A step in the right direction

Most of these prominent Christian organizations are so dependent on their founders that they usually flounder after their leader's retirement or death.

A recent example is the case of the Crystal Cathedral in California. Shortly after taking over from Robert Schuller, the promotion and resignation of his son as senior pastor has rent the church and strained family relationships to the point of making this as entertaining to watch as a circus.

It's kind of fun to speculate as to why this occurs so often. My opinion is that the parishioners and viewers are more interested in their mesmerizing leader than they are of any Christian message. It can easily become cult-like.

This is true of Jim Bakker, Jerry Falwell, Dr. D. James Kennedy and other televangelists who build their respective empires only to have them collapse after their demise or resignation. I can only hope this is the case as well with the Focus on the Family organization.

I think that's the simple truth of it.

Is he particularly awful?

Will his successor likely be any better?

Is this a sign of some power slipping?

my opinion only, religious wing nuts like dobson have lost their media audience with change in attitudes of much of america, the basic hate just doesn't go over as well as it used to and Dobson is no longer featured in the media as a spokesman. (Bush is no longer president)

The Focus on the Family organization (and a few other imitators) have been particularly awful because their focus has been a political agenda. They attack what is commonly known as multicultural education as a smoke screen to promote "the homosexual lifestyle." They work to prevent marriage or civil union for homosexuals. They work to gut or rid sex education programs in schools. They work to promote the teaching of "intelligent design" in school science curricula. They work to prevent Federal funds being used to promote any form of birth control other than abstinence, including foreign aid which may use condom education programs in the attempt to reduce the incidence of AIDS. They work to prevent Federal funds being used in stem cell research. They promote "stealth candidates," meaning fundamentalist Christian candidates who hide their religious agenda while running for office; they have used this in particular to get candidates elected to school boards to further the anti-evolution agenda, which is particularly pernicious given that almost all local school boards in the United States are elected.

Most insidious is that this organization, and a few like it, have promoted slates of "politically correct" candidates from their fundamentalist religious viewpoint, going so far as to distribute lists in Sunday services of approved candidates, and to distribute them widely, not just in affiliated churches. This group, and the few like it, are unique in that they have been militantly active in promoting a political agenda, often surreptitiously.

Oh, I know how awful this organization is...and it's scary that they have kind of taken over a state...what I am trying to get a sense of is whether this might make a difference to the awfulness of this sect, or whether they will spawn another leader at least as bad?

They may spawn another leader just as bad, but they seem to have shot themselves in the foot during the recent presidential campaign. They circulated a "letter from America in 2012" purporting to reveal what a Democratic President, a Democratic Congress and a "liberal" Supreme Court would do to the United States (there would have to be several deaths or resignations in the Supreme Court in order to get enough appointments to make it truly "liberal"). They had been talking about an America "as bad as Nazi Germany." They went so far that many evangelical Christian leaders with large followings publicly condemned them for the defamation of Mr. Obama and frankly and publicly called the letter fear mongering. So it's anybody's guess if they will be able to continue to promote their agenda. They date back to the late 1970s, and i think (but cannot assert to a certainty) that they are the first of the politically militant fundamentalist "ministries." What is disturbing is that they have branches in the middle east, in Latin America, in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and a general African "outreach ministry," in Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and in the United Kingdom. It is likely that the departure of this particular charismatic leader will only spell the doom of this organization if they cannot attract the donations to keep up all of their activities.

By the way, they are not a sect. They are what has come to be called a "parachurch" organization. They are not affiliated (necessarily) with any particular sect, and seek interdenominational support and participation.

Damn...I wish we could keep such groups out of here...but sadly we're a breeding ground for them.

Ditch the Pope and that's inevitable.

I guess you probably know this--Mel Gibson's wacko daddy moved to Australia to join a fundamentalist Catholic sect there. No one really has a lock on religious lunacy, but the United States has attracted the loony type for hundreds of years.

A lot of it is stuff we import holus bolus from your nuts!!!

But the importation wouldn't have taken if you didn't have a full complement of your own . . .

Nuts abound, the world over.

Yeah...you Americans is always wanting to get people by their nuts.

. . . and their hearts and minds will follow.

Ta da!!!