Rusty Benson
AFA Journal associate editor
November-December 2010 – Athanasius of Alexandria is not a name that likely would elicit a strong emotional response from most people. But then, Bryan Fischer is not like most people.
For when he talks about his hero – the fourth century church father who stood alone in defense of the divinity of Christ – Fischer is overcome with emotion.
Maybe it’s because he knows something of the pain of standing for Christ against prevailing opinions. Such convictions can be costly, especially for someone with a tender heart.
But it’s Fischer’s uncommon mix of zeal and mercy that gives Focal Point, a two-hour daily radio show, a distinctive voice on the AFR Talk Radio Network.
Those qualities plus a seminary degree, 25 years experience pastoring local churches and an obvious teaching gift make Fischer’s show a full course meal for Christians who are hungry to understand the events of the day through a scriptural grid.
To that end, Fischer begins each broadcast of Focal Point with a short Bible lesson that is applicable to the topics he plans to cover. That’s followed by a well crafted prayer most often drawn from the words of Scripture.
“My goal is for Focal Point to be tightly tied to the Word of God,“ he said. “It is my standard – my North Star – and I want that allegiance to come through on the show.”
More than a job
Fischer seems both gratified and surprised that at age 58, God has called him to AFA. “I can honestly say that I am doing exactly what I was born to do,” he said.
That call not only includes hosting Focal Point, but also wearing the title of AFA Director of Issues Analysis for Government and Public Policy. In that role, Fischer is AFA’s go-to person when the organization needs a public voice. His addresses leave little doubt that Fischer can stand alongside much more well-known cultural analysts in contributing to the nation’s cultural debate.
At the 2010 Values Voters Summit in September in Washington, D.C., Fischer defended the assertion that Christians have a duty to be politically involved.
With the passion of a preacher and the logic of an apologist, Fischer told the gathering of conservative activists, “Some well meaning Christians say we shouldn’t be involved in politics because politics is so messy. I pastored for 25 years, and I was involved in the Idaho state legislature. I can tell you that I never saw anything as messy in the legislature as what I saw in the church. So, if the fact that something is messy is a reason not to be involved, we ought to stop going to church. In fact, the truth that it is messy is a reason for Christians to be involved.
Long promised road
Fischer says that the road that eventually led to AFA began when his father, a Baptist pastor, led him to Christ.
“I have a distinct memory of kneeling down near my father’s chair in the living room,” he said. “I was only five years old, but I understood that I was a sinner who needed a Savior.”
In the eighth grade the family moved from Colorado to northern California. There the years were dominated by athletics, particularly baseball and golf.
Later, while a student at Stanford University in Palo Alto, he attended Peninsula Bible Church where the pastor preached what Fischer calls “a masculine, muscular Christianity that appealed to me as young man.”
After graduation, Fischer remained at PBC to study and serve as a pastoral intern. It was during this time that he met and married Debbie. They have been married 34 years and have two grown children.
The next stop was Dallas (Texas) Theological Seminary, which led to a call as assistant pastor in a church in Boise, Idaho. The Fischers would spend the next 25 years serving in two churches in that city.
It was during his early years as an associate pastor in Boise that God used the radio broadcasts of Dr. James Dobson to awaken Fischer to the moral decline in the nation, and the duty of Christians to respond.
Over the years, that awareness grew into a conviction, and eventually into a call in 2005 to organize the Idaho Values Alliance. For the next four years Fischer educated Christians about the critical moral issues facing the country and encouraged them to engage politically. IVA soon affiliated with AFA and the stage was set for Fischer’s current call. 
Focal Point is broadcast live weekdays at 1:05-3:00 p.m. (CT) on the 143 radio stations of the AFR Talk Network. The show can be seen and/or heard at www.afr.net or by podcast.
