The Top Threats Facing Families Today

by Zachary Mettler | February 26, 2025 | Family

This article is the first in a two-part series focusing on modern threats to the family. It features remarks from the National Religious Broadcasters Conference (NRB) held February 24-27, 2025, in Dallas, Texas.

The very first panel held at this year’s NRB Conference, titled, “Protecting Foundations of the Family,” featured several important speakers, including:

  • Chris Elston (Billboard Chris), Founder of We Speak Truth
  • Katy Faust, Founder and President of Them Before Us
  • Mary Margaret Olohan, D.C Correspondent at The Daily Wire
  • Delano Squires, Research Fellow, Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Life, Religion, and Family at The Heritage Foundation

Radio host Chris Stigall hosted the panel, asking participants what they consider the most important threat facing families today.

Katy Faust

Children’s rights advocate Katy Faust zeroed in on the numerous dangers posed to children.

“What we have is cultural, legal and technological forces working together to render children as functional accessories,” Faust declared. “Unfortunately, the church, and even conservatives, are blind to a lot of the threats that kids are facing in these three different areas. My main message is all [that] these conversations must center on the rights of the child.”

Addressing the legal threats, Faust spoke about how the legalization of so-called same-sex marriage has victimized children.

“What we have seen in every country that has legalized gay marriage is that [they] legalize gay parenting,” Faust said. “When you make husbands and wives optional in marriage, you make mothers and fathers optional in parenting.”

Regarding the cultural threat, Faust said many modern norms and mantras undermine children’s rights, like the phrases:

  • “Biology doesn’t matter.”
  • “Love makes a family.”
  • “If the adults are happy, the kids will be happy.”

“All of those things [are] a sort of a cultural permission slip to do whatever you want with a child’s family and believe that they’re going to be just fine,” Faust asserted. “Obviously, the data shows otherwise.”

In addition, Faust addressed the technological threats to children, including those initiated by the IVF industry.

“IVF is not child friendly; it is not pro-life. It is anti-child technology,” she posited, pointing out that, as it is usually practiced, “IVF destroys probably four times the number of little lives every year than Planned Parenthood does.”

“When you are making babies in a laboratory, it is also very easy to violate their right to a mother and father,” she added.

Faust concluded,

We have to be on alert against all three of these threats to the family, cultural, legal and technological. And we are going to lose major credibility with the next generation if we are very selective about threats we choose to confront, and which ones we turn a blind eye to.

Chris Elston

Chris Elston – also known as “Billboard Chris” – focused his remarks on the threat gender ideology poses to children. Since 2020, he has travelled around North America to stand in public places with a standard sandwich board that reads, “Children cannot consent to puberty blockers.”

On the back of his sandwich board, Chris gives his definition of what a dad is: “A human male who protects his kids from gender ideology.”

“I’m Chris, I’m from a communist country called Canada,” Elston joked when introducing himself. “I think the biggest threat going on right now is this evil ideology called gender ideology.”

He shared the truth about gender ideology:

There’s no such thing as a transgender child. They’re called girls and boys. And the positive message we should be sending is that they’re beautiful just as they are, no drugs or scalpels needed.

“According to The New York Times, 300,000 children have been diagnosed with ‘gender dysphoria,’” Elson added. “This isn’t coming to your community, it’s already there.”

He also called on people to speak up against gender ideology:

For me, this is the biggest child abuse crisis going on in the world today, and we have to talk about it. We have to stop being fearful, because we have the truth on our side.

Mary Margaret Olohan

Olohan, author of the book, Detrans: True Stories of Escaping the Gender Ideology Cult, shared about the young people she interviewed for her book. They were deeply harmed by social media, which influenced them to pursue transgender medical interventions.

“They told me that most of their experiences started on social media,” Olohan shared. “So, I would say that social media is one of the biggest threats to the family, to the innocence of children, in our modern day.”

“I speak to these detransitioners, hear these stories over and over of how their lives were dramatically altered by consuming social media content.”

Olohan said social media threatens all children, even those who have loving parents: “Young kids go upstairs with that phone, shut their door, and who knows who’s in their room with them.”

Delano Squires

“The greatest threat to the family today is cultural apathy,” Squires opened.

“Where we are today is the result of a series of policy decisions, cultural shifts and societal norms that change over the course of years,” he added, going on to explain:

We have become a society that has defied God, in terms of the definition of male and female; we have deformed marriage through our laws and policies; we’ve displaced faith through big government; we’ve deceived women, telling them that the height of femininity is to act, speak and behave like men; we’ve destroyed children through the scourge of abortion; and we constantly elect leaders that deny the problem.

Squires concluded, “We don’t see this as a five-alarm fire, and we really should.”

Check back later for part two featuring remarks from the NRB panel, “Protecting Foundations of the Family.”

To speak with a family help specialist or request resources, please call us at 1-800-A-FAMILY (232-6459).

Focus on the Family will soon unveil a new documentary Truth Rising. John Stonestreet of the Colson Center and social critic Os Guinness lead a journey through the decline of Western Civilization and the confusion about the defining issues of our time. We point to the hope we have in Christ and our calling in this incredible moment. Be inspired to love truth and stand firmly, wherever you are.

You can watch the trailer and sign up to stay updated on Truth Rising.

Related articles and resources:

The Irreplaceable Impact of a Mom and Dad with Katy Faust

Chloe Cole: Gender Reassignment Surgery Regret

Addressing Gender Identity with Honesty and Compassion

Tech Trends: Protecting Kids from Social Media Harm

Photo from Shutterstock.