For some Dobson kids, focusing on the family led to estrangement
Dr. James Dobson, founder and chairman of Focus on the Family, right, speaks as his wife Shirley Dobson, left, looks on during a "Yes on 8" prayer event held at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, Nov. 1, 2008. Credit: AP/Denis Poroy
(RNS) — Growing up as a child of a Focus on the Family executive in the 1990s, Amber Cantorna-Wylde belonged to a seemingly idyllic family at the epicenter of American evangelicalism.
Her household was infused with the teachings of Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, who endorsed strong marriages, clear family hierarchy and strict discipline for children as antidotes to rising divorce rates, second-wave feminism and the sexual revolution. At age 13, Cantorna-Wylde was surrounded by family and friends as her father placed a silver purity ring on her finger, symbolizing her commitment to virginity until marriage.
“There was an expectation that was put on us, because of who my father was and the reputation that we had in the community, that we were supposed to behave a certain way,” said Cantorna-Wylde, whose father, Dave Arnold, was the executive producer of the smash hit children’s Christian radio program “Adventures in Odyssey.”
But Cantorna-Wylde, now 40, claims it was Dobson’s teachings on family that tore her own apart. After she came out as gay, her parents stopped speaking with her — a decision she says resulted from Dobson-approved parenting advice.
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