Relatively little is known about the life of James the Just, the author of the epistle of James, and thought by many to be the half-brother of Jesus. As the first bishop of Jerusalem, and a peer to Peter and Paul and many other giants of the faith, James is, nevertheless, revered as a hero of the early church, and for good reason.

Of course he affirmed the divinity, resurrection and redeeming power of Jesus, but he’s best remembered for not only preaching right doctrine – but for believing and teaching that living out our faith can transform a broken and battered world.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith June 10, 2011 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

A colleague forwarded me a news article the other day written by James Dao of The New York Times. My friend kept his own comments brief. “This is not a parody,” he wrote. I was intrigued. After all, this was the Times, not the Onion, why would he need to qualify it in that manner?

The piece was titled, “Atheists Seek Chaplain Role in the Military.”

I quickly understood the context of my friend’s note.

“Strange as it sounds,” Dao wrote, “groups representing atheists and secular humanists are pushing for the appointment of one of their own to the chaplaincy, hoping to give voice to what they say is a large — and largely underground — population of nonbelievers in the military.”

Existing chaplains are generally opposed to the idea, for obvious reasons.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith May 2, 2011 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

A colleague was recently telling me a story of a man whose son years ago was growing weary of balancing the rigors of college with two part-time jobs.

Here was a typical day for this 19-year-old student:

His mornings would begin in the pre-dawn dark, in the middle of the night, really, delivering newspapers out of his beat-up 1977 Chevy Malibu. After the final paper was tossed, he’d race home, shower, change and grab a Pop-Tart or bagel on the way out to class.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith April 12, 2011 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura