faith Archives

What Makes a Good Judge?

That’s the question I posed to my friend Chuck Colson during a recent Focus on the Family radio program that discussed President Obama’s nomination of Elena Kagan to the United States Supreme Court.

Solicitor General Kagan is a former Dean of Harvard’s law school and clearly a very bright and accomplished scholar. But during our visit, Chuck expressed some deep reservations about the Solicitor General’s nomination. Chuck’s objections were not based on her intellect but instead her judicial philosophy.

Topics: Current Events Tags: events, faith, policy May 18, 2010 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Who Stole the Cross?

About 75 years ago, the Veterans of Foreign Wars erected a 5’8″ white cross in the Mojave National Preserve, an area now controlled by the National Park Service out in California’s desert.

Officially known as the “Mojave Memorial Cross,” it was put in place to honor the fallen heroes of World War I. Not everyone is happy with its presence atop Sunrise Rock. For the better part of a decade, this memorial has been the subject of a fierce court battle.

Topics: Current Events Tags: events, faith, policy, pop culture May 13, 2010 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Emerging Adults and the Teaching of Truth

Dr. Christian Smith is a Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for the Study of Religion and Society at the University of Notre Dame. Credentials of that caliber will usually place an academic’s scholarly work outside normal day-to-day banter.

Sometimes, but not always.

Such is the case with Dr. Smith’s new book entitled, Souls in Transition: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults. This collaborative work with Patricia Snell contains some interesting and eyebrow-raising information Christians need to know.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, family May 12, 2010 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Gendercide: The War Against Girls

Gendercide, a term first coined in a 1985 book by Mary Anne Warren, is a cold and ominous sounding word, and rightly so. Coupled with a photo of a single pair of empty pink baby shoes silhouetted against a black backdrop, it’s downright haunting. But that’s what the editors of a recent issue of the Economist did when they published a startling expose on a largely ignored modern-day holocaust.

What is it all about?

According to a technical understanding of the term, “gendercide” is the deliberate extermination of one particular gender, male or female.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, kids, pro-life May 11, 2010 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Motherhood By The Numbers

As you know, yesterday was Mother’s Day. It was an emotional time for me. My heart melts at the thought of my own dear mom, a great woman now gone from earth for nearly 40 years. Though decades have passed since her untimely death when I was just 9 years old, her influence on me remains steady and sure. My mother was a strong but very gentle lady. If I close my eyes, I can still hear her voice and feel the softness of her hand in mine.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, family, news, wife May 10, 2010 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

National Day of Prayer Reflections

How did you spend your National Day of Prayer?

Yesterday I mentioned that my plans included participating in a service with the staff here at Focus on the Family. We had a wonderfully moving and inspirational time together. Dan Woolley, a Colorado Springs resident and fellow ministry colleague with Compassion International, joined us.

Dan is a survivor of the Haitian earthquake. His story nearly takes my breath away. Dan shared his miraculous testimony of enduring 65 harrowing hours buried in the rubble of the Hotel Montana.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: events, faith May 7, 2010 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Prayer—For Such a Time as This

Today is the National Day of Prayer, a beautiful and sacred time-honored American tradition. Ironically, a lawsuit threatening its legality and waged by atheists is now making its way to the Supreme Court and bringing more attention to the subject of public prayer than ever before.

But for now, over the course of the next twenty-four hours, there will be thousands of prayer events hosted and conducted throughout our nation. Some will be attended by scores of people and framed by pomp and pageantry; others might consist of two or three co-workers who give up their lunch and gather in a quiet office break room for the simple but profound purpose of praying for this great country.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: events, faith May 6, 2010 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

What if Someone Did Find Noah’s Ark?

As I scanned the headlines last week, there’s one that caught my eye: “Has Noah’s Ark Been Found on Turkish Mountaintop?” According to news reports, a number of evangelical Turkish and Chinese explorers believe they’ve found Noah’s Ark resting 13,000 feet upon Mount Ararat on an eastern Turkish mountain. Although encased in ice and snow, one of the explorers, Yeung Wing-Cheung, said, “It’s not 100% that it is Noah’s Ark, but we think it is 99.9% that this is it.”

Yeung made the startling statement based on several factors.

Topics: Current Events Tags: events, faith, news May 2, 2010 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

A Day of Prayer for Judicial Common Sense

The news came as a bit of a shock last week: According to a federal judge in Wisconsin, the National Day of Prayer is unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb ruled that a federal endorsement of the day somehow violates the “Establishment Clause” of the First Amendment.

To even the casual observer, Judge Crabbs’s decision was a curious and perplexing one. After all, there have been federally recognized days of prayer in America for as long as there have been stars on the flag.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, policy April 22, 2010 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Tebow Chooses Principles Over Pocketbook

Tim Tebow will know in a couple of days where he’ll be playing professional football. Far more important, though, before he signs his first NFL contract, he already knows what his off-the-field priorities are: principles before pocketbook.

The Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback and former University of Florida standout made that abundantly clear this past weekend while speaking to a Christian college audience about the reaction in some quarters to his appearance in a commercial for Focus on the Family during this year’s Super Bowl.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: entertainment, faith, pop culture April 20, 2010 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura