In the Focus on the Family Studio with Jim Daly
This past May (2022) I drove up to the sprawling Focus on the Family campus in Colorado Springs. It had been almost 12 years since I had worked there and the homecoming felt very sweet in the fresh mountain air. I was there with my coauthor Josh Glaser to enjoy one of the holiest of grails for the modern American evangelical: we were going to be interviewed for the Focus daily broadcast. This was our big break!
It’s hard to see in the words, but I wrote that last part with a smirk. Having once previously worked at Focus for eight-and-a-half years, I knew how valuable this air time was for authors and other Christian leaders, but I also knew the saying from behind the scenes that “if you depend on Focus on the Family to sell your book, you won’t sell may books.”
Thankfully (and I am writing this part seriously) we weren’t appearing on the broadcast to sell books. OK, maybe a little, but our greater desire was to help parents understand that they didn’t have to be afraid of the sexualized culture in which their children were growing. There is a better way that involves self-reflection, a reckoning with our own past, a courageous stand for truth in a culture of lies, and a beautiful story about sexuality that is so much better than anything the world can think up. This may be hard, but it is very possible with the help of Jesus and, we hope, with the guidance we share in our book.
When we entered the glass-walled studio, I was reminded of the few others times I had inhabited this space. Once, very early in my time at Focus, Dr. Dobson needed to clarify a point on the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church. I was just six months on the job, but this topic fell to me. Doctor Dobson took his research very seriously. He never wanted to misrepresent anything on air. Everything had to be fact-checked and cited from original sources. On the day that he called for me, I was taking a nap in my car during lunch. By the time I got back to my desk, the rest of the team was frantic and told me to get to the studio immediately. When I got there, I shared the information Doctor wanted and he promptly disagreed with me. Thankfully that part wasn’t aired.
In the studio, Josh and I were warmly greeted by Focus on the family CEO Jim Daly and broadcast host, John Fuller. The atmosphere was jovial as we got warmed up. Jim told stories about his kids and we shared some of ours. After a prayer, the mics went live and we had ourselves a truly memorable time.
You can watch the full broadcast here.
