Jim Daly

Seeing the Value of Every Person

Being pro-life means much more than being against abortion. Our value statement on the sanctity of human life reads:

We believe that human beings are created by God in His image. Therefore, every person, from conception to natural death, possesses inherent dignity and immeasurable worth – including preborn children, elderly individuals, those with special needs and others marginalized by society. Christians, then, are called to defend, protect, and value all human life.

Author and speaker Emily Colson has lived the truth of that statement up close and personal.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, pro-life

How Advent Changed My Perspective on Christmas

Years ago, a friend asked Asheritah Ciuciu if she was excited that the Christmas season had arrived.

“Actually, no,” she said.

Christmas had both a joyful side and a dark side for Asheritah. She and her parents lived in Romania for ten years during the communist regime while her father pastored five churches – one officially recognized church and four underground churches. They lived under intense persecution and death threats.

Asheritah’s childhood Christmases had so many hard memories that she grew up wanting the season to be over with as soon as possible.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, christmas, holidays

Religion Should Influence Americans’ Political Activism

As the old maxim goes, the only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.

And according to a recent Pew poll, the majority of Americans think churches should do exactly that as far as public policy is concerned. Nothing.Most Americans believe churches should not get involved in politics. The Pew Research Center found that 63% of Americans say houses of worship should keep out of political matters. Only 36% said churches should express views on social or political questions.

Continue ReadingTopics: Current Events Tags: church, policy

The Beautiful Struggle to Forgive

Emmy Award-winning sports journalist and former ESPN producer Jason Romano remembers the day he got the phone call. How could he forget?

On the other end was his father, who was in tears with terrible news. Patty, his second wife and Jason’s stepmother, had been killed in a house fire. Jason was devastated.

Then he discovered it was all a lie.

His father had been drunk and made up the whole story. For money? For sympathy?

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, relationships

Are You a Good Listener?

Pastor Ted Cunningham says, “Social media is a place where people share their opinions without sticking around for the conversation.”

He’s right. A lot of people like to share their opinions, but few like to listen. Beyond social media, that’s also a big problem in marriage, in parenting, and in interactions with friends and extended family.

Listening has become synonymous with approval, agreement, and wholesale acceptance of someone’s opinion. The natural response, then, is to talk over people and to express our point of view to the exclusion of all others.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, relationships

Understanding the Two Different Sides of Love

Skyscrapers are amazing feats of engineering. They need to be strong enough to resist the forces that come against them, like gravity and wind. That’s why skyscrapers are built with steel.

They also need to be flexible enough to withstand the forces that come against them … like gravity and wind. That’s why architects design skyscrapers with a certain amount of sway.

Strength and softness. The two sides of a superstructure. Two sides of love as well.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, marriage, parenting, relationships

You Can Have a Healthy Family (Even If Yours Wasn’t)

When you think of a family tree, you think of strong branches that represent generations of your family reaching to the sky.

But what do you do when those branches are broken by the storms of life? How do you become a good husband or wife, or a good father or mother, when your past has been marked by abandonment, divorce, or the death of a loved one?

My family didn’t have a family tree. We had a “family bush.” My mother died when I was nine years old.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, family, marriage

My Thoughts on Chick-fil-A’s Decision and the Leftist Mob that Pushed Them

News of Chick-fil-A’s decision to reprioritize their charitable giving and part ways with faith-based organizations like the Salvation Army and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes has understandably disappointed its legions of Christian supporters, including me.

Established in 1946 by S. Truett Cathy, the then fledgling chicken franchise grew rapidly throughout the United States, its business guided by their self-described mission “to glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us.”

I’ve long loved Chick-fil-A, not just for its food but also because of the strong Christian principles the company has adhered to – even against the changing tides of culture whose forces have continuously harassed and bullied the restaurant chain over the course of the last two decades.

Continue ReadingTopics: Current Events Tags: Chick-fil-A, current events

Understanding Our Mission in the Culture

In 2009, the late Chuck Colson led the charge among Orthodox, Catholic, and Evangelical Christian leaders to draw up a declaration that addressed three key issues crucial to the health and well-being of the culture: life, marriage, and religious freedom. Within months, over a half a million people signed the Manhattan Declaration.

Ten years later, we at Focus on the Family remain firm in our support of the tenets detailed in the Manhattan Declaration. In fact, to reaffirm them, we’ve invited John Stonestreet, the president of the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview, to our studios for a timely conversation about how Christians can keep their bearings in a culture that’s ever-changing.

Continue ReadingTopics: Current Events Tags: broadcast, culture

Guest Post: In a Generation that is Staying Single, Here’s Why I Got Married

By: Kathryn Andersen

My name is Kathryn, and I’m a statistical anomaly.

I’m one of the 27% of millennials who are married.

Student debt, cohabitation, and the “failure to launch” phenomenon have all been blamed for the plummeting marriage rates for people my age.

While those may certainly be factors, I think there’s one, huge, underlying issue that is mostly to blame. The best way I can explain that issue is through my story of cliff jumping.

Ever since I can remember, just the sight of a place called the “Hole in the Rock” — a tall cliff jumping spot on the lake my family frequently visited — was enough to make my heart pound and my hands sweat.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: faith, marriage