Vote Your Faith – Chris Leader on an effort to boost Christian turnout at the ballot box – 9/05/24

By Family Life News | September 5, 2024

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 9:54 — 13.6MB)

A Christian leader, named Chris Leader, is on a 100-day countdown to encourage evangelical Christians to register to vote this fall.

The “separation of church and state” isn’t in the U.S. Constitution, not in that form anyway. But Chris Leader says many people of faith separate themselves from political and social involvement. His effort “Vote Your Faith” is trying to change that.

In this conversation with Family Life’s Greg Gillispie, Leader explains how some Christians are being intimidated, so they avoid voting, politicking, or even speaking out on the issues in the nation and in the local community. He points to Biblical motivation to get registered, plus how a better turnout of Christian voters could quickly solve many of the current problems in our culture.

Vote Your Faith offers inspiration, resources and tools to help improve the ratio of faithful Christians who participate in campaigns and elections. (Some surveys show that 25 to 33 percent of evangelicals stay away from the polls on Election Day).

As of the date of this Family Life Newsmaker Interview (9/05/2024), Chris Leader is about one-third of the way through his 100 Day Countdown to November 5th . He posts a new commentary each day.

Here are links to those (soon to be) 100 commentaries and the Vote Your Faith website.

Churches and Political Actions – Kim Roberts – 8/29/24

By Family Life News | August 29, 2024

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:51 — 14.9MB)

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Churches and Political Actions

A Family Life Interview with Kim Roberts

Many churches and denominations can be labeled as supportive of one side of the political spectrum or the other. Others avoid politics at all costs.

Part of the reason congregations avoid actions and speech related to electoral politics is fear of risking their non-profit status. However, federal law and IRS regulations do not silence Christian entities which want to promote voting and motivate their people into political action.

Family Life News asked reporter Kim Roberts to detail her research into what is and isn’t allowed when churches and campaigns overlap. Christian individuals can always be active with promoting or opposing a candidate, but when it comes to 501(c)3 organizations, they have to stay non-partisan about candidates. Yet churches and other religious ministries are free to speak out on public issues that weigh on the ballot box. There are no IRS consequences for churches to hold candidate forums, carry out voter registration or get-out-the-vote efforts, or offer rides to the polls. In fact, as you will hear in this conversation, the Church throughout history has been vibrant and vocal in the political and social issues around them.

Kim Roberts, a reporter for the Christian journalism organization Ministry Watch, also discusses how local, state and national candidates reach out to churches, in order to influence their members to vote a certain way. Also, political and culture-fight organizations are finding ways to motivate people of faith to elect certain candidates or stand for particular political issues.

Kim Robert’s detailed article “Church and Politics: What’s Allowed?” is available from www.MinistryWatch.com. She also has other reporting on many faith-based events and issues.

Among the resources for congregations and church leaders — and other groups — she mentions in this podcast:

An IRS document, detailing the distinctions for 501(c)3 organizations on partisan politicking (not allowed) and lobbying (allowed)
Election guides for congregational planning from the NAACP and the Alliance Defending Freedom
Turning Point USA’s TPFaith efforts to motivate political and cultural action by conservative and mid-spectrum Christians
Black Church PAC’s plans to carry out a massive voter mobilization effort this fall
A political science professor’s observation that it is extremely rare that the IRS revokes a church’s charitable status, even if they carry out activities that lean solidly toward one candidate or one political party

Hometown Heroes – A Faith-Based “PATH” to fight human trafficking – 7/09/24

By Family Life News | July 9, 2024

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 5:51 — 8.1MB)

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It’s “Hometown Heroes” on Family Life

This week’s guest on “Hometown Heroes” is Julie Palmer of PATH — a faith-based organization which fights against human trafficking in western New York.

P.A.T.H. is People Against Trafficking Humans and is headquartered at Depew NY.

Their programs offer prevention, education and restoration. The Enrichment Center in Buffalo offers practical support to any adult or youth who has become a victim of crime, assault, domestic violence, sex trafficking or labor trafficking.

They offer a 24/7 line for voice calls and texts: 716-601-5678. The website is pathofwny.org.

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PATH sponsors a Community Awareness Event and Luncheon on July 30. That day will feature displays created by some of the people who have escaped from their captivity by traffickers. Information is here.

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“Hometown Heroes” is a Tuesday Family Life News feature which seeks out people who, individually or through their groups and organizations, are active with bringing about positive change in their local communities.

Your host is Family Life News Anchor Mark Webster. Subscribe to this podcast to get an update each time a new episode is posted. You can search through and listen to archives at www.FamilyLife.org/NewsPodcasts.

Inside Out – Pressures on today’s girls – 01/10/24

By Family Life News | January 10, 2024

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 22:27 — 30.9MB)

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Little Girls, Adult Pressures

Even the youngest girls feel the pressure to be sexy.

Adult pressures on girls begin early. Dr. Danny Huerta talks about ways parents can help their daughters know that their value is deeper than their appearance. Huerta is a father, a licensed clinical social worker, and the vice president of Parenting for Focus on the Family. “I’ve worked with a lot of young girls that have been in this culture that tells them that one of the most important things that they can do as a teen girl is to be sexy,” says Dr. Danny Huerta, licensed clinical social worker and the vice president of Parenting for Focus on the Family.

He is also the father of a teenaged daughter. “And what I’ve seen with my daughter is her wrestling match with what culture’s saying, what friends are saying in the way they dress and in the way they act and in what they’re talking about, and in what we’re talking about in the home and in what we’re talking about within the church,” he says.

Parents can help their daughters know that they do not need to be sexual to be loved. Their value is deeper than their appearance. “When you give them feedback on who they are, there’s a tendency for a lot of people to say, ‘Oh, man, you’re so beautiful. Look how beautiful you look.’ And that doesn’t mean you’re a bad person if you’ve done that or that you’ve damaged a young girl, but what you can do is expand that and say, ‘Man, I love that thought,’” he says. “Love a variety of things and show that excitement of what you’re discovering in who they are.”

Play our entire conversation (from the player above) to learn about helping girls see themselves not as commodities to be consumed, but as people valued by God with gifts and talents to contribute to the world.

Connect with Focus on the Family’s parenting articles and videos here.

Learn more about Dr. Danny Huerta here.

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Little Girls, Adult Pressures

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