Posted: 04/25/2010 at 5:20am | IP Logged

Jim Daly - We as a Christian community need to refocus a bit on what's important in the culture. For us, it's family. That's our mission.

Dobson's Sucessor Taking Softer Approach

by Andrea Stone, AOL News

Editor's Note:  This article is from a secular source. The characterization of Dr. James Dobson, who declined to be interviewed, appears somewhat skewed. We have chosen to direct you to the story because it introduces his successor at Focus on the Family, Jim Daly, in his own words.

COLORADO SPRINS, CO - Dobson's departure angered some Christian conservatives even as liberal bloggers rejoiced. But Daly, who hates when journalists describe him as "unlike Dobson," says on matters of principle there is no daylight between him and his mentor. In tone and style, though, they are like night and day.

Speaking of the heyday of the religious right in the 1980s, Jim Daly, 48, suggested that the influence of social conservatives like Jerry Falwell and of Dobson himself may have been illusory.

"When you look back from a pro-life perspective, what were the gains there?" he asked, noting President Ronald Reagan's judicial choices. A generation later, "we see a bit of fatigue. We don't see the results for the energy, the money, everything else that's been poured into the political sphere," said Daly, who keeps a desk plate reading "Laugh" in his office overlooking Pike's Peak.

"We as a Christian community need to refocus a bit on what's important in the culture. For us, it's family. That's our mission."

To view this article, click here.