Daly Focus Blog
The landscape of marriage in our country has experienced seismic shifts in recent decades.
In the 1970s, 89 percent of babies were born to a married couple. Today, that number is around 60 percent. And in 1960, about 72 percent of adults were married. That has now dropped to about 50 percent.
Culture has changed, and views about marriage reflect those changes. It should come as no surprise, then, that marriage is largely seen through a consumer-driven mindset.
This Friday my family and I will travel to Zambia to participate in Camp Life, a week-long camp for orphaned and vulnerable children in the southern African country.
The need is overwhelming. So many adults have died from HIV/AIDS that half of the country’s 15 million people are under the age of 16. Of the 6.5 million children in Zambia, more than 1 million of them are orphans.
Zambia has the highest per capita orphan rate in the world.
Have Christians created a harmful atmosphere for gays?
That’s the question The New York Times asked me last week in the aftermath of the massacre in Orlando by self-proclaimed ISIS supporter Omar Mateen.
If you think the question is startling, you’re not alone.
While Christians have mourned the loss of life in Orlando and area Christians have jumped in to provide tangible love and support for those impacted by the violence, there’s been a push by some to put some of the blame on Bible-believing Christians – specifically, those of us who support God’s design for marriage and who have advocated for it in the public square.
What’s your name?
I don’t mean your given name. I’m asking about your real name, the name that defines that sense about yourself you most deeply believe – your identity.
Some of you go by the name “wealthy businessman,” “bread winner of the home,” or “perfectionist.” Your identity is about performance and earning your worth. Others of you have names like “failure,” “disappointment,” or “unworthy.” Your life has been shaped by the message that you don’t live up to people’s expectations.
What happens when a researcher tries to measure the parent-child bond using the same standard yardstick for both moms and dads?
Dads lose.
That’s what Dr. Kathryn Kerns discovered when she talked to teens and preteens about their parents.
But something wasn’t adding up: the kids were describing “rich, warm relationships” with their dads. So why weren’t the fathers scoring better?
Because the researchers were using the wrong yardstick.
Turns out you can’t evaluate dads the same as moms, because fathers parent their children very differently than mothers do.
Men have a special role in the family.
They show their daughters what to look for in a future husband and how a man should treat his wife. They show their boys how to be a committed husband, a loving father, and a man of integrity.
At least that’s what we’re striving to do.
We don’t always hit the mark, but I can tell you, there are a lot of good men out there. They’re dedicated fathers and husbands who are committed to their families and work hard to instill strong values in their children.
What does true happiness look like?
Is the concept of happiness even biblical?
I’ll never forget the trip I took to Jakarta, Indonesia, many years ago for a speaking engagement. If you’ve never been there, it has some of the worst smog of any city in the world. My eyes burned, and breathing was difficult after being there for only a short time. The traffic is notorious. Imagine Los Angeles and New York combined and multiply all of that by a factor of 10.
We woke up to shocking news Sunday: a man had entered Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, in the early morning hours and began shooting.
When the carnage ended, 49 innocents were dead, plus the gunman. An additional 53 were wounded.
We’re now learning about the people who were murdered. There’s Edward Sotomayor, Jr., who loved wearing black hats, and 20-year-old Luis Omar Ocasio-Capo, who was among the youngest of the victims.
Kimberly Morris had recently moved to Florida to help her mom and grandmother.
Several years ago, Christianity Today ran an article suggesting I was waving the white flag of surrender on biblical marriage in the culture.
I wasn’t waving a white flag at all. I was simply saying that, if you look at the statistics, a growing number of people under 40 – both Christian and non-Christian – now support same-sex marriage. That entire demographic has emerged as a motivated voter block. I felt then that this cultural viewpoint would win the day in the fight to redefine marriage, and daily news headlines over the past year have only validated my concerns.
I’m on the road today, but wanted to take a minute and share an important piece in National Review by Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse and pro-life activist Jill Stanek.
“Abortion Survivors Deserve Our Care” went live on National Review’s website yesterday and it’s already a top trending news story on Facebook – and I’m glad it is.
The piece highlights the horrors faced by babies who survive abortion attempts. In short: they are left to die alone, without medical care.
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.
