faith Archives

Thanks Be to Our Gracious God

In this week’s On Faith blog, the Washington Post’s Sally Quinn posed the following question to me and my fellow panelists:

In October 1789, President George Washington declared his support for a day of “public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God.”

Do you have a Thanksgiving blessing or prayer? What are you grateful for?

Here is how I responded:

It’s customary in our family to ask this very important question each year, and everybody usually groans and thinks it a chore.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, family November 23, 2010 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Is Marriage Going Out of Style?

On Thursday, USA Today published a story highlighting new research from the Pew Center claiming marriage to be obsolete.

A gross exaggeration?

You think?

Christianity Today very graciously invited a response and just published it in today’s online edition.

I would welcome your thoughts and reaction.

To view the piece as it appears in CT, please click here or simply continue reading below…

Marriage in Obsolescence

Why recent headlines on marriage don’t do the new Pew survey justice.

Topics: Current Events Tags: faith, family, marriage November 19, 2010 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Black and White Problems

Bob Herbert is a respected and decorated opinion columnist for The New York Times. On the paper’s website he’s referred to as a journalist known for his “fearless articulation of unpopular truths.”

This past Monday Mr. Herbert lived up to his billing when he opined about the heartbreaking state of the African-American family.

The veteran columnist served up a one-two punch. After noting that black boys and girls are three times more likely to live in single-parent households than white children and twice as likely to have a parent without a full-time job, he dove directly into the heart of the crisis:

The first and most important step (to fix the problem) would be a major effort to begin knitting the black family back together.

Topics: Current Events Tags: faith, family, husband, news November 18, 2010 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Do Pets Go to Heaven?

A colleague sent me a note the other day, more of a joke than anything, about a business that promises to take care of your pet after the Rapture.

But it’s no joke. It’s a real for-profit enterprise.

The company, Eternal Earth Bound Pets, USA, was started by a consortium of atheists. From their website:

“Q: Is this a joke? A: No. This is a serious offer to our Christian friends who believe in the Second Coming and honestly care about the future of their pets after the Rapture occurs.”

They charge $110 per house and promise to place your animal with those left behind.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith November 9, 2010 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Dirt Roads

When was the last time you drove a dirt road?

Living out west in Colorado, just along the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, it’s not very hard to find one. The boys love it when we’re forced to venture off a paved street and find ourselves bouncing and navigating gravel and rocky paths. I have to admit, it’s kind of fun, so long as we don’t bust a hole in the gas tank, crack a windshield or blow the shocks or struts on the car.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, friendship November 8, 2010 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

An Excess of Democracy?

Life is beginning to return to normal in the Daly house following Tuesday’s historic election.

By “normal” I mean it’s been three days since our home phone rang five times during dinner with candidate robo-calls and our mailbox was overstuffed with campaign flyers!

The pundits will continue to analyze Tuesday’s results and draw their subjective conclusions. I have mine; you have yours. At a Wednesday press conference, President Obama qualified the outcome as a “shellacking” – a candid admission by any measure.

Topics: Current Events Tags: events, faith, policy, pop culture November 5, 2010 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

The Day After

I’m on my way to California today. Tonight, I’ll be in Palm Desert speaking to a group at the Desert Springs Church. Tomorrow, I’ll be addressing a wonderful gathering of pro-life supporters at a pregnancy resource clinic banquet in Newport Beach. These are true stalwarts. One of their clinics (in Long Beach) is literally situated between two abortion providers. In this year alone the facility has saved 191 babies!

On a related note, results from last night’s mid-term elections are continuing to roll in.

Topics: Current Events Tags: faith, family, policy November 3, 2010 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Thoughts on Election Day 2010

Have you voted yet?

If not, why not?

If you have, what was the scene like at your polling place? Or did you vote early or by mail this year?

I was thinking the other day about the first time I ever voted. It was in 1980 and I was living in California. I was 19 years-old. I pulled the lever that year for Ronald Reagan. You might think that was an easy decision, but at the time, I was faced with something of a personal dilemma.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: events, faith, policy November 2, 2010 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Halloween and Christianity

This coming Sunday is October 31st, a date of historical significance on several levels, depending upon your faith tradition and cultural upbringing.

To many Christians, October 31st is remembered and revered as “Reformation Day”, a key date in Church history. It was on the last day of October in 1517 when Martin Luther wrote a letter to the Catholic Archbishop of Mainz and Magdeburg, protesting, among other things, the sale of indulgences. He had other complaints, too, and what would become known as the “95 Theses” were nailed to the door of the Schlosskirche (Castle Church) in Wittenburg, Germany.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: entertainment, events, faith, parenting October 29, 2010 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Know That You Don’t Always Have to Know

When Lee Strobel quit his job as a Chicago journalist back in the late ‘80s and joined Willow Creek’s pastoral staff, his colleagues wondered if he had gone off the deep end. From a professional standpoint, his decision struck them as strange: His job was a dream come true and, in fact, the culmination of a pursuit that began as a kid when he founded and published a neighborhood newspaper at age 12.

He was committing certain career suicide, they told him.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, faith October 28, 2010 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura