministry, cut ties with the organization and withdrew as host of its flagship radio program.  
  
Dobson, 73, and the ministry's board of directors released an official statement saying the changes should be implemented by February's end. Still limping from last year's layoffs, Focus on the Family bled its workforce again this year by 8 percent after experiencing another donation shortfall blamed upon the struggling economy.  
  
"The Bible tells us that to everything there is a season - and Dr. Dobson's season at Focus on the Family has been remarkable," President Jim Daly, Dobson's successor at Focus on the Family, said in a statement. "He has done a superlative job in modeling the graceful transition of leadership from one generation to the next."  
  
With an estimated 1.5 million daily listeners, it remains undetermined who would replace Dobson after he infamously ripped candidate Obama's "fruitcake interpretation" of the U.S. Constitution on-air last year.  
  
"It's going to be hard to replace him given his centrality," Corwin Smidt, executive director of the Henry Institute for the Study of Christianity and Politics at Calvin College, told a Bay Windows reporter. "That doesn't mean Focus on the Family and its radio program can't continue to be important. It suggests a challenge before them."