From this Bluesky thread:

Christian parents who wish to sell their concept of God to their children must first sell themselves,” Dr. James Dobson writes. “If they are not worthy of respect, then neither is their religion or their morals, or their government, or their country, or any of their values. 1/

It’s so 💔. Almost to a one, Christian parenting “experts” who advocate for liturgies of spanking recount anecdotes from their childhood that sound like abuse.

Published in 1970, Dare to Discipline sold over two million copies and launched Dobson's parenting empire. In it, Dobson claims that a host of social ills & undesirable adolescent behavior is due to parental failure to discipline children properly, specifically before age four. 2/

Dobson spent his twenties working as a school counselor, & I believe it is those experiences & his doctoral work in clinical settings that shape his argument (at the time of the book’s publication he was the young father of a five-year-old and an infant). 3/

Marissa Franks Burt: Dobson offers no evidence for why the vividly described fearsome adolescent behaviors are the result of parental failure to discipline toddlers. He just says it is so. Like the parenting experts who follow him, Dobson instead relies on anecdotes to stir up parental insecurities. 4/

Children are depicted negatively & as direct threats to parental well being, often quite literally. For instance, Dobson recounts a story of a father who comes home to find his wife in a pool of blood after being attacked by their teenaged daughter and her partygoing friends. 5/

Young children are described as powerholders: tigresses & tigers, tyrants & dictators, “vicious & selfish & demanding & cunning & destructive” w/“terminal cancer” behavior as they battle their parents for power, every child’s behavior asking: “Are you in charge or am I?” 6/

Dobson’s answer? Parents must win decisively at all costs lest their children end up teenaged criminals. How will parents do this? Dobson advises a utilitarian approach that includes discipline and reward. 7/

Shaping a child’s behavior through reinforcement & reward is likened to depictions of training his dog, a “recalcitrant, stubborn rascal who just wants to do things his own way” & heart-breakingly cruel & dehumanizing psychotherapeutic treatments for nonverbal autistic children. 8/

Dobson’s methods are much as you’d expect: hitting into compliance in order to establish the respect Dobson claims to have for his own mother. He describes her parenting as hitting him with “whatever she could get in her hands…a shoe…a handy belt…a girdle” if he backtalked. 9/

Despite this inclusion of unrestrained parental anger & tactics like switching a 15-month-old, squeezing the trapezius muscle to produce pain so a teen drops to the ground holding his neck, suggesting that any crying that lasts beyond 2-5 minutes requires another spanking, 10/

and advocating that parents of abused adopted children or “sick and deformed children” not make the mistake of “pity[ing] their youngsters too much to control them,” Dobson reassures parents that what he is describing is not abuse. 11/

I liked this response:

Mark B: Ya nice guy. “James Dobson: Beat Your Dog, Spank Your Kid, Go to Heaven” wonder what circle of hell this ass hold ended up in. Hope it’s the one where you get beaten every day.👍😉