Jim Daly, president of Focus on the Family, told Fox New Channel’s Todd Starnes that he is no alarmist, but what happened to Drew Brees after the New Orleans Saint’s quarterback appeared in a 22-second video promoting an upcoming “Bring Your Bible to School Day,” is something that happens in “totalitarian countries.”
“This is not good for our country,” Daly said on The Todd Starnes Radio Show. “And I’m not sure short of a revival … how we pull this one back from the brink of destruction.”
Brees supplied the video in which he quotes a favorite Bible verse and expressed support for kids who are legally allowed to bring their Bibles to school – a campaign Focus on the Family is promoting for Oct. 3.
That’s when all heck broke loose, according to Daly. A small magazine in New Orleans put the issue front and center, he said, calling Focus on the Family a “hate group” and “bigoted.” Other major news outlets followed the same mantra.
“It caught all of us by surprise because I think we want to believe the culture, a pluralistic culture like the one we live in, can absorb some differences,” Daly said, “but we’re getting to the breaking point where we cannot.”
Starnes quickly interjected, “I think we’re already there and that’s the point,” pointing to the Left’s use of terms like “racist,” “xenophobes,” or “homophobes,” to silence those with whom they disagree.
Even credible people with standing in the community, like Brees, Daly said, are attacked for their traditional beliefs.
“People in New Orleans love that guy,” Daly said, calling the Dallas native a wonderful role model as a father and a husband. “I guess they thought that they could go after him and shame him”
In recent conversations with friends in the LGBTQ community, Daly said he advised them to move from “militancy to participant” and do it quickly before they destroy the country.
Starnes agreed the militant groups may be small, but they are vocal, and this is about “payback, this is not about getting along,” he said. “This is about shutting down Focus on the Family.”
Daly identified two distinct groups in the LGBTQ community: those who appreciate religious liberty; and those in the majority, who want to “crush any dissent.”
As evidence, he said the attempts made to smear Brees came right before the first game of the season. “This is a huge distraction. … And it’s unfortunate, but again it is the shakedown approach. Intimidate them so they will never work with anybody that says, ‘Here’s what we believe about family.’”
Daly said for the last 5000 years, and the last 2000 in the Christian faith, the idea of marriage between a man and a woman has been the norm, not the exception.
“All of a sudden that’s tipped up on its ear and they want us to jettison those beliefs so they feel better,” Daly surmised. “And my heart goes out to that community… There is love in my heart for them. But at the same time don’t push this down my throat. I cannot give up on God in order to embrace you in this area of your life. As a human being, I’m there for you. I will do whatever I can to express the love of God to you. But to put a knife to my throat and say choose same-sex marriage or recant your faith – what are we doing?”
Starnes noted in his new book, Culture Jihad: How to Stop the Left From Killing a Nation, he tells the story of Tim Gill, a multimillion-dollar donor to the LGBTQ community who said he wanted to punish “wicked” conservatives who hold to traditional values.
“We’re dealing with some pretty nefarious folks here,” Starnes said.
Daly told the Fox News host he hopes people will find better ways to communicate about these topics in our pluralistic society. He admitted there were some in the Christian community who were “very tough on the homosexual community over the last 40 years or so.”
“I don’t want to skirt that,” Daly said. “We’ve got to own that as well.”
Moving forward, Daly said he hopes both the LGBTQ community and others can “be tolerant of one another as we try to persuade the culture that our viewpoint is the better viewpoint. That’s the way it should happen.”