Family and Home Archives

Would You Give Away Your Entire Salary?

If you felt God leading you to give away all of your income to help the poor, would you do it? That’s exactly what Traceway Baptist Church in Clinton, Mississippi, did between April 2010 and April 2011.

John Richardson is the pastor of the small congregation, which usually hosts about 50 people each Sunday.

“Everything that was given to our church in the offering plates,” said Pastor Richardson, “was given away to abused mothers that got out of bad situations basically with the clothes on their backs, or people that were trying to break free from addiction, or people that had lost jobs or facing foreclosures, or had extreme medical bills, or anything like that.”

In total, the church distributed approximately $60,000 throughout the 12-month period.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, family, relationships July 23, 2012 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

The Real Cause of the Colorado Shooting

The mass murder earlier this morning of 13 people in a Denver suburban movie theater is a story that feels eerily familiar.

Horror isn’t supposed to strike up memories. But this one does, and many of our minds race back to the senseless shootings at Columbine High School in 1999.

At this stage of the tragedy, people want to know why, allegedly, a 24-year-old man named James Holmes did it.

So do I.

Details about the shooter will begin to emerge as the investigation continues.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: events, news July 20, 2012 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Family is a Social Justice Issue

I want to share an article with you written by my colleague, Glenn Stanton. It was originally posted over at ChristianityToday.com and makes the case how strong marriages and families are a community’s most important social justice driver.

It’s an important article for all students of the family, making a tight, reasoned and diversely-documented case that marital status matters more significantly than other assumptive factors when it comes to lifting women and children out of poverty and protecting them from it.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: church, family, pop culture July 19, 2012 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Confessions of a College Intern

I’m delighted that Focus on the Family has long maintained a robust outreach to the next generation of leaders,especially high school, college and millennials.

Our Leadership Institute, which began in 1995, has been mentoring students from both Christian and non-religious universities in significant ways. In addition, our internship program has attracted some of the nation’s best young people. If you have a son or daughter in that age bracket, or you’re on the hunt for an opportunity yourself, I’d invite you to click here to connect with us.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, family, kids July 18, 2012 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

What Do You Think of This Photo?

This past weekend, Tim Goeglein, one of my colleagues at Focus, visited New York City’s Ground Zero Memorial.

There, at the southern tip of Manhattan, the names of all the twin tower victims are etched into the walls of one of the two waterfall cascades that commemorate where the two towers stood, and fell.

All the victims are memorialized…including the unborn child of a woman named Vanessa Lang Langer.

The child was known to her family and God.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: family, kids, pro-life July 17, 2012 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Should Officials Have Accepted This Answer?

United States Olympian Ryan Hall will be one of three runners representing America during the upcoming men’s marathon in London. The 29-year-old is an evangelical Christian who relishes theopportunity to share his faith when out in public. He and his wife, Sara, attend Bethel Church in Redding, California.

Their faith, not their running, defines them. It was during college at Stanford that Ryan rededicated his life to the Lord.

“I was a runner who happened to be a Christian,” Hall told the New York Times.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: entertainment, faith, religious liberty July 17, 2012 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Penn State Sin Makes Every Man a Suspect

Just when you didn’t think Penn State’s sexual abuse scandal could get any worse, last week’s independent investigation revealed that it’s done just that.

A seven-month study comprised of more than 400 interviews and a review of 3.5 million documents found that top university officials seemingly cared more about the school’s football program than they did the safety of innocent children.

It turns one’s stomach to think of the abuse of any child, let alone a child abused by a predator who was being protected by people with the power to prevent the evil.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: family, relationships July 16, 2012 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Why Mike Huckabee Makes Me Laugh

Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate-turned radio talk show host, was recently asked a series of questions by a reporter named Andrew Goldmen. I want to share two of them with you.

I appreciate a guy who doesn’t take himself too seriously.

Q: Could it possibly be true that you have never, ever tried alcohol in your life?
A: That’s true, other than communion wine in Europe. But I’ve never, ever tasted beer.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, humor, policy, pop culture July 12, 2012 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, Scientology and Divorce

The dissolution of any marriage is tragic. In fact, the southern novelist Pat Conroy may have said it best, declaring that “every divorce is the death of a small civilization.” It is.Tabloids have been abuzz lately regarding the high profile split between Hollywood stars Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes.

The couple has a six-year-old daughter, Suri. I don’t know much about them, but their split seems a bit unusual, even for Hollywood.Prior to the divorce proceedings, the Cruises were arguably the highest-profile members of the Church of Scientology, a movement that was started in 1950 by the release of Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health by L.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: pop culture July 12, 2012 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Free Slurpees and Our Twenty-Four-Hour Culture

7-Eleven celebrates its 85th anniversary today (7/11/12) and to mark the occasion, stores will be handing out free seven-ounce Slurpees. And all the kids – and adults who have a little kid inside them – rejoiced. Coming from a business background, the explosion of the convenience store model is pretty fascinating.

Started as the Southland Ice Company in 1927 in Dallas, Texas, the original store evolved and expanded over the years.In 1946 operators decided to open at 7 AM and close at 11 PM – a bold and unprecedented move at the time.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: events, policy, pop culture July 11, 2012 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura