Dobson condemned Chavez's “devil” remarks but suggested “university professors,” “magazines” are agents of “Satan”

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published

Only a day before reportedly condemning Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez for calling President Bush “the devil,” James Dobson asserted that Satan “uses many different means of communication,” including “university professors.”

On September 22 at the "Washington Briefing: Value Voters Summit 2006," a gathering of 1,700 Christian right devotees in Washington designed to energize the Republican base ahead of midterm elections, Focus on the Family founder James Dobson appeared onstage beside Family Research Council President and Summit organizer Tony Perkins. According to blogger Bruce Wilson of Talk2Action, Dobson condemned Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez for referring to President Bush at the United Nations as “el Diablo.” Dobson also reportedly criticized Congress for its supposed lack of outrage at Chavez's comments, declaring:

DOBSON: I absolutely cannot believe that two days ago Hugo Chavez came to the United Nations and attacked our president viciously and called him a devil and said that -- in essence -- the platform where he stood stinks and smells like sulfur. And, there has hardly been a statement of defense out of Congress. There's been no outrage ... there's been a few little pantywaist comments. ...

However, only a day earlier, Dobson's Focus on the Family aired a broadcast titled “Overcoming Satan's Lies,” during which, according to Focus on the Family's website, evangelical author “Kay Arthur challenge[d] women to examine the deceptive messages of the feminist movement.” Introducing the September 21 broadcast, Dobson asserted that Satan “uses many different means of communication,” including “university professors.”

Dobson and his co-host, John Fuller, introduced the September 21 broadcast:

FULLER: She [Kay Arthur] is a great communicator and a wonderful, genuine individual, and today she's going to be taking somewhat of a different approach to finding the truth as she identifies and discusses some of those lies that Satan has been using to deceive women about who they are in Christ.

DOBSON: Yeah, the Bible calls Satan the father of lies, and it even goes on to say that lying is his native tongue. He uses many different means of communication -- everything from magazines to television to university professors.