The Child Psychologist Who Loved Compliance

Today on Webworm I wanted you to share a conversation between two New Zealanders raised by parents who embraced Focus on the Family. Because Focus on the Family travelled far beyond America. It went global — and during the 80s and 90s in particular, millions of kids were raised in the ways of Dr James Dobson. Michael Frost and Shane Meyer-Holt are my friends, and run a podcast called In The Shift , in which they discuss coming to terms with exiting a very certain breed of Christianity. They are still Christians, just not the breed you find at the churches I tend to write about. Hearing them discuss Focus on the Family was fascinating to me, and I hope it’s fascinating to you, too. Something Michael said towards the end really hit me like a tonne of bricks. He talked about what it meant to grow a generation of compliant kids. At what that means when a country like America comes under the leadership of Donald Trump — a man who professes to be a Christian. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit webworm.substack.com/

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The Child Psychologist Who Loved Compliance is an episode from Webworm with David Farrier by David Farrier.

This episode is 14:15 long.

This episode was published on Mar 4, 2025.

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