NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
In a wide-ranging exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, Focus on the Family President Jim Daly responded to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s (SPLC) recent decision to classify his organization as a “hate group,” calling the label “discouraging,” “dangerous,” and a reflection of “what’s wrong with the culture right now.”
Focus on the Family, a Colorado-based nonprofit founded in 1977 by Dr. James Dobson, is one of the most visible Christian ministries in the United States, offering counseling, crisis intervention, parenting resources, foster care support, and more.
According to Daly, the group reaches six million radio listeners and several million digital viewers, with a mission of “helping parents to be the best parents they could be, all with the undertone of a Christian understanding.”
But now, the nonprofit finds itself added to a controversial SPLC list typically associated with white supremacists and violent extremists.
GRASSLEY ALLEGES FBI USED BIASED SOURCES IN ANTI-TRADITIONAL CATHOLIC MEMOS UNDER BIDEN ADMINISTRATION
“Southern Poverty Law Center made the decision in some kind of criteria that they, and only they know, and that is to put us on the hate list,” Daly said. “I think, again, it exemplifies what’s wrong with the culture right now—that we can’t have differing opinions on things.”
At the core of the SPLC’s issue is Focus’s belief in traditional marriage. Daly was direct: “Our Christian tradition is marriage between one man and one woman, and that’s what we believe and we believe we can advocate for that.”
While Daly acknowledged that society is shifting, he said Focus will not abandon its scriptural roots to satisfy cultural trends. “For us, we can’t relent on changing what we believed to be scriptural truth for the current place of where the culture is at.”
“For some reason that then deems us as a hate group,” he said. “It’s very discouraging really, because I think the SPLC started in a good place… but they have turned that muscle now on the Christian community.”
CONCERNED PARENTS OF TRANS KIDS COMPARED TO ‘HATE GROUPS’ BY COLORADO DEM: WOULDN’T ‘ASK THE KKK’ FOR OPINION
The implications, Daly warned, are not just reputational.
He recalled the 2012 shooting at Family Research Council (FRC), another Christian nonprofit SPLC labeled as hateful. A gunman entered the FRC office with the intent to kill, and was later quoted saying he was inspired by the SPLC’s “hate map.”
“He said… his motivation was aroused because Family Research Council had been placed on the SPLC hate list,” Daly said. “They are dancing on very dangerous territory when they put these labels out.”
That danger isn’t theoretical. According to Daly, Focus had protestors at its doorstep within 24 hours of the SPLC’s announcement.
“We had protesters harassing our employees coming into the door here… so we had to get and pay for extra police presence on our campus,” Daly said. “It raises danger for everybody. I don’t know if that’s their motivation, but it is a consequence.”
But even in the face of hostility, Daly says Focus remains committed to “doing the work that the Lord has called us to do.” That includes extensive work in foster care and pregnancy resource services.
“My wife and I both have been foster parents for 15 years,” he shared. “We support pregnancy resource centers with ultrasound machines.”
He also pointed to Focus’s measurable impact. “Last year we helped 140,000 couples get through a marital crisis, 540,000 couples to strengthen their marriage,” he said. “That’s a good thing.”
And he asked a pointed question to the SPLC directly: “Why would you go after an organization doing that much good and label us a hate group? It just, it makes no sense.”
Daly was clear that the mission isn’t about political gain or culture war bravado, but the gospel.
“This is not hate,” Daly said. “This is the love of Christ trying to show people God’s design for marriage and parenting and people.”
That message, however, is increasingly misunderstood in a culture that Daly says punishes theological conviction. He referenced a meeting with the late Pastor Tim Keller and gay rights activists in New York City as a model.
“Tim Keller said it so well. He said, ‘New York City works because we don’t go out of our way to put our finger in the other group’s eye’,” Daly recounted. “We need to accept where we’re at together and then be at the table of pluralism and say, how do we coexist?”
He continued: “Creating a hate list because of your views, your theology, your ideology, just isn’t helpful.”
Asked whether Focus planned a legal response, Daly said it’s under serious consideration. “There has to be a line where an organization that creates a hate list has to be responsible for that,” he said. “If we were to go to court, I think they would be hard-pressed to win that defamation lawsuit.”
Still, Daly struck a hopeful note. He said the biggest response they’ve received wasn’t fear or funding loss, but support.
“People that do know us, people that have experienced us helping them through a crisis in their marriage or a crisis with their teenager, they know us,” Daly said. “This isn’t who you are, and they get it.”
Above all, Daly urged believers to respond to cultural hostility with character.
“Romans 2:4 says it’s God’s kindness that leads one to repentance—and I believe in that,” he said. “You can have the most crusty person who hates out for a reason you may not even know, and you start to dialog with them… and then you find a hurt, a pain that occurred in their life.”
And for churches wondering how to speak into culture without compromising biblical convictions, Daly offered a closing challenge: don’t just preach orthodoxy: live it.
“We know truth. We know orthodoxy, the spoken word. We need more orthopraxy, the doing of the word,” Daly said. “We could literally wipe out the foster care list if we just got engaged—one family per church.”
That vision, he said, is what keeps him going. “Wouldn’t it be nice if Fox News and the New York Times ran a headline that said: ‘Christian Church wipes out waiting foster care list’? I’m looking forward to that headline. And that’s what I work for every day.”
