Subject: Paterfamilias of Family Values 
Date: Published: 10/17/88 57 lines
Source:  Wall Street Journal.  Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc. 

    Paterfamilias of Family Values
    ----  
    By Dale Buss

    "Family" is in.  Both George Bush and Michael Dukakis are
 campaigning on it.  The hippest movies and television shows
 are affirming it.  Even TV commercials now are playing on it
 -- see the recent American Express ad in which a harried
 executive uses the card to fly home -- just in time to see
 his daughter's school play.
    But all of that rings a little hollow to James Dobson.
 "The pro-family movement is being resoundingly beaten in the
 great marketplace of ideas," he says.  "The tide of battle has
 shifted against us."
    Radio host, author, conservative activist and head of the
 California-based organization Focus on the Family, Mr. Dobson
 is one of the nation's staunchest advocates of what can only
 be called traditional family values.  To him, those precepts
 include loyalty and permanence in marriage, raising children
 with discipline as well as affection, regard for "the worth
 of every human being" and a spiritual undergirding "that
 gives meaning to life and the family."

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    But it's in public issues where Mr. Dobson's influence
 increasingly is being felt, although he says only 2% of Focus
 on the Family's budget is spent there.  Mr. Dobson is among
 Christian leaders actively opposing distribution of "The Last
 Temptation of Christ."  Focus on the Family last November
 launched "Citizen," a monthly magazine meant to aid
 supporters "in making (their) Christian views known."
    In one recent display of punch, "Focus" listeners helped
 swamp congressional switchboards with more than a
 half-million calls in one day last March opposing the Civil
 Rights Restoration Act.  Mr. Dobson rallied supporters against
 the bill because he saw it as "an incredible intrusion into
 religious liberties."  Judicial interpretation, he fears,
 could lead to forced hiring of drug addicts, transvestites,
 AIDS patients and others by religious bodies that accept
 federal funds.  (The law was passed over President Reagan's
 veto.)  

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    ---
    Mr. Buss, a former Journal reporter, is business editor of
 the St. Petersburg Times.

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