Michael Farris shares how children are an incredible blessing from God: the more the merrier!

Michael P. Farris is a litigator, educator, public advocate, and communicator, and is widely recognized for his successful work on both the national and international stage.  He was founding president of both the Home School Legal Defense Association (1983) and Patrick Henry College (2000). Michael served as the President and CEO of Alliance Defending Freedom from 2017 to 2022. He is currently General Counsel to the National Religious Broadcasters.  For over 40 years, Michael has practiced constitutional appellate litigation specializing in religious freedom and parental rights. In that capacity, he has argued before many state appellate courts, federal circuit courts of appeal, and even the Supreme Court of the United States!  Of particular note is that Mike was CEO of the Alliance Defending Freedom organization while ADF was serving as co-counsel to the Attorney General of Mississippi for the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health which reversed Roe v. Wade!  For his work, Michael has received numerous awards and honors, including two honorary doctorates.  He is the author of over fifteen books, as well as law review and other scholarly and popular articles. He and his wife, Vickie, have ten children, 31 grandchildren and one great-grandchild (with more to come!)  In this podcast, Michael talks about how as an attorney he helped me (Randy Hekman) in 1982 when I as a Juvenile Court Judge faced potential consequences due to my ruling on a case involving a 13 year old girl who sought an abortion.  Michael also talks about the incredible blessing of children, a concept that far too few Christian parents fully embrace. Why should we Christians buy into the world's lie that children are more a burden than a blessing and therefore should be minimized?  Finally, Michael shares about a trip to the Soviet Union in 1988 where he met many Christian couples who had very large families. And they explained to Michael that they chose to have many children to show the distressed world around them that, with God and His blessings, we can have genuine hope for the future rather than despair.