Daly Focus Blog
Monday’s fire at the famed cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris riveted the world, as television outlets broke into regularly scheduled programing to show the devastation unfold in real time.
As my friend and former Focus board member Dr. Al Mohler reflected, “What burned was not just a tremendous loss to architecture, it was a tremendous loss to western civilization, and it points to an even greater loss: A spiritual loss that came before the architectural loss.”
Dr.
By now you’ve likely heard of Tony Bennett. No, not the legendary 92-year-old singer – the 49-year-old head coach of the NCAA National Championship basketball team from the University of Virginia.
A former star college player in his own right who also played three seasons in the NBA, Tony Bennett shepherded his team of collegians to a national championship a year after having suffered an embarrassing loss in the first round of the tournament.
The ignominious defeat in 2018 – the only time a # 1 seed has lost to a # 16 seed – could have easily demoralized Bennett and his squad.
Monday’s headlines were full of good news from the box office:
Unplanned, the powerful abortion-themed movie featuring Focus author and former Planned Parenthood director, Abby Johnson, grossed $6.1 million – more than doubling expectations. It was the second-largest launch for the Christian filmmaker Pure Flix, tracking only behind their hit, God’s Not Dead 2 ($7.6 million).
Industry experts were shocked at the NEW film’s popularity. In response to its strong opening weekend, an additional 700 theaters will now be showing the film.
Today, I was excited to see Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announce that the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) are dedicated to making sure that U.S. foreign assistance does not go to organizations that promote or lobby for abortion.
This is a strong and principled step in support of life.
USAID is dedicated to helping countries and regions that have struggled with genocide, disease, famine and natural disasters. It is not an organization that was developed to subsidize the foreign abortion industry.
Chick-fil-A (CFA), a frequent target of liberal ire, is once more on the receiving end of the charge of homophobia because its charitable arm, the Chick-fil-A Foundation has recently donated to three Christian ministries, including the Salvation Army, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA), and a Georgia boys’ home, all of whose youth programs the CFA Foundation was interested in supporting.
Everyone knows who the Salvation Army is and the good they have done for the poor and needy around the world for over 150 years.
I wanted to remind you that registration is now open for “Alive from New York” – Focus on the Family’s largest pro-life event in its history.
The event will feature live music and inspirational speeches from special guests, as well as abortion survivors. The culminating moment of the event will be a live 4D ultrasound broadcast on several jumbotrons in Times Square.
Event capacity is limited to 10,000 attendees, so you need to act fast in order to reserve your spot.
It’s back.
A bill introduced in the last Congress in an attempt to gut the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) has been reintroduced in the current Congress. A liberal response to Supreme Court decisions such as Hobby Lobbyand Masterpiece Cakeshop, the bill is deceptively titled the “Do No Harm Act.”
RFRA was passed in 1993 in one of the most overwhelmingly bipartisan votes Congress has ever seen: by a voice vote in the House (equaling a unanimous vote) and 97-3 in the Senate.
Did you read the story the other day about the smallest baby in the world?
He was just 9.45 ounces (.59 pounds) when he was born at 24 weeks gestation. Doctors didn’t expect him to survive. After nearly 6 months in the hospital, he went home last week weighing 7.2 pounds.
The little boy’s physician, Dr. Takeshi Arimitus, told reporters, “I want people to know that babies can return home vigorous even if they are born small.”
Or are you up to speed on the latest from out here in Colorado, where the state has finally dropped its second case of alleged discrimination against Christian baker Jack Phillips?
Yesterday’s vote in the United States Senate on the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act marked a new and horrific low in American politics.
The measure, which would have guaranteed medical care for children born alive after an attempted abortion, needed 60 votes for passage.
It received 53.
Shockingly, 44 Democrats opposed the legislation.
Think about that.
Nearly half of the United States Senate voted to allow the killing of infant children.
Politics is intrinsically contentious. Bitter partisan battles have become the norm.
How would you answer these three questions?
When does human life begin?
What makes human life valuable?
What is our Christian duty to the preborn?
Some of you hesitated to answer.
That may explain why so many Christians are quietly pro-life. They believe abortion ends a human life, but they really don’t know how to defend the position to others, so they generally keep quiet about it.
If that’s you, you’re certainly not alone. I’m surprised by the number of Christians who have never had the opportunity to learn a solid Christian response to abortion and other pro-life issues like physician-assisted suicide.
Jim Daly is a husband, father and President of Focus on the Family and host of its National Radio Hall of Fame broadcast. His blog, Daly Focus, is full of timely commentary and wisdom designed to help you navigate and understand today’s culture. His latest book is Marriage Done Right.
