Jim Daly

What’s So Wrong About a Church Feeding a Football Team?

A high school football coach in Georgia is under investigation today. But he’s not being scrutinized for sexual misconduct, alcohol abuse or recruiting violations.

He’s being investigated for allowing his football team to receive meals from local church groups. He’s also being accused of violating the Constitution by praying with his team, quoting the Bible in his inspirational messages and interacting with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

Parents haven’t complained. Neither have school officials. The complaint was filed by the Wisconsin-based group The Freedom from Religion Foundation.

Continue ReadingTopics: Current Events Tags: faith, kids, news, pop culture, religious liberty

Tim Tebow, Chastity and New York

Is it more difficult to remain a virgin in New York City than elsewhere in America?

Some pundits and culture-watchers seem to think so, leading to speculation in Monday’s New York Times that New York Jet Tim Tebow is going to have a tough time remaining chaste in the Big Apple.

The writer of the piece spoke with Miki Reaume, a Christian and former Rockette at Radio City Music Hall. “When my friends found out I was planning on waiting until I was married, I got laughed at quite a bit,” she said.

Continue ReadingTopics: Current Events Tags: faith, news, pop culture, relationships, sex

Have a Quiet Child? Here are Three Things You Must Do

Susan Cain is the best-selling author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking. A popular lecturer, the Harvard-trained lawyer offers terrific insight and advice for everybody in her book, but especially for parents who have “quiet”- tempered children:

“The best thing parents and teachers can do for introverted kids,” she writes, “is to treasure them for who they are, and encourage their passions.”

Here are three things she recommends parents do:

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: kids, parenting, relationships

The Secret to Finding Joy

Do you want to have Christian joy?

Meditate on Him; think about Him. Try to think about the glory of this person, this incomparable person. The New Testament is constantly dealing with this. Our Lord told us that the Holy Spirit has been specially given in order to glorify Him: “He shall not speak of himself … he shall glorify me” (John 16:13-14).

The way to test whether or not our experiences are the work of the Spirit is always to ask what view they give us of Him.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: church, faith

VIDEO: How to Make a Difference

In East Los Angeles you’ll find a little boy with a big imagination. Only nine years-old, Caine Monroy spent his summer at his dad’s auto parts store with nothing much to do. So with the help of a little packing tape and a lot of creativity, he turned a back room full of empty boxes into a makeshift arcade.

There was only one problem.

For weeks and weeks, only one person stopped in to play. But that one person got an idea.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: entertainment, events, kids

A Dad Reflects on the First Day of School

Today I want to share with you a poignant reflection from my friend and colleague, James Anderson. If you have children, I know you’ll relate to his words.

A Morning I Will Never Forget

My wife and I walked our first-born daughter, Charlie Mae, to kindergarten the other day. The kids were decked out in new sneakers, sparkly clothes and backpacks so new they were stiff. The scene was full of parents with cameras in hand and tears in their eyes.

Continue ReadingTopics: Current Events Tags: faith, family, kids, parenting, religious liberty

Reaction to the Shooting at the Family Research Council

Our thoughts and prayers are with our friends at FRC. Senseless shootings like this are always tragic; but there’s an extra measure of sadness and disbelief when it hits so close to home. We are thankful that the heroic security guard who subdued his alleged shooter was not more seriously wounded.

Early indications are that FRC may have been targeted for its biblical views on social-policy issues. That is a chilling thought. No person or group of any ideological stripe – left, right or center — should have to fear physical violence for passionately articulating and acting on their deeply held convictions in the realm of public policy.

Continue ReadingTopics: Current Events Tags: events, faith, news, policy, religious liberty

Would You Take Friends on Your Honeymoon?

According to a recent article in The New York Times, more and more couples are bringing their friends and even their parents on their honeymoon. In fact, there’s even a newly coined term for the practice:

The Buddymoon.

To borrow Dave Barry’s famous phrase, “No, I’m not making this up.”

Interestingly, though, it’s the newly married couple who are instigating the extended celebration with family and friends.

With cohabitation on the rise, a special romantic getaway for the newlyweds doesn’t quite have the same draw.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: husband, intimacy, marriage, sex, wife

Five Things This Hero Taught Us About Fighting Evil

Nellie Grey, “the mother of the March for Life” each year in Washington, D.C., has died. She was 88.

Miss Nell devoted the last 39 years of her life to overturning the Supreme Court’s 1973 decision that legalized abortion. That Roe still lives on in law and Nellie Grey is dead will cause some critics and cynics to suggest she failed in her greatest pursuit.

Don’t believe it.

The story of Miss Grey’s life is a tremendous testimony to the power and significance of a single soul consumed by a magnificent obsession.

Continue ReadingTopics: Current Events Tags: faith, family, policy, pro-life

Two of My Favorite Quotes

“So let the reader who expects this book to be a political exposé slam its covers shut right now. If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being.”

– Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago

“When a man is getting better, he understands more and more clearly the evil that is still left in him.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: faith, policy