An Everyday Hero Carrying on Dr. Dobson’s Pro-Life Legacy, Part 2

SPEAKER 02 : 0:00

You’re listening to Family Talk, the radio broadcasting division of the James Dobson Family Institute. I am that James Dobson, and I’m so pleased that you’ve joined us today.

SPEAKER 03 : 0:18

Welcome to Family Talk, the broadcast ministry of the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute. I’m Roger Marsh. Let me ask you something. Do you ever feel like the problems facing our culture today are just too big, that one person alone couldn’t possibly make a difference in the world around us? Well, if so, today’s program is for you. When ordinary believers refuse to sit on the sidelines. But today’s conversation is going to go even deeper. You’re going to hear about the spiritual warfare Christian families are facing right now, and how even the most faithful homes are not immune to the lies permeating our culture. Vicki will share why she believes we need to reclaim what is sacred, including marriage, sexuality, and the innocence of our children. If you’ve ever wondered whether your voice really matters, whether one person standing for truth can make a difference, well, Vicki Dunn offers a challenge that might just get you out of your seat and into the fight. Our host for today’s broadcast is Gary Bauer, Senior Vice President of Public Policy here at the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute. Let’s listen now as he continues his conversation with Vicki Dunn on today’s edition of Dr. James Dobson’s Family Talk.

SPEAKER 02 : 1:53

Well, folks, welcome back to Family Talk. We’re having a second day of conversation with one of our everyday heroes, and I want to get right into it. So, Vicki Dunn, welcome back to the show, and let’s continue our conversation. All righty. Thank you. I remember back, it seems like it was a thousand years ago now, but just going back to Bill Clinton’s administration in Do you remember he used to say, look, nobody likes abortion, but we want it to be safe, legal and rare. And that seems so quaint now because we’re at a time when our opponents on this issue, they want all stigma removed. from the taking of an innocent human life. And I saw the other day a group called Shout Your Abortion. You know, be proud of it is their point. And they literally have come out with a little book aimed at five to eight-year-olds to try to teach these innocent little children that the right to abortion is like a superpower that they all have. And it enables them when they grow up to make the life that they want to make. And I was reading about this and thinking, my goodness, these children aren’t that far out of the womb themselves because their parents didn’t abort them. And here’s this group. It’s just hard for me to imagine something more evil than trying to deceive these little children.

SPEAKER 01 : 3:28

I agree. And I actually, when we talk about the abortion issue, think we need to back the train up and go back to the sanctity of sex. And when we were fighting to keep this out of our constitution, there was a little local newspaper that letters were flying back and forth on. both sides because it was a big issue in Missouri. And the one letter that struck me as profound was a letter writer said that sex has become recreational. And so when you have sexualized the children, such as you’re talking about, happens in our libraries and in our schools. And and making it a recreational activity, we need to reclaim the sanctity, the beauty, the holiness of what God had intended for the sexual union within a marriage. So part of my grieving on where we are was that we haven’t stood and we had, and we have in our constitution. And this is Dr. Dobson as well, when we were fighting for the sanctity of marriage. I’d started way back then in Missouri. I think it was 2003, maybe. I remember standing on the street, holding my sign, marriage is a man and a woman. And he spoke of that as well on the radio. I think there were 31 other states that had it within their constitution that it was a man and a woman. So I really feel like we need to reclaim the sanctity of marriage and sex within marriage. And when I was in the counseling room, when I worked with the pregnancy resource centers that I did, we would introduce secondary virginity. and try and introduce the gift that that is within marriage, that it really is the protection that God has so that the hearts aren’t hurt and it doesn’t hurt the family. My heart is opened up to reclaiming all the sacred, which starts with the innocence of children, to keep them away from the pornography, and then to reintroduce the beauty of marriage, of sex within marriage. So it’s been a whole journey.

SPEAKER 02 : 5:46

Well, I think your analysis is absolutely right. And you mentioned the votes that were held in multiple states. This was, I think, such a terrible moment in America. We had, I think you’re right, it was 31 states, I believe, that ended up voting on this over several years of the battle, all the way from liberal California to relatively conservative Georgia. Yes. And in every case, people voted to keep marriage as the union of one man and one woman, which, of course, is what it had been through millennium of Western civilization. And then we wake up one morning in the Supreme Court and one fell swoop cancels out all of those votes. So much for democracy, right, that we live in a democratic republic and the people have a right to rule freely. All of that was struck down, and we end up having this redefinition of marriage. And I think that and the sexual revolution more broadly has really caused a tremendous erosion that we’re in the middle of right now. I think it explains, Vicki, the research that shows how many young men and women are depressed, how many don’t have hope for the future. And I think it’s because they’ve been sold a lie. You know, the lie of if it feels good, do it. There’s nothing sacred. You know, you’re the product of evolution. There’s nothing after this. By the way, you’re living in a terrible country. Who wouldn’t be depressed if those were all the things that, if those things were all true? We started our conversation talking about the power of prayer and the things we’re talking about right now. We’ve all got to pray and double down on praying. And then when we’re done, pray some more. But I understand you have a particularly emotional story about someone that you had been praying about to accept the Lord. And you don’t have to get into names or any of that. I know these are sensitive issues. But could you share that with us? Because I found it to be so, so emotional and really grabbed my heart when I read about it.

SPEAKER 01 : 8:09

Absolutely. It’s my privilege. It goes back to the prayer cards at the Leaders Council in Community Bible Study where we prayed for each other’s families. So always I would put everybody I love near and dear to me, salvation for those that I loved on my prayer card. One of those persons, again, I said as a new believer, you go around telling everyone Jesus is the only way. Well, this person told me, well, I don’t know about it. that. But if I ever need him, I will pray to him. Well, that person needed him in 2013 when he was in a head-on car accident. And right behind him was a, we call him the Good Samaritan. He was a believer sent by God who came to the window of the car and used, I’ll just use the person’s name, David’s phone and called. And he would subsequently, jaws of life, to get him out of the car and he was taken to a local hospital. Wow. But all along the line, we had the Good Samaritan’s contact on the phone. So after David had died, we got back in contact with the Good Samaritan. And he said, what a man. He said the first words out of his mouth were, would you pray with me? I need to get right with Jesus. And he did. I mean, to know that that’s where David ended up and that God had provided, that was part of, you will be blessed for your obedience. That was the blessing of prayer and the fact that I was able to share in Lear’s Council the need for prayer for salvation for all those that we love. So that is that story. It just…

SPEAKER 02 : 10:09

Making sure in our own home, right, that we’ve gotten it right. Seems these days, almost every day, I talk to people that are fathers and mothers in Christian homes, and they’ll inevitably, if you talk for a little while, tell me about a child that’s been lost. Mm-hmm. to all the lies that permeate our culture. And of course, we know who the father of all lies is. There was someone I was with recently at a meeting at the White House, and everybody in the room was a Christian. And this gentleman, I think, did everything right. But he told me that he had a daughter that had fallen away. And and has isolated them. So we really are in America in spiritual warfare, not only to save our country, but to save our families. And Christian families are not immune from this, as you know. Absolutely.

SPEAKER 01 : 11:17

Tom and I have 10 grandchildren. And to continue with the theme of blessed for your obedience, I was in community Bible study with many of my grandchildren. The last year that I was in was the COVID year 2020. But we were going through the book of Acts, and I was convicted myself to have believer’s baptism because it was so emphasized, you know, believed and were baptized, believed and were baptized. So… I had the blessing of being baptized with my grandchildren witnessing it. And then I do have to say a couple other dimensions on prayer and salvation for families. My mother died. She’s the one, remember, that went to Bible study with me? Yes. The four generations at 81. At 81, got her first Bible. And so when she was 86 years old, she wrote what she called her special letter. My sister, Diane, I have to tell you what a wonderful sister I have. She called herself mother’s business manager because she was in all mom’s business. But the last years of her life, Diane was so instrumental of shepherding mom through so many of the challenges that she had. But she handed Diane a letter that she wrote at 86 and said, don’t distribute this until I die. It was called the special letter. And we got to read it at her funeral service, her celebration of life, where she said, everybody needs to know Jesus, that she loved us all, that the greatest joy of her life was seeing the children, but she wanted everyone to be in heaven with her to turn to Jesus. And then it was a beautiful letter that she asked for forgiveness if she hadn’t done anything wrong. So that was a blessing from community Bible study. And then the most recent one is in October of this year when my husband and my two grandsons had believers baptism at our little hobby farm in the country by a gentleman that used to work with Tom that turned into a evangelist in the little town next to, of all places, our little hobby farm. And he came out and baptized my husband and grandson. So the blessings just keep coming.

SPEAKER 02 : 13:49

Well, that is fantastic. I was getting ready because I was preparing for our conversation. I saw that your husband had had this happen relatively late in life. Now, did he think of himself as a believer before this and this was a recommitment? Or was this ground zero, starting in a belief commitment for the first time?

SPEAKER 01 : 14:18

Well, Gary, my husband is a man of very few words. I’ve got a lot of words. He’s got very few. And his love language, you know what it is? Smoked meat and deer sausage.

SPEAKER 02 : 14:34

Now, what Bible verse is he relying on for this?

SPEAKER 01 : 14:39

I am not exactly sure, but he is, you know, alongside me in this journey all the way. Such a sweet, generous man, but a man of few words. So my husband being a man of few words, when this former employee started having tent revivals in the town next to our little hobby farm, And then started a church called the House of Hope, where he ministered to those that were kind of down and out, maybe drug addicted, but needed help. It’s a wonderful ministry. So recently, Tom started smoking some meat for their overcomers meetings that are on Thursday evening and delivering the meat to Carl. So after Charlie Kirk died, someone in our little small town said, can we come out to the river and be baptized in the river? Because after Charlie Kirk died, there was this revival, as you well know, I’m sure. Well, that planted the idea, I do believe, in Tom’s head that he wanted to make it known. So Carl Duff was his connection. You know, he’s he’s a very Tom’s a very quiet, private man. And to do it, you know, in a church with everybody. So so Carl very sweetly came out and our daughter and grandsons were there. And as Carl baptized Tom, he said, is there anybody else? And then our two grandsons came forward. Beautiful moment. Beautiful moment.

SPEAKER 02 : 16:18

I can imagine. My grandmother took me to church for years when I was a little boy because of various problems in our family, including alcoholism. But later, after she passed away, when I accepted Christ and walked up to the front of the First Baptist Church of Newport, Kentucky. I got to the front and turned around and my father had walked up with me and we were baptized together. So, you know, when God moves in these ways where the people you love and who love you are on the same faith journey you’re on, That’s that is a tremendous blessing. And it sounds like you’ve experienced that so much. So that’s that’s wonderful. Yeah. Vicki, you’ve been such a warrior and getting out there. And and, you know, I think we mentioned earlier, you know, just showing up is important. And I think. One of the things here at the James Dobson Family Institute we’re trying to do is to get more Christians to overcome whatever it is, their shyness, their fear or whatever, because we need to show up, right? Could you give some encouragement to people about just pick an area where you want to fly the banner of Jesus Christ and go do it? Because there’s not a problem America is facing that can be solved without Christians.

SPEAKER 01 : 17:46

Absolutely. And I thank you for the opportunity because I am not a leader. I really do not consider myself a leader. But I did have the Holy Spirit give me the sense of protection for this battle that we fought. And I was not afraid to go out by myself. So I would get up in the morning and Missouri Right to Life had a hotline if they would see these people. paid solicitors trying to get signatures to put this evil thing in our Constitution. And I would just go. I would just go stand next to him with prayer and just stand there and be a presence. Didn’t have to say much. And I often would go to the banquets where there would be a thousand people sitting there ready to write a check. But I thought if everyone got out of their banquet chair, they would just put their boots on. And you know who was a big encouragement to me was Chuck Colson when he did… Before he died, he died with his boots on. He’s another one of my heroes. Tom and I were at his last conference called Break the Spiral of Silence, where he encouraged us. to go talk over the fence to our neighbors and just to speak. And he used what happened in Germany because all the Christians became quiet. And he was up on the stage at that particular meeting and he sat down in the chair and then pretty soon they called 911 and he went to the hospital. And he died shortly thereafter. And he was a Marine that died with his boots on. So I just, at 80, I believe he was 80 years old. So rather than putting on tennis shoes for the pickleball court, I prefer to put on some boots. And when this battle started, started in Missouri. We needed the churches to stand. We needed them. And I did move over to a church that was standing verbally from the pulpit for months and months and months before it. And when I got my letter from the church, it said, welcome to the battleship. Welcome to the battleship. It’s not a cruise ship. And I truly believe that we, especially when you’re healthy and you can stand up and the Lord gives you breath, you need to be out there about his business. So that would be my encouragement.

SPEAKER 02 : 20:21

That’s a great encouragement. I knew Chuck Colson before he was a Christian. And I must tell you, I tremendously liked the Chuck Colson after he became a Christian. He was one tough customer before he found Christ. And talk about the life-changing power of the Spirit, right? You know, Dr. Dobson used to say, as the family goes, so goes the nation. And at the James Dobson Family Institute, of course, we’ve lost our leader, but we haven’t lost his vision. And we are committed to to making sure that we continue to fight for family, faith, and freedom. Can you say a few words about why this ministry continues to be important to you and your hope and prayers for the future about it?

SPEAKER 01 : 21:13

Absolutely. So many of his resources as a keeper of legacy stones, you know, I have his books and I’m amazed as I’ve gone through my mother’s paperwork to see her legacy out there. I am leaving behind a lot of his works. His voice was so important. And we have taken the father out of the home. That was the sexual revolution. And that he was such a champion for the family. The family as God ordained it with the husband as a leader, as a spiritual head. And his message is timeless. So yes, I am a very big champion of his legacy.

SPEAKER 02 : 21:58

Well, we thank you for your support and encouragement. You said a little earlier, Vicki, that you’re just a blade of grass in the grassroots movement of Missouri Right to Lie. You’re a lot more to that, and you’re obviously, you’ve been committed all of your life to speaking up and defending those that can’t defend themselves. We love you. We’re proud that you love this ministry. We want to thank you for your service and for your prayers and continued support of the James Dobson Family Institute. And we look forward to celebrating in the months and years ahead a lot more victories with you.

SPEAKER 01 : 22:38

Thank you, Gary. Thank you for the privilege of sharing what Dr. Dobson meant to me and my faith journey.

SPEAKER 03 : 22:51

Sometimes the most profound acts of faith aren’t the ones that make the headlines. They’re the quiet, consistent choices we make to show up, to pray, and to stand for truth even when no one else is watching. You’re listening to Dr. James Dobson’s Family Talk, and we’ve been enjoying a conversation with Gary Bauer, our Senior Vice President of Public Policy here at the Dr. James Dobson Policy and Culture Center. Gary’s guest has been Vicki Dunn, one of our everyday heroes who’s been a pro-life warrior in the state of Missouri for decades. If you missed any portion of today’s broadcast, or if you’d like to hear part one of this conversation, you can listen again online at jdfi.net. And if Vicki Dunn’s story encouraged you, I hope you’ll share it with someone who needs a reminder that one faithful life really can make a difference. By the way, keep in mind Gary Bauer blogs regularly at jdfi.net. He also hosts the Defending Faith, Family, and Freedom podcast. And if you haven’t subscribed to it yet, you can do so at jdfi.net, oneplace.com, or wherever you get your podcasts. You know, your financial support is what makes broadcasts like this one possible. And when you donate to the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute, you’re helping us defend the sanctity of human life, to strengthen marriages and families, and proclaim biblical truth to a culture that desperately needs it. Every gift, whether large or small, helps us continue this mission that Dr. Dobson devoted his life to, and right now your support matters more than ever before as we work to equip believers to stand for faith, family, and freedom in their own communities. We invite you to partner with us by praying for us and making a donation today. You can make that secure donation when you visit JDFI.net. That’s JDFI.net. You can also call a member of our constituent care team at 877-732-6825. That’s 877-732-6825. Now, if you prefer to write to us, keep in mind our ministry mailing address is Dr. James Dobson’s Family Talk. P.O. Box 39000, Colorado Springs, Colorado. The zip code 80949. And of course, remember to sign up for Gary Bauer’s outstanding podcast, Defending Faith, Family and Freedom. Each episode, Gary welcomes guests who speak to the pressing issues of our day, offering perspective on current events and public policy through the lens of the U.S. Constitution and the United States. and an unapologetic biblical worldview. It’s the kind of thoughtful, faith-filled commentary that equips you to engage the culture with confidence. Search for Defending Faith, Family, and Freedom wherever you get your podcasts. Keep in mind you can also find it on our website at jdfi.net. Well, I’m Roger Marsh, and from all of us here at the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute, thanks so much for listening today. Be sure to join us again next time right here for another edition of Dr. James Dobson’s Family Talk, the voice you can still trust for the family you love. This has been a presentation of the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute.