Join Dr. James Dobson and Dr. Dennis Swanberg as they delve into the complexities of family life and personal struggles. This episode offers a raw and insightful look into Dennis’s personal journey with his son’s addiction, showing how laughter and faith can light the way to healing. Discover how the Swanberg family’s challenges have become a source of encouragement for others, demonstrating the transformative power of God’s grace and forgiveness.
Hello, everyone. You’re listening to Family Talk, a radio broadcasting ministry of the James Dobson Family Institute. I’m Dr. James Dobson, and thank you for joining us for this program.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, welcome to Family Talk. I’m Roger Marsh. Today, Dr. Dobson sits down with his longtime friend, Dr. Dennis Swanberg. Now, usually when we have Dr. Swanberg on the program, we’ll talk about his hilarious impersonations and heartfelt humor. Dennis has brought laughter to millions through his ministry spanning more than four decades. But behind the comedy lies a powerful story of pain. redemption, and healing. In his book called No More Secrets, Dennis courageously shares how he and his wife Lori navigated their son’s struggles with addiction. On today’s edition of Family Talk, you’ll hear how God worked through their family’s darkest moments to bring restoration and hope. Dennis Swanberg reminds us that we’re all recovering from something, and none of us is exempt from life’s painful seasons. His testimony demonstrates how God can transform our deepest wounds into sources of ministry to others. Here now is Dr. James Dobson with the always entertaining and profoundly insightful Dr. Dennis Swanberg.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, hello, everyone. This is James Dobson, and you’re listening to Family Talk, which is a radio ministry supported by listeners like you. You are in for a real treat today because I’m joined by my very good friend. Now, that’s a phrase that’s often used, but in this case, it’s for real. I’m talking about Dr. Dennis Swanberg. I’m sure many people in the listening audience have lit up just a little bit hearing his name because you followed him and enjoyed his work for years. I’ve known him for 29 years. In fact, Dennis, I think the first time I ever heard your name, somebody had given me a cassette tape. recording of one of your very, very funny speeches. I tell you, I could hardly see where I was driving because I was laughing and the tears were in my eyes. That was in Pomona, California, where Focus on the Family was, where I was then. As I drove along, I just said, our audience needs to hear this guy. I didn’t know you, but I loved what you did. And talked about your family and everything. And I put that on the air and everything lit up.
SPEAKER 02 :
Man, it was something, wasn’t it? Oh, my goodness.
SPEAKER 03 :
It really was an unbelievable experience. And then let’s see if you remember this. Shirley and I were in Sarasota, Florida. And it was Sunday morning, and we went to a Baptist church there, and you were the primary speaker that day.
SPEAKER 02 :
There I was. I was up on the platform, and I look out, and I see Dr. Dobson and Ms. Shirley, and I went, Lord, Lord, help me be real good. Or, Lord, take the shallow stuff and make them think it’s something. I mean, or let me be like a Billy Graham or something. I mean, I’m up there, and oh. And afterwards, I’m down at the pulpit ready to shake some hands, but there’s nobody shaking my hand. They’re shaking Jim and Shirley Dobson’s hands in the back. Finally, when they finished, they came up and gave me a hug. And, Doc, you said, I want everything you got. And I hated to tell them that’s the only cassette tape I got.
SPEAKER 1 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 03 :
It turned out not to be. You did very many recordings.
SPEAKER 02 :
And you guys encouraged me. You encouraged me. I believe in you, Des. You did. I asked you one time, I said, Doc, why have you been so good to me? And he said, well, I like opening up the door for somebody. in a big way. And I went, man, you opened up the doors, a garage door. I mean, it was just an unbelievable blessing.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, it was really selfish because I was sharing you and people love me for it. You are a Baptist minister. You have a doctorate in ministry from Dallas.
SPEAKER 02 :
I sure do, Southwestern Seminary. Went to Baylor, got my major in Greek and religion, and here I got all these degrees. I got the full 30 hours of Greek and 30 hours of religion. Then I got my master’s, my doctorate, and I’m going, and here I am out here making people laugh a little bit. But you know what? I tell my boys and my loved ones, you better be standing on the solid rock of Jesus Christ no matter what you do. If you’re a singer, engineer, teacher, humorist, That’s important. So I’m thankful for my education.
SPEAKER 03 :
Dennis, when did you first discover that you could make people laugh?
SPEAKER 02 :
You know, I had fun at home. I had fun at school. But in high school, we’d won our third state championship, John H. Reagan High School, Austin, Texas. We beat Odessa Permian, the Friday Night Lights, in football. Football. And it was our third state championship, and my coach asked me to come up and speak at the banquet. It was a little nervy because they were going to have a politician speak that was under indictment, but they didn’t want to uninvite him because of politics. So the mamas were upset. I can’t believe we’re having this speaker. And – And coach didn’t want to ask him to or rescind and say, you’re not coming to speak. So he was there. And so I think my coach was pretty smart. He said, you know, I’m going to add a little humor. So when he was introducing all of us, he came to me. He said, Dennis Swanberg here, he’s a center and defensive end. Dennis does impersonation. Dennis, could you come up here when I finish introducing everybody and do a few for us? So I hopped up, you know, I hopped up there. Spontaneous. Spontaneous. Got behind that microphone. And I did Howard Cosell, no doubt about it, Monday Night Football, Lenny Dawson, Back to Pass. I did Muhammad Ali, I’m the Greatest. I did Barney Fife, anybody see Thelma Lou? And before, I hadn’t done Billy Graham at that time, but I was doing all these, and it just, it was like, you know, people just need an excuse to laugh. It broke the, and people just lost it. And all of a sudden, at that time, The way they responded, I thought, I can make people laugh. I didn’t understand it.
SPEAKER 03 :
What an epiphany.
SPEAKER 02 :
Your life changed on that night. Yeah, I didn’t grasp about being a speaker. The next day in the Austin American-Statesman newspaper, in big, big, bold letters, it said, Swanberg steals the show. No kidding. And that I upped the politician, who was a big politician in Texas. And I knew I had something. Shortly after that, March 15, 1971, I gave my life to Christ on a Monday night. I was 17. And all of a sudden, I had these evangelical preachers coming up to me going, Hey, why don’t you come speak to our youth? You can do these voices. I went… is that appropriate in a church? Is it okay to be funny at church or humorous? And they went, oh, yeah, yeah. And then you could end up talking about being an imitator of Christ. I went, is that in there somewhere? And yeah, that’s how it got started. And one thing led to another. Ended up pastoring in the local church 22 years. And then in 1995, I resigned from First Baptist Church, West Monroe, Louisiana. I love those people. And to do this full time. Well, Doc, that was 25 years ago. And here’s an interesting story. When I resigned the next day, y’all had replayed one of my cassette tapes. It was like a Billy Graham movie. And I just couldn’t believe it. So I’ve had a great life. I’ve had, Lord’s blessed me.
SPEAKER 03 :
I’ve got to ask you about that because the standard understanding or maybe a cliche about comedians is that they came out of pain. In fact, let me tell you, Jonathan Winters, one of the funniest men that ever lived. I was talking candidly on television one time, and I heard him. He talked about the fact that he lost his father. His dad ran off when he was just a little kid. And the kids teased him because he didn’t have a dad. In those days, everybody had a dad. And they would make fun of him, and he would beat them up. He would fight, and when they weren’t watching, he would go behind a tree someplace and cry. He said, all my humor is an expression of pain. And I’ve heard many people say that. Apparently, that is not true of you.
SPEAKER 02 :
It’s true in the sense that my pain wasn’t because of my parents. I had great parents, great grandparents. I mean, family. I was a little bit of the ADD, and we didn’t know about ADD back then. And so I wondered about myself. I wondered if I was smart or not smart. I didn’t do well on tests. But here’s the deal, Doc. It’s the same thing, really. Yeah, same thing. But now, after, you know, my boys graduated from college, but after they graduated from college, you know, no one’s exempt from pain. And Laurie and I, we experienced some pain and some hurt. Sometimes it comes early in the day. Sometimes pain comes late in the evening. But we experience some pain.
SPEAKER 03 :
I don’t know anybody that doesn’t experience pain.
SPEAKER 02 :
Everybody does. But not everybody always wants to talk about it. When I’d go out and speak and entertain, I’d preach and entertain. And I believe I was effective. I care for people. But when after I experienced and went through, Laurie and I did, with some bumps in the road with our boys, all of a sudden I had a new sensitivity to people that hurt, you know, because I remember I’d be out there at Dana Point speaking at one of those big hotels for a big faith-based group to raise money, and they didn’t know it, but I knew it, that my youngest son, Dusty, was just down the road in San Clemente in a rehab. And yet I couldn’t go see him. He was drinking. Yeah, and I’d have to be up on that stage and laughing. But deep down in my heart, you know, I love my Dusty. And, boy, that was tough. You know, I can flash back to you guys. It’s in our new book called No More Secrets. Yeah, we’re going to talk about that. We’re very open about it. But I remember— It was after Christmas in 2008, and Laurie and I and Chad, we came back to Louisiana, to Monroe, but Dusty was going to go from Fort Worth down to Austin to see his cousins. Well, you know, later that night we’re trying to text him, but he doesn’t respond. We can’t find him. And it’s a tough thing when you have your nieces and nephews and everybody, and you’re just calling police stations and sheriff’s departments trying to find your son. And my niece, she found him in Georgetown, Texas. He was in jail. And so first of all, Laurie and I, we look at each other at one in the morning. And you know that with your kids, you look at each other and that ache in your stomach, that hollowness, and like, what did we do wrong? You know, I’m supposed to be America’s minister of encouragement. And I’m thinking, well, I guess I didn’t encourage my own son. So my Chad and I, we got in the car and we drove all through the night. We got down there about 730 in the morning. I went in, paid his bail, walked outside. And God said to my heart, if you love him, leave him. And I went back inside. I’ve never heard God speak in an audible voice except through my wife, Laurie. My honey loved my sugar babe. But I went back in, and I said, well, y’all just keep him. I don’t want him. I want y’all just to keep him. Well, long story short, the rest of it’s in the book, but they kept him. I come outside. Chad said, when’s Dusty getting out? I said, he’s not. God told me if I love him, I needed to leave him this time. So we got in the car, and we’re driving all the way back to Monroe, Louisiana. Laurie calls me on the phone. She says, do you have Dusty? You got Dusty? I said, baby. I left him. You left him? I said, yes. God told me if I loved him, I needed to leave him, so I left him. And she said, okay. I got home and he called, you know, collect call from jail. And when are you going to come get me? I said, when God tells me to come get you, I’ll come get you. But Dustin, I left you there because he told me if I loved you, I needed to leave you. So I’m leaving you. Now, the one verse that I knew in my heart was out of Joshua 1, 9 and out of Hebrews. I will never leave you nor forsake you. When I was at Baylor majoring in Greek, I’m not a scholar, but sometimes we translate that in the voice of old Billy Graham. I’ll never leave you nor forsake you. But actually, if you translate those five negatives in that verse, it really is translated, I’ll never, never, no never leave you nor forsake you. That’s a forever never. And I knew that my Lord was with him. All he had was a Gideon’s New Testament.
SPEAKER 03 :
Let me give you another scripture that’s maybe applicable. The story of the prodigal son jumps out at us here because he was a wealthy farmer representing God himself who owns everything. And he could have gone and rescued his son who was eating with the pigs and was destitute and with prostitutes and every evil thing. He could have sent his servants to find him and bring him back, but he did not. In fact, the Scripture, I think it’s the Living Bible, says, and no one gave him anything. When he came to his senses, those two things are back to back. No one bailed him out. And then he came to his senses. You apparently had a similar situation.
SPEAKER 02 :
That’s right. Probably should have been in a hospital, but I didn’t know anything about detox. But after nine days, I went and got him, put him on a plane, took him to the rehab. And about two or three days later, up there, he said he came to the place in his life. He said, I am helpless. I need you, Lord. And ever since then, Dustin has been making changes. You know, we all fall and fail and falter. You know, 80% of people relapse, addicts. Well, we all relapse from something. But now Dustin is married. We have a little grandbaby, Andrew James Floyd Swamberg. He named him, put Floyd in there for my daddy, Floyd Leon. I thought, good night. Well, all that fit on a birth certificate. But he’s the best little fellow, and they’re going to have another child in April. Giver, thoughtful, spiritual, worked at Celebrate Recovery, First Baptist Dallas for a year. Now he serves our government in a lot of ways I can’t say, but I’ll say this. He’s a light. He shares the light of Christ with his life. He does interventions. He goes to meetings and helps people. And when people that I know call and they’re hurting, they want to call and talk to Dustin. Or likewise, my oldest son, Chad, both of them have been in recovery. And it’s my oldest son. He’s gone through some tough times. And I’m so proud of Chad. He wrote the epilogue of this book. And can I just read a little bit? Chad’s a good writer. He said, I avoided responsibility by playing the victim, blaming, justifying, rationalizing, so that I didn’t have to take credit or accountability for my part in my problems. The actions, behaviors, and choices that I made, however, gave me the life that I had. Yet I was still unwilling to pull the curtain back on that secret. Never would I be willing to confess that I was the reason for my difficulties. are responsible for my struggles. I could not admit the secret truth that the answer to my problem stared at me in the mirror every morning. Every secret that I kept had to be protected. And that’s just a little bit of what he says, but you feel his heart. But I’ve learned, Doc, I don’t have to shame anybody. They feel plenty shame already. I need to encourage them. I don’t need to enable them, but I’ve got to encourage them all the same.
SPEAKER 03 :
And they need encouragement. I’ve found that good, godly Christian parents suffer more when their kids run into trouble than those who have no faith. Isn’t that amazing?
SPEAKER 01 :
It is.
SPEAKER 03 :
blame you, the parents, for it. But the truth of the matter is we all have a free will, and your kids can choose. And after all, God had a little trouble with Adam and Eve, and he was the perfect father, and they went wrong. And so you can’t afford to blame yourself for what your kids do. Everybody makes mistakes as parents. We all look back on what we did and wish we could do it over because none of us is perfect anymore. And we don’t have perfect kids.
SPEAKER 02 :
I told Laurie, I said, I may have gotten this from Doc and Miss Shirley, but Adam and Eve, they had a perfect father. They had a perfect world. But they had a mind of their own. And our kids have a mind of their own. And we have a mind of our own. We’re all in this together. Sometimes I have had to admit. That too often my thought has been, as long as your sin is bigger than mine, I’m fine. But, you know, isn’t it funny how we are? I didn’t do this or I didn’t do this. Well, I didn’t do that. So I feel pretty good about myself. I remember one time Dusty came home in 2012. So he’d been sober a good while. I always wanted to go to one of those meetings, you know, the AA meetings. And my wife, Laurie, my honey love, she said, you don’t go unless he invites you, okay? You just wait. You’re just always so bold. You just wait and let him ask you. Well, finally, one Saturday, he said, Dad, you want to go with me? So I went with him. We went over there near ULM campus there in Monroe. Man, there was 100 people in there. Well, I’d been out as a pastor. I left First Baptist West Monroe in 1995. I’d been out 17 years. We still lived there in Monroe, West Monroe, so I know everybody. I walk in there, Doc. I see some old church members. I have my coffee in my hand. I’m going, hey, hey. I’m waving. Hey, hey, hey. There’s another. Hey, how you doing? And then I saw the guy that sold me my truck, and I’m thinking, Lord, good night. I don’t know how this thing operates, but I hope they’ll come by where I can introduce myself and say, I’m Dennis Swanberg. I’m fine. I’m with my son. He’s the one with the problem. But when I did that, the Lord Jesus said to me, you self-righteous preacher, who do you think you are? Now sit down and drink your coffee and learn something. Well, that didn’t faze me. I thought, I’m America’s minister of encouragement. I’ve got to keep clean. I can’t be a social. I mean, what’s this going to do to me? And people are going to walk out and say, we saw Dr. Swanberg at an AA meeting. Then the Lord said, it’s AA, Swan. It’s anonymous. He said, drink your coffee, eat your donut, and listen. Maybe you’ll learn something. And what I learned that day in 2012 more clearly was we’re all recovering from something. We all need a Savior. And I need to encourage my boys. I need to encourage others. I hurt with them. I hurt. You know, we all hurt and have pain. And how much more so our Heavenly Father? I mean, how did he feel? You know, then Adam and Eve had two boys, and one of them killed the other one. I mean, you’d be tempted to say, God, you ain’t got a good track record right now. But I’ll tell you this, what I think. He sure knows how we feel as parents, doesn’t he? And you knew he loved them so much, he made them some clothes, which took a sacrifice. And he clothed them. He covered them with his love. I said in my book, you know, sometimes we’re pretty good at pointing sin out. But sometimes I’m not as good about helping them confess it. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. And it’s not that I have to – everybody has to be as bold as Dennis Swanberg today on the radio. You know, tell the whole world. You tell the Lord and a significant somebody, because if not, it’s like a beach ball underneath the water. If you’re not careful, it’s going to come up and pop you in the face. Why not let the air out of it?
SPEAKER 03 :
Dennis, you and I today are talking to some very specific people. I can feel their pain coming back through these microphones because they gave everything they had to their kids today. And it turned out wrong. You know, some of them are in prison and worse. And they look at that scripture, the proverb that says, train up a child in the way he should go. And when he’s old, he will not depart from it. That sounds a whole lot like parental guilt. That if you’d have done it right, he would have turned out right. But that is not a promise of God. That is a probability. And proverbs are not promises. I mean, there are all kinds of proverbs that you say, well, I didn’t get wealthy when I did everything right. That Proverbs are not promises, they’re probabilities. And I think that scripture has been misinterpreted to turn around and bite good godly people who did the best they could and it wasn’t good enough. That’s right. And we need to put an arm around them today and say, you give that to the Lord.
SPEAKER 02 :
And you know what? You can’t fix it. You can pray for them. You can encourage them. But you can’t fix it. But they have to find the answer. You know what both my boys tell me all the time? They say, Dad, you and Mom were great parents. Well, Laurie and I know we failed here. We failed there. We failed here. We failed there. But they – isn’t it something – they think – We’re the greatest. But I’m going to tell you what. There’s a time when you need to have a catharsis. You’ve got to have an emptying of yourself and a cleansing of yourself so that you can be free. When my boys look at me in the face and say, Dad, you know what our real problem is, the addict? You know what the real problem is for us? Selfishness. We are some of the most selfish people in the whole wide world. It hit a note with me because I’m selfish too. We’re all selfish, but there is an answer to that selfishness.
SPEAKER 03 :
Dennis, we’re really just getting started on the theme of this book, No More Secrets. And you have flown out here from Dallas, Texas, to be with us today. And I want you to sit right where you are, and I want to continue this conversation. We’ll let our listeners hear it tomorrow, the next time. But I love you, brother. I appreciate you. And you want other people to benefit from what you have learned and learned. letting go of secrets and sharing them with others. We’re going to pick that up next time. We’re going to start by talking about your grandparents who’ve learned some things about this issue. Dennis, thanks for being with us. And it’s always a pleasure to work with you. We’ll pick it up right here next time. Good deal.
SPEAKER 01 :
The weight of secrets can feel overwhelming at times, but true freedom comes when we bring our hidden burdens into the light of God’s grace. You’re listening to a special edition of Dr. James Dobson’s Family Talk, featuring an honest conversation between Dr. Dobson and comedian pastor Dr. Dennis Swanberg about family struggles, addiction, and finding hope through life’s darkest valleys. Now, if today’s program really resonated with you, I encourage you to share it with someone who might also be carrying similar burdens. You can easily find this program along with a link for Dennis’ book, No More Secrets, when you visit drjamesdobson.org forward slash family talk. When families face difficult seasons, they need trusted voices to offer biblical guidance and encouragement. and your financial partnership makes it possible for countless parents, spouses, and individuals to access life-changing resources through our broadcasts, articles, and counseling referrals. By supporting the James Dobson Family Institute, you’re helping preserve and promote the institution of family while introducing even more people to the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can make a secure donation online at drjamesdobson.org. You can call with your tax-deductible contribution, 877-732-6825. Or you can write to us. Our ministry mailing address is Dr. James Dobson’s Family Talk, P.O. Box 39000, Colorado Springs, Colorado, the zip code 80949. Well, I’m Roger Marsh inviting you to join us again next time when Dr. Dobson continues this important conversation with Dennis Swanberg. They’ll explore the healing power of confession and why Christ remains our ultimate hope in times of struggle. That’s coming up right here on the next edition of Dr. James Dobson’s Family Talk. This has been a presentation of the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute.
