Do The Dobsons and Focus on the Family Agree with the Emergent Church?

By Brannon S. Howse

While I respect much of the great work of Dr. Dobson, Shirley Dobson and Focus on the Family, there has been a recent trend that is disturbing.

This past weekend, Shirley Dobson appeared with Dr. Robert Schuller on his Hour of Power. Click here to view her appearance: http://www.crystalcathedral.org/hour_of_power/index.php

I don’t take issue with Mrs. Dobson’s message on behalf of the National Day of Prayer but rather her appearance on his show and her closing remark that affirmed the “work” of Dr. Schuller.

Surely the Dobsons and Focus on the Family do not agree with the heretical theology of Pastor Robert Schuller?

In the early part of 2008, H.B. London, who is Dr. Dobson’s cousin and vice president of outreach/pastoral ministries for FOTF spoke for the Re-think Conference hosted at the Crystal Cathedral by Dr. Schuller and Emergent Pastor Erwin McManus. When London received tons of calls he reportedly put out a press release defending his speaking at the conference.

Are the Dobsons and Focus on the Family in agreement with the Emergent Church? I can not believe they are so why are they showing up at their conferences and functions and giving them credibility?

For those that don’t know, the Emergent Church, while hard to define, is largely made up of people that do not believe in the authority of Scripture, most or any of the essential Christian doctrines or absolute truth. Most within the Emergent Church embrace Universalism and practice occult rituals such as yoga, transcendental meditation, and walking a labyrinth. They also tend to be very liberal in their social and political views. They are committed to a social gospel and stand in opposition to the real Gospel.

In February of 2007, Ryan Dobson, son of Dr. James and Shirely Dobson, wrote me an e-mail. In this e-mail he stated:

“I am a HUGE fan of Rob Bell. I think you really should look into his ministry before bashing him too. He is an exemplary man of God.”

Really? I have concluded through all my research that Emergent Pastor Rob Bell is embracing nothing more than universalism so how does that make him a man of God? Bell also just appeared with the Dalai Lama in Seattle for an interspiritual conference with a host of leaders that represent false religions. Use the search engine on the top left hand side of www.christianworldviewnetwork.com and read all the documented articles on Pastor Rob Bell and decide for yourself if he is a “man of God”.

Dr. Dobson has not hosted one program to expose the Emergent Church, despite my private plea to Dr. Dobson, through his personal secretary, to join us in opposing the Emergent Church. However, Mrs. Dobson now shows up with Emergent Pastor Robert Schuller?  

All the evidence seems to point to the fact the Dobsons and Focus on the Family are deliberately embracing the Emergent Church and giving them credibility by speaking at their conference and the church of one of its leaders. I can only assume they are doing this out of pragmatism and a lack of understanding and poor judgment.

If Dr. Dobson and Focus on the Family are NOT in agreement with the Emergent Church then Dr. Dobson should release a letter stating that he does not agree with Emergent church leaders such as Dr. Robert Schuller and apologize for his wife’s appearance with Dr. Schuller on The Hour of Power and his VP’s appearance at Schuller’s conference. 

Dr. Dobson should commit to hosting a series of programs on this fast growing cancer inside the church. Dr. Dobson could invite former Emergent Church pioneer, Jason Carlson on his program to expose the heresy of this Trojan horse in our camp.

I really wish that Dr. Dobson and Mrs. Dobson would join me in my opposition of the Emergent Church theology and not be praising one of its biggest leaders and promoters. At the conclusion of her interview with Dr. Robert Schuller, Mrs. Dobson says, “Thank you, thank you, thank you Dr. Schuller. God bless you and the good work you are doing here”

What? “God bless the good work you are doing here”? What good work is that, leading millions of people to hell with a false gospel? Really, I would like to know what good work she is talking about. Dr. Schuller promotes Universalism and I know the Dobsons do not agree with Universalism.

I don’t believe that Dr. Schuller even prays to the God of the Bible, through Jesus Christ. Schuller is promoting a false gospel and a false Jesus and therefore Shirley Dobson should not confuse the public by going to his church and acting like Schuller believes in the God and Jesus Christ of the Bible.

Here is a small collection of the things Dr. Shuller has been teaching that now Focus on the Family and the Dobsons have give credibility to whether they realize it or not.

In an interview with Christianity Today, published on Oct. 5, 1984, Robert Schuller was quoted as saying:

            “I don’t think anything has been done in the name of Christ and under the banner of Christianity that has proven more destructive to human personality and, hence counterproductive to the evangelism enterprise than the often crude, uncouth and unchristian strategy of attempting to make people aware of their lost and sinful condition.”

In his book "Self-Esteem, the New Reformation," Schuller argues that we now have a far more enlightened understanding of what is really going on in our souls:

"Lack of self-love or self-esteem, here is a scientific, scriptural doctrine of original sin."

What Bible is he reading from? According to mine, the original sin of Adam and Eve was a choice of desiring what they – the self – wanted over what God desired for them. Adam and Eve succumbed to Satan's lie of human supremacy, which is to love self to the extent of seeing yourself as god. They also believed the favorite falsehood of humanism that they could be the ones to determine truth and to control their destinies. It was the desire to serve "self," not God, that led to disobedience and the original sin.

Later in his book, Schuller reveals the core of happy-talk teaching:

"Let us start with a theology of salvation that addresses itself at the outset to man's deepest need, the 'will to self worth.'" 

The truth is man's deepest need is not "self worth" but forgiveness of sins through repentance and belief in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Unless we die to our own will and the desires of self-love and become alive to Christ and His will, there is no salvation.

When describing salvation, Jesus' words never sounded remotely like those of Robert Schuller. That belies the fact that the messages of Robert Schuller and Jesus Christ are in direct conflict. Jesus spoke about self-denial and dying to self, while Schuller promotes self-worship.

Robert Schuller, like many of today's liberal pastors, have a strong desire to avoid using the "S" word. In "Self-Esteem, The New Reformation," Schuller writes:

"Salvation is defined as rescue from shame to glory. It is salvation from guilt to pride, from fear to love, from distrust to faith, from hypocrisy to honesty."

"So lack of trust or a lack of self-worth is the central core of sin."

Uh … no. The central core of sin is disobedience toward God and our being in rebellion against His character and nature. The more we focus on self and self-worth, self-importance or our rights, the deeper our offending sin.

Schuller also writes:

"Jesus Christ employed a strategy of evangelism where he never called a person a 'sinner.' They were sinners, of course, but he never told them they were."

I repeat: What Bible is that? Jesus not only told His audience He was calling sinners to repentance, but He called some of them names even less flattering than "sinner." How would today's happy-talk audience like to be addressed as "vipers," "serpents" or "tombs"?

Why on earth would Mrs. Dobson appear on The Hour of Power and then ask God to bless “the good work” Schuller is doing?  FOTF and the Dobson’s have nothing to gain by cooperating with Schuller, but they do have their credibility to lose with discerning, conservative, Bible-Believing Christians.

I plead with Dr. Dobson and Mrs. Dobson not to be part of the elect that will be deceived in the last days by false teaching as the Bible says will occur.

By Brannon Howse Email: Brannon@worldviewweekend.com Click here for bio and archived articles