Seven Critical Issues

This year’s presidential election was among the most important in modern US history. The policy “platforms” of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris were as different as night and day. The contrast was particularly true of the “critical issues” identified by JDFI as essential to those of us committed to faith, family, and freedom:

• - Educating the Next Generation
• - The Sanctity of Life
• - Marriage and Family
• - Religious Liberty
• - The Judicial System and Judicial Appointments
• - Capitalism v. Secularism and Marxism
• - Support for Israel
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These seven issues represent what Dr. James Dobson has written and spoken about throughout his entire ministry.

JDFI made a substantial commitment this year to help ensure Christians had the information they needed on each of these issues so they could be discerning, educated voters. We also wanted to increase the number of Christ-followers who voted. We have been deeply troubled that Christian involvement in elections has lagged behind the participation rates of other demographic groups.

If believers in Jesus Christ are not in the public square, our “place” will be taken by those whose beliefs and agendas are hostile to the idea of America being “one Nation under God.”

A profoundly disturbing example is our country’s steadily rising proportion of voting atheists and agnostics, now exceeding the percentage of voting Christians. The founders of our constitutional republic believed that liberty comes from God, not from “Ceasar.”

In addition, JDFI believes the significant problems facing our nation—including growing criminality, corruption in our institutions, and racial reconciliation—cannot be solved without the active involvement of Christ-followers and the church in America.

This year, with the support of our board, the JDFI leadership team launched a Christian citizenship initiative and “countdown” to the election. We are happy to report that, with God’s blessings and your generous partnership with us, we reached an amazing number of Christian voters as well as the general public.

Our major activities in 2024 included the following:

• • - From June through mid-November, we hosted dozens of Family Talk radio shows with informative guests to help Christian citizens be knowledgeable about each voting issue. Additionally, we launched our Countdown to Decision 2024 podcast hosted by Alison Centofante and Joseph Backholm. Among the many rising stars we featured were Riley Gaines, leading efforts to defend women’s sports from transgender ideology; Kirk Cameron, speaking out on saving America’s libraries from LGBTQ propaganda; Michele Bachmann, rallying the nation to stand with Israel; and Charlie Kirk, advocating for “putting faith into action.”
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• - Owen Strachan, senior director of the Dobson Culture Center, produced regular updates on the interplay between policy and culture based on a biblical worldview.
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• - JDFI and American Values worked together to produce and distribute voter guides highlighting the platform differences between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. The presidential voter guide covered fifteen issues ranging from radical gender ideology to support for Israel. Likewise, we produced voter guides in more than two dozen crucial House and Senate races. We made the guides available free of charge for any concerned citizen who wanted to know where candidates stood on “critical issues.”
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- On the Family Talk website, we provided weekly public policy updates impacting faith, family, and freedom.

- Through the combined efforts of the Dobson Policy Center’s Countdown to Decision 2024 and your support, we reached ten million inactive or “non-engaged” Christian voters. More than half of these voters were predominantly in the six battleground states that decided the election.

Though the 2024 election is over, the battle to restore the United States as a godly nation continues into 2025 and beyond. JDFI, with your help, is committed to working with the new Trump administration and members of both parties in Congress to defend faith, family, and freedom.

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