Video: Researcher Carol Gilligan calls Dobson’s use of her research to criticize gay parenting “completely distorted and unfounded”

James Dobson, founder of the virulently anti-gay group Focus on the Family, announced late on Friday that he is stepping down.

Dobson is perhaps most famous for once claiming that the cartoon character SpongeBob Squarepants was being used to recruit children into homosexuality. As the story developed, it appeared that Dobson had confused a group that produced a video promoting post-9/11 multicultural diversity that included SpongeBob and other characters with a group that produced a video for gay youths. Dobson refused to acknowledge his mistake, however, insisting through a spokesperson, “We see the video as an insidious means by which the organization is manipulating and potentially brainwashing kids. It is a classic bait and switch.”

For years, Dobson has also been a source for vile and bizarre homophobic rantings. “Homosexuals are not monogamous,” he once declared, despite the fact that there are millions of gay couples who have been monogamous for decades. “They want to destroy the institution of marriage. It will destroy marriage. It will destroy the Earth.”

“Moms and Dads, are you listening?,” he said another time. “This [gay] movement is the greatest threat to your children. It is of particular danger to your wide-eyed boys, who have no idea what demoralization is planned for them.” (There is an unintended grain of truth here. It can indeed be demoralizing for gay people to be under constant assault by professional homophobes like Dobson and the rest.)

Dobson has often been accused of distorting scientific research to support his hate agenda. In December 2006, two researchers he cited in a commentary in Time Magazine expressed outrage that he had misused the results of their studies. Dr. Kyle Pruett of Yale Medical School accused Dobson of “cherry picking” facts from his book, Fatherneed: Why Father Care Is as Essential as Mother Care for Your Child, and Dr. Carol Gilligan said that Dobson’s use of her research was “completed distorted and unfounded.” Dr. Gilligan sent a letter to Dobson requesting an apology, but never received a reply.

Last year, Dobson’s group donated $800,000 to the anti-gay Proposition 8 campaign in California, even though FOTF was in financial disarray and was forced to lay off 200 employees two weeks after Election Day. FOTF still employs 950 people, most of whom work in its headquarters in Colorado.

There’s no doubt Dobson will retire in comfort. There is money to be made fanning the flames of homophobia. In fiscal year 2006, the latest year for which numbers were available online, Focus on the Family had total revenue of $142.3 million, with net assets of $79.3 million.

Dobson will be replaced by retired Lt. Gen. Patrick P. Caruana, a move that dovetails with gowing concerns about the rise of Christian extremism in the military ranks. Now a former military officer is moving into the upper ranks of Christian right-wing political activism.

It also fits neatly with FOTF’s heritage. It was founded in 1977 by Elsa Prince, a member of a wealthy right-wing family in Pennsylvania, whose son Erik Prince owns the mercenary firm Blackwater that sent paramilitary forces into Iraq after being given hundreds of millions in no-bid contracts by the Bush administration.

Update: Added link to a source for the “greatest threat” quote, July 15, 2015.