Jim Daly

This California Bill Threatens Religious Freedom

A bill threatening free speech and religious freedom is quickly moving through the California state assembly.

What’s it all about?

Assembly Bill 2943 (AB 2943) uses the state’s consumer fraud statute to penalize religious freedom and free speech on the issues of homosexuality and gender identity.

The bill adds “sexual orientation change efforts” to the state’s “Consumer Legal Remedies Act.”

How does this affect people of faith?

Both Scripture and Christian teaching are clear about God’s good plan for marriage and sexuality: God designed marriage to join one man and one woman in a committed, exclusive, lifelong relationship.

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Protecting Your Child from Sexual Abuse

April is National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month. The statistics are heartbreaking: One in 4 girls will be sexually abused before her eighteenth birthday. For boys, the number is 1 in 6.

Sexual abuse isn’t an easy conversation, but the information we have to share with parents on our broadcast “Protecting Your Child from Sexual Abuse” can help your children avoid becoming part of the disturbing statistics.

An overwhelming percentage of abuse – close to 90 percent – comes from someone the child knows and trusts, like a family friend or someone from within the family itself.

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Connecting with others in Meaningful Relationships

Christian philosopher Dallas Willard described intimacy as “shared experience.”

He meant that our lives are more than flesh and blood. They’re a series of experiences. The birth of a child. A great conversation. A hike up a mountain trail. A great piece of music. Intimacy is simply inviting someone to share in the experience that you’re having.

We do that with God and with other people every day. But some days it doesn’t seem so simple, does it?

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Focus on the Family Best Seller List

Week ending April 3rd:

Triggers (by Amber Lia & Wendy Speake)
I Am: A 60-Day Journey to Knowing Who You Are Because of Who He Is (by Michele Cushatt)
I’d Like You More If You Were More Like Me (by John Ortberg)
Happy, Happy, Happy (by Phil Robertson)
Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story (by Ben Carson)
How We Love (by Milan Yerkovich)
The Freedom from Depression Workbook (by Les Carter)
The Holy Spirit (by Billy Graham)
The Mom Project (by Kathi Lipp)
I Can Only Imagine (by Bart Millard)
Love & Respect (by Emerson Eggerichs)
Blessed, Blessed .

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: faith, marriage, parenting, pop culture

How God Uses Marriage to Transform Our Selfishness

Why did you get married?

For yourself? Or for your spouse?

Be honest. It was for you, wasn’t it?

Don’t feel too guilty about that. The rest of us probably did the same thing. Most of us get married because the relationship makes us happy. We thought marriage to this person would make our lives better.

That’s not entirely selfish. God wants us to enjoy our relationships with our spouses, but He also has a larger purpose in mind.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, marriage, relationships

The Curious “Comedy” of Stephen Colbert

This past Easter Sunday, Stephen Colbert’s animated television show, “Our Cartoon President,” not only lampooned the President (which is expected), but Colbert also had the nation’s chief executive talk crassly about severing a part of God’s anatomy.

Of course, his defenders will says it’s just a joke – satire on steroids. After all, how can we take a cartoon seriously?

Mr. Colbert is an entertainer, and as such, he understands how to get a strong response from a crowd.

Continue ReadingTopics: Current Events Tags: entertainment, faith, humor

Connecting with Your Child When You Don’t Know How

Doesn’t it seem like connecting with your children ought to come naturally? So what do you do when it doesn’t?

Author Kathi Lipp says the “problem” is often a difference in personality. Our children have a unique way of seeing the world. Instead of hindering our relationship, what if their uniqueness became the very foundation upon which a strong connection was built?

Kathi says your child’s personality is a window into his or her soul. Although God doesn’t create children with cookie cutter personalities, there are a lot of commonalities:

Expressive.

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From Conflict and Marriage Troubles to a Duck Dynasty

From growing up dirt poor to becoming reality television superstars, Phil and Kay Robertson, of A&E’s Duck Dynasty, have persevered for more than fifty years together.

It hasn’t always been easy. Their first years together were defined by poverty and alcohol abuse so severe Miss Kay eventually kicked Phil out of the house. Phil says their transformation individually and as a couple was only made possible through repentance.

“We look at the word ‘repent’ as a bad thing,” Phil says.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, faith, family, marriage

Should Our Christianity Be Private or Public?

Today is Good Friday, the day Christians remember Jesus’ death on the cross for our sins. Sunday is Easter, the day we celebrate His resurrection.

The rest of the world spends this season conjecturing about who Jesus is or debating whether or not He ever existed.

Throughout the culture, the story of Easter is seen as having everything to do with personal faith and nothing to do with objective truth. Religion, it’s believed, doesn’t deal with facts, it deals with personal experience and feelings.

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How to Find Your Identity in Christ

“Who am I?”

Deep down, that’s a question we’re all asking ourselves. Sometimes it’s answered for us by others … and not always in a good way.

Author Michele Cushatt remembers being 19, in college, and overhearing some fellow students talking about her. One of the boys in the group said, “Michele would be beautiful if she wasn’t so fat.”

She was crushed, embarrassed, and humiliated. Worst of all, his comment solidified what she already believed about herself: Beauty was out of reach for her.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, faith, relationships