Welcome everyone to Family Talk. It's a ministry of the James Dobson Family Institute,

supported by listeners just like you. I'm Dr. James Dobson, and I'm thrilled that you've joined us.

Welcome to Dr. James Dobson's Family Talk, the broadcast ministry of the Dr. James

Dobson Family Institute.

I'm Gary Bauer, senior vice president of public policy here at the JDFI.

I also host the podcast, Defending Faith, Family, and Freedom.

On today's edition of Family Talk, we're going to visit with a man

whose unique gifts and talents make him a valuable asset in God's economy, and actually an incredible

asset for the times that we're living through right now. Joel Rosenberg is a best-selling author, a political consultant, a

journalist and philanthropist whose ministry has touched the lives of millions of people all over

the world. Now, you might say that Joel grew up in an agnostic home. Joel's parents gave

their hearts to Jesus when he was a young boy, but later in his teens, Joel was born again as well, and today he lives out his faith as a Messianic Jew.

After graduating from Syracuse University with a degree in fine arts, Joel worked as a researcher for talk show legend Rush Limbaal, who we still miss a great

deal before working as a political consultant for Steve Forbes and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,

among others. But in early 2000, Joel made the decision to step away from politics and focus on writing fiction. His first

novel was called The Last Jihad. It was actually written nine months before the terrible attack on 9-11.

And the final manuscript was updated to include the accounts of the brutal acts of terrorism

that took place on that fateful day.

The last Jehob was released in early 2002.

It went on to spend 11 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and other bestseller lists.

Since then, Joel's gone on to write

12 more bestselling novels, as well as five books of nonfiction, and the sales of all these

...