James Dobson Ruined My Mother’s Life

My mother’s smile was as wide as the Hudson River and her mezzo-soprano voice could move mountains. Valedictorian of the Hastings-on-Hudson High School class of 1947, she was smart and determined. She played basketball and tennis, preferred comfortable clothes, and planned a career in economics—not typical choices for young women of her day. She hailed from a family of Evangelicals, Baptists shaped by the holiness movement, who were more likely to vacation at America’s Keswick Christian Retreat and Conference Center than on Cape Cod. In the early 1950s, Evangelical culture was still only a side current in American life, focused less on transforming U.S. politics and more on saving souls. Billy Graham was just launching his national preaching career on his way toward rebranding the faith.