Daly Focus Blog
It all started with a simple but big idea:
“Show the world the baby!”
That was the message I shared with our Focus team back in 2019, when we made the decision to perform a live ultrasound of a pre-born baby in the middle of New York City’s Times Square.
Back in January of that year, then New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and his legislature had celebrated the expansion of abortion rights in their state. And when I say “celebrated” – I mean it.
We sat around the living room, trying to be productive while facing death. The date was Wednesday, October 28, 2020, and tomorrow would be my Mother’s long-awaited funeral. Her cousin, Andy Cook, a highly respected minister, was asking me and my family rapid fire questions about her life as he prepared to deliver the eulogy.
The conversation was like reopening an old wound. Mom had died six months earlier on April 19th, after a battle with cancer.
Fire can cook you a juicy steak. Or it can burn your house to the ground. The difference lies in how well you harness the power of fire.
It’s the same with a strong will. There is a lot of good that comes from having what LeRoy and Kimberly Wagner describe as a “fierce” personality. But a strong-will gone wild can also wreak havoc.
If a woman isn’t in control of her strength, she can emasculate her husband.
One of America’s greatest freedoms is the right to worship God.
The 1st Amendment of the Constitution reads:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
Sadly, many of the freedoms assured us by the 1st Amendment are threatened or challenged in the culture.
Author Lee Strobel believes that family is the answer for today’s children to become “the greatest generation that has ever lived for Jesus Christ.”
He has strong evidence to back up that claim. Researchers at the University of California at Santa Barbara conducted a landmark multigenerational study concluding that parents are fundamental in passing down religious beliefs to their children.
In addition, the study affirmed that having a close bond with one’s father is the single biggest influence in a child’s life.
There’s a buzzword in culture that supposedly reveals the secret to a happy marriage.
“Chemistry.”
Successful relationships, we’re told, ultimately boil down to two people who naturally share common beliefs and interests, without effort.
Obviously, the more points of agreement between a husband and wife, the better. But in God’s economy, the secret to a thriving marriage isn’t in a couple’s similarities, but in how they handle their differences.
The same differences that so powerfully draw couples together when they’re courting or dating often drive them apart in marriage.
The scenes coming out of Kabul, Afghanistan this past week are deeply disturbing, and on so many levels.
Recent reports suggest women and children have been attacked and killed in the aftermath of the Taliban’s return to power. One woman was gunned down for not wearing a burka.
The oppression comes in various forms.
Dozens of photographs show workers painting over massive street advertisements featuring women. Not because they are sexually suggestive or immodest, but simply because they are unapologetically women.
Literally, women are being erased this week in Afghanistan.
The majority of the world looks upon such things as misogynistic and patriarchal, or at its worst, a return to an oppressive stone-age. This is the polar opposite of human progress. And it stands in direct contrast with the influence Christianity has upon the status of women.
Remove the belief system that unquestionably substantiates that both men and women are created in the image of God, and this is what remains.
A culture where womanhood is erased is inhumane and should be challenged in the strongest voice. But radical Islam isn’t alone in erasing women. In the most sophisticated centers of today’s culture, so-called “people of science” erase women in equally dramatic fashion.
The academic journal Breastfeeding Medicine released a new position statement, authored by eight medical doctors, informing medical professionals that the proper protocol is now to utilize “desexed language” when referring to the natural feeding of babies by their mothers. Words like, “breasts” is to be replaced with “chests”, “nursing mothers” are now “lactating persons” or “human milk-feeding individuals,” and “birthing people” is preferred over “mothers.”
Does anyone find this disturbing and perplexing?
Just weeks ago, journalist Katie Herzog wrote a widely circulated piece based on first-hand accounts explaining how professors at leading medical schools now “sincerely apologize” to their medical students for simply implying that only women can get pregnant.
“Why would medical school professors apologize for referring to a patient’s biological sex?” Herzog asks.
Self-rejection is dangerous.
Author Henri Nouwen once said, “The greatest trap in life is not success, popularity, or power, but self-rejection. Success, popularity, and power can indeed present a great temptation, but their seductive quality often comes from … self-rejection.”
Self-rejection usually begins as a lie communicated to us by others. Over time that message weaves itself into our lives and infects every relationship we’re in, including our relationship with God.
I’m sure you remember the moment when certain lies took root in your life.
“Mayday! Mayday!”
You recognize that distress call, don’t you? Even children have a rough idea of what it means. And the fact that they do reveals something important about effective communication.
The “mayday” distress code was designed to be simple and easy to understand. It was created in 1923 by Frederick Mockford, an airport radio officer in London, after his boss challenged him to devise a distress code that would easily be understood by pilots and ground staff in an emergency.
Wednesday’s vote in the Senate regarding the “budget blueprint” for a proposed $3.5 trillion spending spree next year raises far more questions than it answers, and especially for Christians concerned with a disregard for life and religious freedom.
If you’ve considered the ongoing debate these last few weeks to be confusing, join the club.
On Tuesday, the Senate passed a $1.2 trillion “infrastructure” bill that is purportedly designed to fund roads, bridges and trains. Yet, tucked inside that bill are dollars for salmon recovery, as well as increased food and beverage services on Amtrack.
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.
