Evangelism

Katy Faust Fiercely Explains Why God’s Design for Family Matters

Katy Faust, founder and president of Them Before Us, sat down with Jordan Peterson on his show to talk about what family form serves children and humanity best and why. Faust, a Seattle mother of four and a pastor’s wife, explained to Dr. Peterson right off the bat, saying,

“I will just state right up front, I am a Bible-thumping, evangelical to the max. You want evangelical credentials, I got you.”

She then explains how she became a public instigator for the sake of children and the family. Faust told the world-famous psychology professor she is a grace-giver by temperament, but she learned how to become a bold truth-teller when she saw various political and ideological groups trying to redefine the family in order to serve radical adult desires.

Peterson explains “Katy comes down pretty hard on both the religious and biological side” of family, “arguing, and I think rightly so, that there isn’t an ideal that can replace long term, committed, monogamous, child-centered, heterosexual marriage.”

He added, “If you accept the doctrine that what is good for children is good for adults and for the state, then institutions that focus on the flourishing of children, those institutions have to be foundational and prioritized.” Of course, he is speaking of the first institution God created and prioritized: the family.

Watch Faust’s very strong defense of the natural family:

It is well worth watching in full. There are many things that are extremely helpful, encouraging and informative about this in-depth interview. But one of the most truly interesting is watching a very smart Chrisitan mom and pastor’s wife explain to one of the most influential intellectuals in the world why mothers and fathers, lifelong marriage and biology are essential to the family, children and society.

Viewers see these important realizations appear on Dr. Peterson’s face, in real time, as Faust explains some very basic human facts to him about God’s design for humanity and the family.

Kudos to Katy Faust for this masterful and instructive feat.

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Freedom from Religion Zealots Unwittingly Promote Christianity

It’s ironic but true: the Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) is obsessed with religion.

The latest proof can be found in a full-page ad in Tuesday’s New York Times featuring an illustrated drawing of the Statue of Liberty holding high a cross with the word “THEOCRACY” in a wave crashing at its base.

“The State of Separation Between State and Church is Perilous,” the headline reads. “Help stem the Christian Nationalist Tidal Wave.”

Founded in 1976 by a mother and daughter upset their local Wisconsin legislators opened meetings in prayer, the FFRF has made it their mission for nearly fifty years to protest any public expression of faith.

To be sure, the group has gotten it very wrong from the beginning. Consider what they told the lawmakers back in 1976:

“It is not the business of governmental bodies to pray,” said Anne Gaylor. “When board members pray publicly, you inflict pressure, compulsion and embarrassment on those of your members and those of your audience who do not accept or share these private religious views.”

Public prayer does no such thing. The only pressure it seems to elicit stems from antagonists obsessed with eradicating it.

Even the Supreme Court has upheld legislative and other public prayers, and it’s a good thing. Its own marshal opens each session with a litany that ends with the phrase, “God save the United States and this Honorable Court!” Several friezes of Moses holding the Ten Commandments are also featured in and on the historic building.

The so-called “Christian Nationalist Tidal Wave” is a laughable farce, a concocted bogeyman that simply doesn’t exist.

Anytime someone dares mention their faith or acknowledge its impact on America’s founding, FFRF seizes on the reference. Perhaps unknowingly, the group regularly calls more attention to faith with their over-the-top campaigns protesting it than were they to remain silent.

In fact, this tried and tired tactic recalls Joseph’s words in Genesis:

“You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today” (Gen. 50:20).

For years, FFRF has put a cross in Lady Liberty’s right hand to mock Christianity and make a claim that facts fail to back up. Originally named “Liberté éclairant le monde” or “Liberty Enlightening the World,”and designed by Auguste Bartholdi, the grand statue was dedicated on October 28, 1886.

Mr. Bartholdi was said to choose a woman for the statue because of Europe’s long association of certain virtues (generosity, piety, good faith) with women. He wasn’t the first artist to correlate the idea of liberty with a female, but never had it been depicted on such a grand scale and stage.

The torch in Lady Liberty’s right hand is designed to symbolize enlightenment, along with a commitment to freedom and democracy.

Once more, maybe it’s fitting that FFRF has chosen to swap out the torch with the cross. As Christians, we recognize the empty cross as a symbol of triumph and salvation. It lights the way during dark times. It shows us that sin and sorrow are conquered thanks to Jesus’ sacrifice on it. 

Critics of Christianity have a long and storied history of distorting not only God’s Word, but also the intents and beliefs of His followers. It’s heartbreaking that the folks at FFRF seem to believe so much that just isn’t true. But it’s also heartening that God takes ignorance and foolishness and uses it for good.  

On ‘Collegiate Day of Prayer’ Let’s Pray for Our College Students

Lots of prayers are being lifted up across college and university campuses today as part of the annual Collegiate Day of Prayer.

Beginning over two-hundred years ago, the last Thursday in February was set aside by every major school in America to pray not just for the students but also the institution itself.

After all, Harvard motto in 1650, “In Christi Gloriam” or “For the glory of Christ,” left no question about leadership’s spiritual convictions.

Writing about these campus prayer meetings and revivals, Henry C. Fish wrote:

In the year 1823, the last Thursday of February each year was agreed upon as the day for special supplication that God would pour from on high His Spirit upon our Colleges and Seminaries. And what have been some of the results? In the years 1824 and 1825, revivals were experienced in 5 different colleges; in 1826, in 6 colleges; in 1831 … In one of the colleges it is stated that a revival started on the very day of the concert of prayer. In 1835, not less than 18 revivals were reported by different colleges.

Prayer and spiritual awakenings have been reported at numerous college campuses over the past few years. Many will remember extended time of prayer at Kentucky’s Asbury University in 2023. Other mass prayer events have taken place at the University of Arkansas, Ohio State, Auburn, University of Georgia, and Texas A&M. Thousands of students have come to Christ and been baptized.

A group called “Unite Us” has helped to spearhead many of these prayer events on college campuses.

“Gen Z is hungry for the very things the empty, desiccated temples of secularism, consumerism, and global digital media cannot provide, but which Jesus can,” says Kyle Richter of Unite Us.

The organization has scheduled prayer time this spring at Purdue, University of Kentucky, Georgetown, West Virginia and Southern Methodist University.

All of this stands in stark contrast to the “party hardy” reputation some other colleges possess. Each year the Wall Street Journal comes out with a list. In September, Tulane and the University of Dayton were ranked at the top for party atmosphere.

According to organizers of this year’s outreach, 4,420 colleges have been adopted, meaning that prayer warriors are specifically lifting up teachers, students, and administrators at those particular institutions. The good and bad news is that there are still over 25,000 schools waiting for prayer.

Prayer is a powerful privilege for Christians, an opportunity to speak intimately with our Lord. Intercessory prayer for college students is desperately needed, especially as the evil and confusion cascade across campuses everywhere.

“Prayer is the highest activity of the human soul, and therefore it is at the same time the ultimate test of a man’s true spiritual condition,” preached Dr. David Martyn Lloyd-Jones. “There is nothing that tells the truth about us, so much as our prayer life.”

Please join us in praying for America’s colleges and its students.

Image credit: College of the Ozarks.

First White House Cabinet Meeting Opens in Prayer

On Wednesday, President Donald J. Trump invited Scott Turner, the 19th Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), to open the cabinet meeting of his second administration in prayer.

A former pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, Secretary Turner was also a nine-season player in the National Football League. Prior to joining the new administration, Turner worked with a firm committed to developing multi-family housing.  He also served as a representative in the Texas State Legislature.

With a capacity crowd jammed into the White House Cabinet Room, President Trump invited Secretary Turner to pray. Here was how he addressed the Lord as he stood behind a seated President Trump,

Father, we thank you for this awesome privilege, to be in your presence. We thank you you’ve allowed us to see this day. The Bible says your mercies are new every morning, and Father God we give you the glory and honor. Thank you, God, for President Trump, for appointing us, for anointing us to do this job.
Father, we pray you’ll give the president and the vice president wisdom as they lead. Father, I pray for all my colleagues around this table and in this room.
Lord God, we pray that we would lead with a righteous clarity. Father God, as we serve the people of this country in every prospecticve agency, every job that we have, we would humble ourselves before you, and we would lead in a manner that you’ve called us to lead and to serve.
The Bible says “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.” But Father, we today honor you, and in your rightful place, Father, thank you for giving us this opportunity to restore faith in this country and be a blessing to the people of America.
And Lord God, today in our meeting, we pray that you would be glorified in our conversation.
In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Social media sites lit up with positive reaction with many calling the prayer a dose of “fresh air” and a recognition of our inability to do anything outside of God’s authority.

President John Adams was only in the newly constructed White House for one night when he wrote to his wife, Abigail:

“I pray Heaven to bestow the best of blessings on this House, and all that shall hereafter inhabit.”

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had that phrase carved into a White House fireplace mantle.

The tradition of opening government functions in prayer dates to the Republic’s beginning. A chaplain was first appointed in 1774 to open both the Senate and House in prayer.

Critics of such public prayers mistakenly suggest the practice is unconstitutional but just saying something doesn’t make it so. Over the years, the Supreme Court has upheld public prayer (Marsh v. Chambers in 1983, Town of Greece v. Galloway in 2014, and Kennedy v. Bremerton School District in 2022,

Writing for the majority in 2002 in a case involving football coach Joe Kennedy praying on the 50-yard line, Justice Gorsuch rightly declared:

Respect for religious expressions is indispensable to life in a free and diverse Republic. Here, a government entity sought to punish an individual for engaging in a personal religious observance, based on a mistaken view that it has a duty to suppress religious observances even as it allows comparable secular speech. The Constitution neither mandates nor tolerates that kind of discrimination.

But Secretary Turner’s prayer wasn’t just constitutional, but also eloquent, elegant, personal and practical. May the Lord be merciful and answer such prayers.

RFK, Jr. is Right: ‘We’re in a Spiritual Crisis’

Speaking at the White House following his confirmation and swearing-in as Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. struck a powerful and poignant note as he looked both back and then ahead to his tenure at the agency. 

“For 20 years, I’ve gotten up every morning on my knees and prayed that God would put me in a position where I can end the childhood chronic disease epidemic in this country,” Kennedy said. 

The new secretary of HHS was referencing a turning point in his life, a spiritual transformation where he tackled various addictions threatening to spiral out-of-control.

Previously describing these eye-opening events in his life at a “Socrates in the City” event hosted by Eric Metaxas, RFK, Jr. said he “had to change at a deep, fundamental way [and] … I knew that was going to require a spiritual awakening.”

But he added, “After you have a spiritual awakening — you can’t live off the laurels of the spiritual awakening. You have to renew it every day. … You have to renew it by staying in that posture of surrender.”

At times, that “posture” has placed. Kennedy at odds with prevailing wisdom and societal norms. During the campaign, he pledged to “Make America Healthy Again” by examining and evaluating the safety of our food supply and even challenging those who believe pharmaceuticals should serve as our first line of defense against disease.

But talking with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham after Thursday’s events, RFK, Jr. suggested that food and exercise are only part of the problem and solution. 

“We’re not just in a health crisis, but we’re in a spiritual crisis. And those things are connected. We have a whole generation of kids that feel alienated, dispossessed. They are in an existential crisis, and not only because of their health. There’s a purposelessness in their lives, and sense of uselessness and ineffectiveness.”

Kennedy’s concerns and observations are confirmed by the devastating data surrounding mental health in America.

Over 36% of young adults between the ages of 18 and 25 and nearly 30% of those between ages 26 and 49 report having some form of mental illness. Rates of depression and suicide have skyrocketed across the nation.

It would be an easy fix if all that were needed would be a better diet with fewer chemicals, preservatives and food dyes. If only the listlessness could be solved by drinking more water and exercising on a daily basis.

To be sure, our physical health has a significant impact on our emotional and spiritual wellness or lack thereof. Speaking from the Oval Office, Kennedy made an insightful observation when he said, “A healthy person has 1,000 dreams. A sick person only has one.”

But by delving into the spiritual, Kennedy is drilling down to a foundational truth. Our spiritual disciplines are critical to enjoying a happy, fulfilling, and meaningful existence.

Classic Christian disciplines include prayer, Bible reading, study, personal and corporate worship, fellowship, giving back and serving others.

It was the apostle Paul who warned, “Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness, for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come” (1 Tim. 4:7).

Recognizing that we weren’t built for this world but rather for the next is a truth that helps us endure and manage whatever challenges that come our way.

To be sure, Kennedy holds some personal positions that do not square with the beliefs of many evangelical Christians. He has pledged to carry out the pro-life policies of the Trump Administration yet has previously expressed support for abortion. It’s not entirely clear where he lands on some other theological questions

America is in a spiritual crisis because so few people are believing and accepting the liberating truth and peace that comes with a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Kennedy seems to recognize that no political, economic or even health related solution will cure our spiritual woes. He is right.

Image from Getty.