In an in-depth exclusive discussion with Fox News Digital, Jim Daly, President of Focus on the Family, addressed the recent move by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) to designate his institution as a “hate group.” He described the tag as “disheartening,” “risky,” and indicative of “current cultural issues.”

Established in 1977 by Dr. James Dobson, Focus on the Family is a prominent nonprofit Christian ministry based in Colorado. It provides support in areas such as counseling, handling crises, parental guidance, and foster care assistance, among others, throughout the United States.

Daly mentioned that the organization engages six million radio audience members and numerous digital users, aiming to “equip parents to excel in parenting, woven with Christian beliefs.”

But now, the nonprofit finds itself added to a controversial SPLC list typically associated with white supremacists and violent extremists.

The Focus on the Family headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The Christian nonprofit, founded in 1977, provides counseling, foster care resources, and pro-family advocacy. (Courtesy of Focus on the Family)

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.”

COLORADO SPRINGS, CO – JUNE 23: President of Focus on the Family Jim Daly, center, has a laugh with Karen Pence and Vice President of the United States Mike Pence in the Focus on the Family Chapel for the Focus on the Family’s 40th anniversary event June 23, 2017 in Colorado Springs. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post via Getty Images) (Andy Cross/The Denver Post via Getty Images)

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.”

“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.”