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Yes, Chick-fil-A’s Decision Hurts

When Chick-fil-A announced the change in its charitable donation process on Nov. 18, the faith-based social media world reacted swiftly. Some with shock and disbelief, others with anger, and then there were those who went on the defensive.

It all began when Chick-fil-A President and Chief Operating Officer Tim Tassopoulos told the website Bisnow, “There are lots of articles and newscasts about Chick-fil-A, and we thought we needed to be clear about our message.” With its charitable giving contracts expiring at the end of the year, the Atlanta-based restaurant chain said it is taking the opportunity to “focus on three initiatives with one accompanying charity each: education, homelessness and hunger.”

The “message” it wanted to be clear about appeared to be its stance on LGBTQ issues. The Salvation Army and Fellowship of Christian Athletes are two of the 300 charities Chick-Fil-A has been making charitable donations to and they have received the most criticism by detractors who consider them to be anti-LGBTQ.  Bisnow reported Tassopoulos said, future charitable “partners could include faith-based and non-faith-based charities, but the company said none of the organizations have anti-LGBT positions.”

Many see this as a betrayal. Though Chick-fil-A is a business with a bottom line to uphold, many believers have gone out of their way to support Chick-fil-A in the culture war, seeing an ally in the corporation. Online they cited articles from Christianity Today and Rod Dreher in the American Conservative.

When LGBTQ groups were calling for boycotts of the fast-food restaurant, people of faith were the ones who stood in long lines around the stores to show their support for shared Biblical values on “Chick-fil-A Day.” Now some of these same people are calling for their own boycotts of Chick-fil-A.

Others defended the restaurant arguing that Chick-Fil-A is still a corporation with Christian values and is doing good in the communities they serve. They also say as a business it is free to make its own decisions. Besides, they argue, “Who can fault donating to charities that help provide education, help the homeless, and give food to the hungry?” The defenders were quick also to point to an article written for Relevant Magazine claiming to know “what’s actually going on.”

Here’s what’s actually going on is. Many feel betrayed and it hurts.

Bible believers are watching the culture move away from its Biblical foundation. There was a feeling of “we are in this together.” Now there isn’t. As they saw it, Chick-fil-A was not discriminating in its hiring practices or in who it serves. The Salvation Army serves all who are in need no matter their sexual orientation. The Fellowship of Christian Athletes is an organization for Christian athletes with Biblical guidelines. That’s just how members-only groups work. To them, this move is a rejection and an acceptance of the smear against faith-based organizations, especially at Christmas.

It remains to be seen how this plays out for Chick-fil-A, its faith-based customers, and for the LGBTQIA groups who have opposed and boycotted them. Will the latter now welcome Chick-fil-A with open arms? It will be interesting to watch in the coming weeks.


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Chick-fil-A Betrays Principles and Faithful Customers

In a stunning act of betrayal, Chick-fil-A’s charitable foundation, the Chick-fil-A Foundation, has announced it will no longer donate to the Salvation Army, Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA), or Paul Anderson Youth Home (PAYH). Though Chick-fil-A has not publicly acknowledged the reason for its betrayal, everyone knows what it is. Chick-fil-A is attempting to curry favor with the “LGBTQ+” community that is shredding our social fabric. This policy shift constitutes a cowardly betrayal of Chick-fil-A’s Christian ethos and its Christian customers who have stood by Chick-fil-A through all its trials at the hands of legions of supporters of sexual deviance. #LoveofMoney

Broods of vipers identifying as apostles of justice, equality, tolerance, diversity, inclusivity, and compassion have been protesting and maligning Chick-fil-A since 2012 when Dan Truett Cathy, chairman and chief executive officer, made some public statements in an interview with the Baptist Press supporting true marriage and opposing the legal recognition of homosexual unions as marriages. After homosexuals got wind of Cathy’s theologically orthodox and unremarkable statements, some part of hell broke loose and raged against Chick-fil-A. Fortunately for Cathy and Chick-fil-A, Christians turned out en masse all across the country to show their support with their time and money for Cathy’s stand for truth.

And this is how Cathy and Chick-fil-A repay them.

Chick-fil-A is the wildly popular fast-food franchise started by devout Southern Baptist Truett Cathy in 1967 and known for being closed on Sundays “so that … employees” can “set aside one day to rest and worship if they choose.” Dan Cathy once said that Chick-fil-a’s “corporate purpose” was “to glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us.”

Some feared a crack in Chick-fil-A’s Christian edifice would spread when a year after the 2012 attack by homosexuals, Cathy expressed his regret for his public statements about marriage:

Every leader goes through different phases of maturity, growth and development and it helps by (recognizing) the mistakes that you make. … And you learn from those mistakes. If not, you’re just a fool. I’m thankful that I lived through it and I learned a lot from it.

Does Cathy today believe that ceasing to support fine organizations like the Salvation Army, FCA, and PAYH signifies “maturity” and “growth”? Does he believe the reason for this decision signifies maturity and growth? If so, in what specific ways? What criteria does he use to determine maturity and growth?

A press statement released by Chick-fil-A includes this mealy-mouthed corporate-speak:

Starting in 2020, the Chick-fil-A is introducing a more focused giving approach to provide additional clarity and impact with the causes it supports.

In an interview with Bisnow, Tim Tassopoulos, Chick-fil-A president and chief operation officer doubled down on clarity:

“There’s no question we know that, as we go into new markets, we need to be clear about who we are. … There are lots of articles and newscasts about Chick-fil-A, and we thought we needed to be clear about our message.”

With a degree of irony only a hipster could fully appreciate, Chick-fil-A cloaks the reason for abandoning the Salvation Army, FCA, and PAYH in the rhetoric of “clarity.”

When wealthy and powerful men and women—who should be role models—demonstrate the kind of dishonesty and cowardice Cathy and his board just demonstrated, not only do the little people feel betrayed but also some lose hope. Some will wonder why theywith scant resourcesshould stand unequivocally for Christ and his kingdom when millionaires who are safe and secure with their buckets of ducats are unwilling to do so.

The betrayal must have been particularly painful for the staff and board of trustees of PAYH, a ministry that strives “to provide a Christ-centered, holistic, and therapeutic approach towards transforming the lives of young men ages 16-21” believing that “There is no single aspect of a young man’s development as important as his spiritual life.”

PAYH, which was started by famous weightlifter Paul Anderson and Dan Cathy’s father Truett Cathy in 1961, “exists to help transform the lives of troubled young men and their families” by 1. Planting God’s word in their lives and discipling them through mentoring and modeling, 2. Providing therapeutic counseling and substance abuse treatment, 3. Supplying a fully-accredited college preparatory high school and vocational training, and 4. Supporting our graduates long-term through our transition program.”

Cathy and the company his father founded have abandoned their nearly six decades-long support of PAYH that strives to raise up young men in the way they should go, and they are doing so in deference to the unholy desires of homosexuals whose ideology is destroying the lives of young men.

In just one hour on Monday, conservatives Rod Dreher, Mike Huckabee, Dana Loesch, Allie Stuckey, and Matt Walsh, all tweeted condemnations of Chick-fil-A’s decision. You know who liked it? Zach Stafford, editor-in-chief of the homosexual magazine The Advocate who tweeted, “THE GAYS HAVE WON.” That should tell us everything we need to know.

Add this to the growing list of ways Christians are affected by the “LGBT” ideology—you know, the ideology we were promised repeatedly would affect no one, no how, no way. #LyingLiarsLie.

“LGBTQ+” ideologues and their sycophants are going to see to it that owning a business—including even a teeny tiny business—or having a job will be conditioned on affirming homosexual acts and faux-marriage as good. Wake up, Christians, the persecution is getting real.

Meanwhile as corporations and individuals cave to prideful, despotic homosexuals, cross-sex pretenders, and other assorted “queers,” money going to pernicious pagan ministries like the Human Rights Campaign; the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network; and GLAAD flows like water in the Ganges River.

Take ACTION: If you would like to express your views on Chick-fil-A’s decision, you can contact them at (866) 232-2040 or leave your feedback on website comment section HERE.

Listen to this article read by Laurie:

https://staging.illinoisfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Chick-fil-A-Betrays-Principles-and-Faithful-Customers.mp3


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Closed on Sunday – Kanye West Song NOT About Chick-fil-A

Kanye West’s new album, Jesus is King, has literally taken social media by storm! Kanye’s recent conversion to Christianity has caused a buzz in both the Christian and non-Christian worlds.

Perhaps his most controversial track on the new gospel album is a song called “Closed on Sunday,” (see lyrics) which Kanye performed recently on Jimmy Kimmel Live.

This line in the song has offended many people, especially those in the LGBTQ community:

Closed on Sunday, you my Chick-fil-A
You’re my number one, with the lemonade

Many media outlets including Business Insider, Cosmopolitan, FoxNews and others have written on how Kanye is promoting a fast-food brand, and one that has a strong connection to Christianity. LGBTQ activists are outraged that he would recommend a “homophobic” restaurant that does not celebrate their lifestyles.

It always surprises me how much outrage a Christian-owned chicken sandwich company can generate. But they aren’t the real story here.

In an interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music, Kayne used the term “closed on Sunday,” in the context of his family life.

“I have to protect and take care of my family and make sure with the power that God has put in my hands that I do everything that I can, as the father, to provide the best chance (for them to be) the maximum success they can be.”

I believe the term, “Chick-fil-A,” in the song is simply a metaphor for a larger context. In the corporate world, the restaurant chain has surprised business analysts by choosing to close one day out of seven, in honor of the Bible’s admonition. Honoring God has paid off in huge financial dividends for the company.

Kanye takes that analogy and applies it to the responsibility a father has in stewarding his home (in the same way a CEO must steward a corporation). Tough decisions need to be made. Can a family take time away from digital and social media in order to focus on God and each other? Can we learn to take a Sabbath from the constant pull from the screens in our pocket?

Hold the selfies, put the ’Gram away
Get your family, y’all hold hands and pray

He is referring here to Instagram (the social media of choice for many teens). He suggests that our time could be better spent looking to the Lord, rather than pictures of ourselves.

He also warns of the dangers that lurk in the world and the need for fathers to protect their children.

When you got daughters, always keep ’em safe
Watch out for vipers, don’t let them indoctrinate

Raise our sons, train them in the faith
Through temptations, make sure they’re wide awake
Follow Jesus, listen and obey
No more livin’ for the culture, we nobody’s slave

As a father of ten, I resonate with these words. This is my desire as well.

In the interview mentioned above, he also described the devastating impact a life-long pornography addiction has had in his life. From his first exposure when he was only five, he said his addiction fueled most of his decisions throughout his life and career. As a Christian man now, he is battling back. As fathers, we all know the temptations that exist for our families. Being intentional and making tough decisions to honor God above our flesh, will result in spiritual health for us, just as Chick-fil-A has experienced business and financial success. In 1 Samuel 2:15 we are told, “Those who honor Me, I will honor.”

Speaking to this issue of temptation, Kayne says, “Jezebel don’t even stand a chance.”

Realizing the parallel Kanye is making by using the “Closed on Sunday” metaphor, and applying it to our need as families to shut things down and re-prioritize, the song shifts from being a cheap advertisement for a company, or a confusing mishmash of random concepts, to a brilliant apologetic for fathers to fight for their families and make hard decisions to honor God and do what is right. The media has this all wrong. This song has nothing to do with chicken, and everything to do with family.


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The Only Hatred You’ll Find at Chick-fil-A

Written by Peter Heck

This was the tweet from the Toronto Star that left every rational mind who saw it shaking their head in disbelief:

Everyone has a cause they’re passionate about. Everyone has convictions that they embrace and opinions they feel strongly about. But this? This is just crazy. It’s nuts. It’s so separated from reality it almost defies logic how (1) a person capable of functioning in civil society could come to these conclusions, and (2) how a news publication lacks the editorial discretion to politely say, “We’re going to pass on this one.”

Chick-fil-A is a fast food restaurant that serves, employs, pays, and offers benefits to people who consider themselves gay, queer, lesbian, bi, and any other sexually-specific identity a person wants to claim. They do not discriminate, they do not show partiality or prejudice. They sell chicken sandwiches in clean restaurants (except on Sundays).

What irks people (like the author of this dangerously disturbed piece in the Toronto Star) is that the owners of Chick-fil-A are Christians who personally hold to a belief in the Christian sexual ethic. That’s literally it: the owners of the restaurant chain are Christians who strive to honor God and live in obedience to His word. That obedience means promoting God’s plan for human flourishing, which is why not only do the owners of Chick-fil-A believe God’s guideposts on sexuality are to be honored, but also His desire for us to serve one another, to love one another, and to do all things (even making and selling chicken sandwiches) as though we are working for God Himself and not for man.

That such a perspective engenders such outraged, maniacal hatred from left-wing sexual activists really says a lot about the heart and goodwill of those activists.  Consider, you will not see Chick-fil-A tweeting from their social media account their disdain for queer people. But you will see those “queer activists” tweeting and publishing hate pieces maligning and libeling Chick-fil-A for pretended offenses.

And while it’s abundantly clear that the attacks on Chick-fil-A have, and continue to backfire spectacularly (this piece details how the fast food leader has doubled their sales since activists demanded a boycott of their stores), nobody should pretend the cultural assault being waged against the business is healthy or acceptable.

If anyone is releasing “poison” into our cities, wouldn’t that distinction belong to the ones who refuse to do business with those who hold religious convictions different than their own?

Aren’t the architects of hatred those who would prefer to reach for their keyboards to type words of discontent, conflict, and contempt rather than seek to know, appreciate, and grant the benefit of the doubt to their neighbors?

At some point our culture is going to have to grapple with the undeniable reality the merchants of hatred aren’t the people wiping off our tables and saying, “my pleasure.” They’re the ones standing outside picketing and protesting that kind service.


This article was originally published at Disrn.com.




Don’t be Shocked When Many “Christians” Cheer the Criminalization of Christianity

Written by Peter Heck

As I read the enraged responses from professing Christians at the news that Vice President Mike Pence would be the commencement speaker for Taylor University (a leading private, Christian institution located in tiny Upland, Indiana) I realized something.

Keep in mind that Pence has been one of the most outspoken Christian public servants in recent decades.  He makes no effort to hide his faith, acknowledging himself as, “A Christian, a conservative, and a Republican…in that order.”  Therefore, it is completely logical that a Christian institution would invite him to speak, in addition to the fact that he was a long-time Congressman from the Hoosier state, as well as its Governor, before ascending to the second highest office in the land.

The odds of students at Taylor University getting the opportunity to have a sitting U.S. Vice President deliver their commencement speech are minuscule at best.  To say this was a coup for University President Lowell Haines and the rest of his administration would be a gross understatement.  Haines announced the news by posting:

“Mr. Pence has been a good friend to the University over many years, and is a Christian brother whose life and values have exemplified what we strive to instill in our graduates.”

And that, the fact that a professing Christian, native Hoosier, and sitting Vice President would give the inaugural address at their school gave a number of alumni and current students the shakes.  No, seriously:

“I have never been made to feel so physically ill by an email before. Taylor University, you should be ashamed of yourselves,” Claire Hadley, who graduated from Taylor in 2015, began in a long Facebook post. “I am physically shaking. The fact that the school who claims to love and support me, and each of it’s [sic] students and alum, would invite such a vile individual to speak on the most important day of the year??”

“The fact that Taylor would invite Pence as a speaker honestly kills me a little bit,” Austin Linder wrote on the petition. “I can’t imagine what it must feel like for lgbt students to have to see this man’s harmful bulls**t be honored on the Taylor stage. Really disgusting stuff, Taylor. Really ashamed to be an alum right now.”

Claire and Austin weren’t alone.  A few thousand signed a Change.org petition calling on the university to rescind its invitation.  And that’s when it dawned on me – when the criminalization of Christianity comes to this land (and it is coming), it will be championed by and met with the fanfare of many professing Christians.

The number of supposedly Christian individuals whose moral compasses are calibrated to the spirit of the age rather than the authority of Scripture has become astounding.  Leaning on their own understanding they choose the attributes of a god they want to worship, one who seems “worthy” of their worship, and they bow to it.  The God of Scripture is too narrow-minded.

When another Christian actually clings to the words of Scripture, not only are they reviled by the world, but a sense of guilt triggered by conviction prompts the culturally compromised Christians to react with bitterness, condemnation, and (ironically) a judgmental contempt.  I say ironically given that being judgmental is the go-to condemnation heaped upon Bible-believers by this crowd. All this leads to a surreal spectacle of Christians attacking other Christians as terror-inducing, vile, and stomach-churning.  And that’s just at Taylor University; Chick-fil-A could tell you a bit about this as well.

A couple years ago when my local city council was preparing to enact a non-discrimination law for sexual orientation and gender identity, several Christians in the community spoke out against the unintended consequences – everything from opening up girl bathroom facilities to the grown men, to the potential violation of the conscience rights of Christian florists, bakers, and photographers.

When I stood for my public comment, I asked the council a simple question.  “Your ordinance exempts ministers from this non-discrimination policy, ostensibly meaning that if a minister doesn’t want to participate in a gay wedding, he doesn’t have to.  I’m curious as to why you’ve done that?  What makes a Christian minister’s right to conscience any less offensive, bigoted, or discriminatory than a Christian baker’s?”

While no councilman could or would answer my question, it sparked a conversation in which a culturally compromising Christian journalist in the town admitted on Twitter that he thinks ministers should have to perform such weddings.  And if they don’t?  “Government fines, jail, and/or loss of tax-exempt status for the church.”

That’s why I often tell fellow Christians that when the day comes that the government is telling them how they can and can’t exercise their faith, the kind of beliefs that are acceptable and the kinds that aren’t, and the type of public expression that will be allowed and the type that won’t, don’t be surprised when it comes accompanied by the raucous cheers of many wearing the name of Jesus.


This article was originally published at PeterHeck.com




Watching a Bully Get Smacked

It appears that the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is having a long overdue comeuppance.Seven years ago, inspired by SPLC’s “hate map,” a gunman walked into the Family Research Council (FRC) in Washington, intending to massacre the staff and then stuff Chick-fil-A sandwiches in their faces.FRC is among many Christian organizations targeted by the SPLC for pro-family stances. During the 1990s, FRC helped draft the Defense of Marriage Act and defended the right of the military and the Boy Scouts to adhere to traditional morality. Over the years, FRC has produced a mountain of meta-research papers that debunk the many spurious studies fed to the media by the LGBTQ activist movement.It was more than enough to get FRC placed on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s “hate map,” a profoundly defamatory instrument that inspired Floyd Lee Corkins II to try to commit mass murder that day in August 2012.

The young gay activist would have succeeded and perhaps gone on to other Christian targets on his list if not for the heroics of building manager Leo Johnson, who was shot in the arm but managed to disarm Mr. Corkins and wrestle him to the ground.

Mr. Corkins pleaded guilty to three felonies, including an act of terrorism, and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.  He told the FBI that the SPLC’s “hate map” led him to FRC’s door.

The SPLC is now ensnared in a scandal that has cost the group its leadership and, it is hoped, its misplaced credibility with law enforcement agencies and corporations.

In March, two groups of employees wrote letters to SPLC leadership, warning them that “allegations of mistreatment, sexual harassment, gender discrimination and racism threaten the moral authority of this organization and our integrity along with it” and that the SPLC leaders were complicit “in decades of racial discrimination, gender discrimination, and sexual harassment and/or assault.”

U.S. Senator Tom Cotton, Arkansas Republican, has written to the Internal Revenue Service asking for an investigation into the tax-exempt status of the SPLC, which he described as a “racist and sexist slush fund devoted to defamation.”

The senator’s action came on the heels of the firing of SPLC co-founder Morris Dees for misconduct and the resignation of Richard Cohen, who had been SPLC’s president since 2003.

The Montgomery, Alabama-based SPLC, which earned a national reputation in the 1970s for taking on the Ku Klux Klan, had been the gold standard for determining what constitutes a “hate group.” From the U.S. Justice Department on down, the SPLC’s “hate” listings were widely used to identify violent extremists.

Housed in what’s nicknamed the “poverty palace,” the SPLC has an endowment exceeding $500 million, including $120 million in offshore accounts. After defeating the Klan, the group needed new enemies on which to raise millions of dollars via direct mail.  To the delight of LGBTQ activists, the SPLC began placing Christian conservative groups alongside skinheads, Nazis and the Klan in its materials and on the “hate map.”

Soon, companies like Amazon began removing Christian groups like Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) from their charitable programs such as AmazonSmile.  The charity index GuideStar USA affixed “hate” labels to ADF, Liberty Counsel, D. James Kennedy Ministries and other Christian groups, costing them support.

In an April 4 Wall Street Journal article, “We Were Smeared by the SPLC,” ADF Senior Vice President Kristen Waggoner relates how the “hate” designation is anything but harmless.  She saw “the word ‘HATE’ plastered in red letters on a photo of my face” on a Google image-search. “Days after I argued the Masterpiece Cakeshop case in front the U.S. Supreme Court, I found the window of my car shot out in my church parking lot after a Sunday service.”

As the SPLC wallows in its own bile, it would be natural to take pleasure from their troubles, especially given the ruthless way they’ve treated their victims.  As David wrote in Psalm 57:6: “They have prepared a net for my steps … they have dug a pit before me; Into the midst of it they themselves have fallen.”  It’s not wrong to appreciate when a bully gets smacked and justice prevails.

However, Psalm 24:17-18 also warns against schadenfreude: “Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles, lest the Lord see it and be displeased, and turn away his anger from him.”

While still insisting on justice, we might learn from Leo Johnson, who has metal rods in his shattered arm.  At Floyd Corkins’ sentencing, Leo recalled that after disarming Mr. Corkins, he refrained from shooting him because, he said, God spoke to him, telling him not to.

“I forgive you but I do not forget,” he told Mr. Corkins. “If you believe in God you should pray to Him every day because not only did God save my life that day – He saved yours, too.”

All this said, the media and corporate America should refrain from using the SPLC as a source until it cleans up its hateful act and stops smearing people.




Transgender Fury

You’ve heard the old saying that starts, “Hell hath no fury”? It pretty well describes today’s transgender activists.

If you want to see how far down the slope civic discourse has slid in the land of free speech and “tolerance,” I give you an article in The Atlantic by Jesse Singhal [sic] entitled, “When Children Say They’re Trans.”

Rather than the unabashed cheerleading you might expect in a secular, progressive magazine, the article is surprisingly balanced. And that’s just the problem for transgender activists.

Said one on Twitter: “This guy’s one-man crusade against trans people has gone on for years. It really doesn’t make sense. Sad that the Atlantic gave him a cover story to spread his pseudoscience and bigotry.”

Said another: “This article can and will cause real, tangible harm to the trans community and trans youth.”

And finally this: “[Bleep] off with this transphobia. And on pride month too. This article and cover are an absolute disgrace. You should be ashamed of yourself.”

And of what should Singhal [sic] be so decisively ashamed? According to David Marcus, who critiqued the resulting frenzy in an article for The Federalist, “The article is a balanced and nuanced look … at a challenge facing a growing number of families in the United States. Along with stories of successful child gender reversals, it also tells of near misses and unfixable mistakes.”Now I’m not in favor of any so-called “gender reversals,” but I’m willing to have an honest discussion about the issue. Not so the trans activists! As Marcus observes, truth is not an option.“The lesson here should be crystal clear,” Marcus says, tongue planted firmly in cheek. Having doubts that children who believe they are the wrong gender should be encouraged in their belief “is not a position that may be tolerated in polite society or polite progressive journals like The Atlantic.”Even though there are documented cases where people regret making a gender transition, “talking about them,” Marcus concludes, “is just too dangerous.”

Folks, this is not tolerance. “Gosh,” my friend Rod Dreher quips drily, “Trans people are telling this journalist to stop, and HE JUST WON’T STOP DOING JOURNALISM! What is the world coming to?!?”

This reminds me of another recent kerfuffle. The CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, made the mistake of tweeting a picture of a purchase he made at Chick-fil-A.

The Twitterverse went nuts.

As the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported, “Detractors criticized Dorsey for promoting the Atlanta-based fast food company during LGBT Pride month due to the views expressed by Chick-fil-A’s owner regarding gay marriage.”

Oh, the humanity!

And so an unwitting Dorsey was raked over the Twitter coals, with messages such as “Hate never tasted so homophobic” cascading down around him. To avoid further character assassination, he quickly apologized. As I said, hell hath no fury.

Chuck Colson saw this lack of civility, this over-the-top fury, running rampant in our national discourse firsthand, and he correctly identified it not merely as a political problem, but as a worldview problem. He specifically labeled it as a lack of courtesy.

“The virtue of courtesy is rooted in the idea of the imago Dei,” Chuck said, “the concept that each of us was created in the image of a loving God. That is what gives each person—every person—dignity and makes each of us worthy of respect.”

That’s true whether you’re female or male, Republican or Democrat, Christian or non-Christian, struggling with gender or not. So let’s live out this aspect of our Christian worldview. Who knows? Maybe it’ll help quench the fires of hell.

Transgender Fury: So Much for Civil Discourse

As Eric and John have often said, outrage is not a strategy. So don’t join the fury that often takes the place of discourse. Instead, exercise self-control (a fruit of the Spirit), and keeping truth at the forefront, engage in conversation and debate. For helpful suggestions on how to do that, check out the links in our Resources section.

Resources

What Trans Hysterics Reveal

  • Rod Dreher | The American Conservative | June 20, 2018

Embracing Courtesy: Recognizing the Imago Dei

  • Chuck Colson | BreakPoint.org | July 7, 2017

Cultivating Civility: It’s Gonna Take (Gasp!) Self-Control

  • Eric Metaxas | BreakPoint.org | January 30, 2015

Civility Now: Our Democracy Depends on It

  • John Stonestreet | BreakPoint.org | June 12, 2017

When Children Say They’re Trans

  • Jesse Singal | The Atlantic | July/August 2018

Trans Activists Lose Their Minds Over Balanced Atlantic Cover Story

  • David Marcus | The Federalist | June 19, 2018

This article was originally published at BreakPoint.org




Shoppers Willing to Vote With Their Feet

Recall that liberals attacked Chick-Fil-A, the popular fast food chain, in 2012 when the CEO said he opposed same-sex marriage. Yet days later conservatives lined up for more than chicken sandwiches and waffle fries – they sought to express support on “Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day.”

According to the survey, more than a quarter of conservatives and more than a third of liberals are willing to change their shopping habits based on a company’s social stance, says George Barna, executive director of the American Culture and Faith Institute.

“When we look at conservatives,” he says, “they’re most likely to be no longer buying products from Starbucks, or Target, or Wells Fargo, or Disney.”

Liberals, meanwhile, avoid Chick-fil-A, Hobby Lobby, Wal-Mart, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America.

Starbucks sign“Those were the biggest ones,” he says, citing the survey.

More people are willing to stop shopping somewhere to protest a social stand, Barna learned, than to start shopping somewhere to support a company.

The survey showed, however, that conservatives eat at Chick-Fil-A and shop at Hobby Lobby because of their public stands. Liberals, meanwhile, shop online at Amazon.com and buy Starbucks coffee due to their stands.

“Relatively few companies come out ahead,” Barna advises. “We found that Amazon, Google, Microsoft and PayPal were the four that actually were doing better based on some of the stands that they’ve taken.”

The ones who have been hurt for their stance, or are still being hurt, he says, makes for a “much longer list.”


This article was originally posted at OneNewsNow.com




Leftist NY City Mayor Wants to Put Christians Out of Business

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is urging New Yorkers not to eat at Chick-fil-A because owner Dan Cathy believes that homoerotic acts are not moral and has donated money to organizations that share that belief. Although Mr. Cathy has donated money to charitable organizations that espouse the view that homoerotic acts are immoral and that marriage is an intrinsically male-female union, his beliefs affect neither whom Chick-fil-A franchises hire nor whom they serve.

In de Blasio’s perverse world, people who believe homosexual acts are immoral necessarily hate those who engage in them. Of course that’s an absurd and pernicious charge, but Leftists hurl it often and everywhere. I wonder if de Blasio applies that principle consistently. I wonder if de Blasio hates everyone who engages in acts that he believes are immoral.

Mr. Cathy’s beliefs on the moral status of homoerotic activity and the nature of marriage derive from his Christian faith. Both the Old and New Testaments teach clearly that homoerotic acts are immoral and that marriage is a male-female union, as does, by the way, the Quran. Therefore, it’s not just Mr. Cathy who holds those beliefs. It’s all theologically orthodox Christians, Orthodox Jews, and Muslims.

Does de Blasio seek to shut down every business in America whose owners are theologically orthodox Christians, Orthodox Jews, and Muslims? If so, would this goal comport with the free exercise of religion? Are these groups allowed to freely exercise their religion so long as they don’t own businesses?

Maybe de Blasio can tell all people of faith which religious beliefs they must abandon in order to own a business in America. May people of faith believe that consensual adult incest is immoral and still own a business in America? What about bestiality, adultery, fornication, polygamy, drunkenness, covetousness, pride, blasphemy, or idolatry?

What if a Christian believes that the only path to eternal life is through Jesus Christ? That would mean Christians think non-believers are destined for eternal damnation. Many Leftists erroneously think such a belief represents the desires of Christians. As a Leftist, de Blasio may think this Christian belief about salvation is downright hateful. Should those who believe that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life be allowed to own a business in America?

Do tell, Mayor de Blasio, which religious beliefs may people of faith hold and still own a business in America?

If you would like to send a message to the New York City mayor, fill out the webform on this website.  And above all, please vote with your wallets and continue to patronize Chick-fil-A restaurants.



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Lake Forest Resident Finds Safety Concerns Inconceivable

Lake Forest, Illinois resident Dianne Casuto in a letter in the Chicago Tribune on Sunday criticized a previous commentary in which Elizabeth Edens expressed concern over the safety to women posed by female-impersonators being allowed in women’s restrooms. Cassuto wrote, “It is inconceivable to me why Edens would feel ‘unsafe’ in a restroom simply because a transsexual or transgender individual is present there as well.”

Let’s clean up the euphemistic language, eliminating the Newspeak and rewriting her sentence more clearly: “It is inconceivable to me why Edens would feel ‘unsafe’ in a restroom simply because a man is present there as well.”

If Casuto is unable to conceive of why women might be concerned for their safety when forced to share restrooms with men, she suffers from a serious imagination deficit.

Why she would place quotation marks around “unsafe” is baffling. “Progressives” feel “unsafe” if they see presidential candidates’ names written in disappearing chalk. They feel “unsafe” at the thought of voluntarily attending a talk by scholar Christina Hoff Sommers. They feel “unsafe” at the thought of a debate on abortion. They feel “unsafe” if Chick-fil-A is on their college campus. So, why are safety concerns about the presence of men in women’s restrooms “inconceivable”?

Leftists, recognizing the importance of language in cultural battles, insist that everyone use their dogma-drenched diction. Those “transgender individuals” about whom Casuto writes who are seeking to use women’s restrooms and locker rooms are actually men.

George Orwell warned about the abuse of language by cultural dictators, a warning that should teach us to resist social pressure to surrender to their imperious commands—while we can:

The purpose of Newspeak was not only to provide a medium of expression for the world-view and mental habits proper to the devotees of IngSoc, but to make all other modes of thought impossible….Its vocabulary was so constructed as to give exact and often very subtle expression to every meaning that a Party member could properly wish to express, while excluding all other meaning and also the possibility of arriving at them by indirect methods. This was done partly by the invention of new words, but chiefly by eliminating undesirable words and stripping such words as remained of unorthodox meanings, and so far as possible of all secondary meaning whatever….


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Secularism Declares Open War on Religious Faith

In case you didn’t know it, if you are a conservative Christian, you are just like Boko Haram and ISIS. At least, that’s what the secularists are saying. More absurd still, they actually believe this.

Of course, secularism has been waging war against religion for centuries, but more recently, in America and Europe, the rhetoric of secularism has become more extreme and shrill.

When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby, critics complained that the Court’s eminently reasonable decision was “anti-scientific.”

As noted by Jonathan Adler in The Washington Post, “The Daily Beast’s Sally Kohn decried the Court’s reliance on ‘bunk science’ and The Nation’s Reed Richardson claimed the Hobby Lobby majority’s opinion rested on ‘specious scientific claims.’ ‘Alito and the four other conservative justices on the court were essentially overruling not just an Obamacare regulation, but science,’ reported Mother Jones, while another MoJo story ranked Hobby Lobby to be among the Supreme Court’s four ‘biggest science blunders.’ And over at The Incidental Economist, Austin Frakt simply declared ‘The majority of the Supreme Court doesn’t get science.'”

Adler, hardly a flaming fundamentalist, refuted the claim.

But is anyone surprised that a faith-based challenge to Obamacare would be branded “anti-scientific”?

Shades of the Church’s historic suppression of intellectual progress!

Still, attacks like these are minor compared to secularism’s idea that all committed believers must be the same, be they Islamic extremists or evangelical Christians.

Earlier this year, “City councilors from Nanaimo, B.C. [Canada] voted . . . to ban a Christian leadership conference scheduled to be podcast at the city’s convention center because one of the sponsors of the conference was U.S. restaurant chain Chick-fil-A. According to one councilor, the chain spreads ‘divisiveness, homophobia…[and] expressions of hate’ because of its CEO’s pro-marriage views.”

But it gets worse: “City councilors condemned the event as ‘hateful’, compared it to the Nigerian terrorist group Boko Haram, and said the decision to ban the event from public property was no different than if they had voted to ban an organized crime ring, too.” (Ironically, the conference featured speakers like Laura Bush and Desmond Tutu, both of whom support same-sex “marriage.”)

There you have it. Chick-fil-A is no different than Islamic radicals who burn little boys alive and kidnap and rape young girls, not to mention being similar to an organized crime ring.

In the same spirit, radio host David Pakman stated that he saw no real difference between ISIS and what he called conservative, right wing extremists (a definition that he would use to describe many evangelical Christians), a charge affirmed by his producer during the show as self-evident and irrefutable.

But of course! Bible believing Christians who affirm the sanctity of life and marriage are the same as monstrous brutes who behead the innocent in cold blood. Who can’t see this?

In case this isn’t clear enough for you, on October 14th, the Peter Tatchell Foundation, led by the UK gay activist of the same name, released its “Manifesto for Secularism – Against the Religious Right.”

Tatchell issued a “call on people everywhere to stand with us to establish an international front against the religious-Right and for secularism.”

And what exactly does Tatchell mean by “the religious-Right”? Specifically, “The Islamic State (formerly ISIS), the Saudi regime, Hindutva (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) in India, the Christian-Right in the U.S. and Europe, Bodu Bala Sena in Sri Lanka, Haredim in Israel, AQMI and MUJAO in Mali, Boko Haram in Nigeria, the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan to the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Islamic Salvation Front in Algeria.”

Read that list again slowly.

Tatchell explicitly places conservative Christians in the US and Europe in the exact same category as the Taliban, ISIS, and Boko Haram, among others. (I’ll not comment here on his reference to ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel, called Haredim.)

As the manifesto declares in its opening line, “The launch of the Manifesto for Secularism is a challenge to the global rise of the Religious Right and its menacing values, which threaten women, LGBTs, atheists, minority faiths, apostates and many others.”

Yes, dear believer, you are a menace, and war has been declared against you.

“We call on people everywhere,” the manifesto declares, “to stand with us to establish an international front against the religious-Right and for secularism.”

Among the manifesto’s demands, not all of which are outrageous, are the calls for the, “Separation of religion from public policy, including the educational system, health care and scientific research” and, “Abolition of religious laws in the family, civil and criminal codes.”

Make no mistake about it.

You have been marked, and you have been classified as a dangerous extremist capable of all kinds of nefarious acts.

And you have been forewarned.


This article was originally posted at the ChristianPost.com website.




U.S. Senator Kirk Accepts ‘Freedom’ Award from Homo-Fascist ‘Gay Equality’ Group

On Saturday evening (Feb. 8, 2014), U.S. Senator Mark Kirk (R-Illinois) was presented with the “Freedom” award by Equality Illinois, the state’s leading homosexual pressure group, at a swank fundraising banquet in Chicago. You can watch a video of the presentation below [or on YouTube HERE].

Senator Kirk has become one of the most liberal Republicans in Washington D.C. on homosexual-related issues with ever greater acts of pandering to the LGBTQ Lobby. (He came out for homosexual “marriage” and is pushing for passage of ENDA, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act [see homosexual activists release on Kirk and ENDA HERE], 

Read more about ENDA in the Heritage Foundation’s report on the ENDA bill HERE.

You might recall how Senator Kirk – in a capitulation whose cowardice was eclipsed only by its pettiness – recently blocked the respected pro-family organization  World Congress of Families (WCF) from securing a meeting room on Capitol Hill. This towering act in defense of “freedom” (sarcasm) came after the Senator heard complaints against WCF from some homosexual activists. World Congress, affiliated with The Howard Center, is based in Rockford, Illinois.

Thus it appears that Senator Kirk’s conception of “freedom” matches that of his intolerant homosexual activist allies. In 2012, Equality Illinois launched a vicious and slanderous campaign to deny Chick-fil-A restaurants the “freedom” to operate in Illinois. As you can see below, EQ falsely accused C-f-A of “discriminatory policies” because the latter’s Chief Operating Officer, Dan Cathy, had spoken out publicly against homosexual “marriage” as tempting the judgment of God. The Chicago “gay” group launched this “Flick the Hate” petition campaign designed to boot the Christian-owned chicken fast food franchise out of several college towns:

Chick-fil-Equality-IL-Flick-the-Hate

As you can see, Equality Illinois’ malicious campaign smeared Chick-fil-A and its COO, Dan Cathy, as representing “hate”–merely because Cathy disagreed publicly with “gay marriage.” EQ sought to petition stakeholders into cancelling their rental leases to the 19 Chick-fil-A restaurants then operating in Illinois. (Thankfully, they failed; there are now 32 C-f-A franchises in Illinois, according to the company’s website.) The EQ page reads, in part (emphasis theirs):

Chick-fil-A has 19 restaurants across Illinois, mostly on university campuses and in shopping malls.This petition will be give to key stakeholders in Illinois who lease, rent or allow Chick-fil-A to continue to sell their hate-filled homophobic “Chiken,” asking them to cut ties….

That kind of hate has no place in a business, especially in Illinois. It is a shame to be associated with such extreme intolerance and hate.

[Petition:]

…We urge you, as business and institutional leaders in Illinois, to challenge the discriminatory policies of this fast food chain and end all relationships that enable the Chick-fil-A brand to operation on your premises.

This kind of hate has no place in a business, especially in Illinois. It is a shame to be associated with such extreme intolerance and hate. 

I urge you to sever your ties immediately and “Flick-the-Hate!”

Background on Chick-fil-A

It is important to remind the reader that Chick-fil-A as a corporation never “discriminated” against homosexual customers or employees. In fact, one homosexual C-f-A franchise owner defended the restaurant chain and a New Hampshire Chick-fil-A restaurant owner supported a  “gay pride” event. What ignited the LGBT-obsessed Left was that Dan Cathy actually spoke out publicly against counterfeit “gay marriage.” The pro-homosexual/liberal campaign against Chick-fil-A also involved political opposition to proposed restaurant openings in Chicago and Boston–with liberal politicians seeking to banish C-f-A in the name of “tolerance.”

The Left’s opposition to Chick-fil-A led to a massive Christian pro-family backlash in the form of “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day,” organized by Mike Huckabee, former Arkansas governor and 2008 Republican presidential candidate. Americans by the hundreds of thousands nationwide went to their local Chick-fil-A to support the restaurant chain.

Thankfully, the homo-fascists at Equality Illinois–and their Democratic political allies who used their offices to attempt to deny Chick-fil-A the right and opportunity to expand and do business (e.g, in the economically-struggling State of Illinois) did not prevail. In fact, they succeeded only in generating more support for Chick-fil-A among many, many consumers.

As you can see below, Sen. Kirk is still recovering from the stroke he suffered in 2012. We wish him a continued and speedy recovery. Politically speaking, however, we at AFTAH are appalled at Kirk’s pandering to Hard Left activists of the sort usually associated with Democratic politics, and we plead with him to return to supporting the pro-family principles of the Republican Party Platform.

Take ACTION:  Call or write Senator Mark Kirk R-IL)  at his Washington D.C. office (202) 224-2854; or at his Chicago office (312) 886-3506; or through his online Comment Form HERE] and urge him to stop rewarding anti-Christian bigotry. Ask him to return this “Freedom Award” from the hateful anti-Christian homosexual group, Equality Illinois–which in 2012 launched a failed pressure campaign to kick Chick-fil-A restaurants out of Illinois.

More ACTION:  Call or write the Republican National Committee [Contact Form HERE] and its Chairman, Reince Priebus [202-863-8500; choose ext. “1”], and urge them to stand firm against the aggressive Homosexual Lobby, which is targeting Christian leaders and businesses like Chick-fil-A for demonization. Tell Priebus that when Republicans like Senator Mark Kirk embrace Democratic-type social liberalism, it only deflates the pro-family GOP grassroots. Lastly, urge Priebus to PUBLICLY oppose ENDA, the radical Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Thank Chairman Priebus for being publicly pro-life–but urge him also to make the case against “Big Gay Government” (e.g., ENDA)–and Obama’s push to nationalize “same-sex marriage”–as part of the RNC’s regular public Talking Points. 

You can watch the YouTube video of the Equality Illinois presentation of the “Freedom Award” to Sen. Kirk HERE


This article was originally published at the AFTAH.com blog.




Andrew Cuomo to Conservatives: You Have No Power Here! Be Gone.

Governor Andrew Cuomo (D-New York) has arrogantly proclaimed that “extreme conservatives” have no place in New York. And who are these “extremists”? Those who Cuomo hopes will leave New York include those who believe that women do not have a moral right to murder babies in utero, those who believe that homosexual acts are immoral, and those who believe marriage has a nature central to which is sexual complementarity.

I assume that Cuomo seeks voluntary relocation of those who dissent from his “progressive” dogma, but who knows what presumptuous “progressive” oppressors will desire for untouchable “conservative extremists” in a few years.

What’s really rich in Cuomo’s statement about “extremism” is his apparent ignorance of history and logic. Cuomo seems to be implying that the number of people who hold a particular moral belief determines the truth or rightness of the belief. So, if most New Yorkers believe in the absolute right of mothers to murder the babies growing within them, then dissenters are wrongheaded extremists and have no place in states in which their views are in the minority. 

A few questions for Cuomo:

  1. What if the majority of people in every state were to believe that women have a moral right to murder their babies in utero? Where then do dissenters belong? Where is their place?

  2. Which moral and political beliefs must one hold in order to have a place in New York? Is it just conservative beliefs on feticide, assault weapons, and homosexuality that abrogate one’s right to live in New York, or are there other ideological litmus tests for New York residency?

  3. Historically, Cuomo’s perverse views on feticide and homosexuality have been the extreme views. During those periods of history when Cuomo’s views were extreme, were they objectively wrong as well? And during those periods of history, did extreme “progressives” lose their “place” in all the states in which conservative  views dominated?

Some, including Cuomo, are now trying to argue that Cuomo was merely describing a political reality in New York. They’re arguing that Cuomo was simply saying that since New York is a liberal state, conservative “extremists” will have a difficult time effecting their desired political ends. But here’s what Cuomo actually said:

Are they these extreme conservatives…right-to-life, pro-assault-weapon, anti-gay? Is that who they are? Because if that’s who they are and if they are the extreme conservatives, they have no place in the state of New York, because that’s not who New Yorkers are….Figure out who you are, and figure out if your extreme conservative philosophy can survive in this state. And the answer is no.

Does Cuomo apply this pragmatic philosophy consistently? Does he think extreme progressives have no place in conservative states? Should all extreme “progressives” exit predominantly red states, counties, or cities?

“Progressives” have been fashioning their re-education camps for some years now (i.e., public schools), but perhaps the resistance of “conservative extremists” to curricular propaganda and censorship, and the increasing number of free-thinking “conservative extremists” who are exiting government schools is leading anti-intellectuals like Cuomo to entertain the fanciful idea of sequestration of non-compliants.

Seven years ago as a member of the English Department at Deerfield High School in Deerfield, Illinois, I was working in the writing center. At that time, I was urging colleagues who introduced students to homosexuality-affirming resources also to expose students to the work of dissenting scholars. A colleague in the writing center—who, by the way, claimed to be Catholic—told me that she was so sure my views on homosexuality were wrong that she didn’t think they should be allowed to be presented in public schools. This is the astonishing view that dominates public schools around the country. Teachers simply assume that their unproven, non-factual moral and political assumptions (as well as re-definitions of terms) are true and arrogantly censor competing assumptions—all the while proclaiming their impassioned commitment to diversity, tolerance, and intellectual inquiry.

Cuomo inadvertently let the dirty, flea-bitten, nasty cat peak its head out of the extreme “progressive” bag, but he’s far from alone. Remember when Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel said, “Chick-fil-A’s values are not Chicago values…. And if you’re gonna be part of the Chicago community, you should reflect Chicago values,”? Chick-fil-A was unwanted in Chicago because its president Dan Cathy believes that marriage is inherently sexually complementary.

The pernicious reality is that many “progressives,” particularly those in positions of power and influence (e.g., those in the mainstream press, academia, Congress, and the entertainment industry), violate virtually every one of their shibboleths: They hate diversity of ideas; they censor with carefree abandon; they’re arrogant and elitist; they’re intolerant; they hurl epithets, and they’re illogical. And they reserve for themselves the right to decide who gets to speak, work, live, move, and have their being in America. 


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What’s Next?

What’s next?

That’s the question the citizens of Illinois should be asking themselves. Now that our state lawmakers have decided to redefine marriage, legalize “medical” marijuana and teach “comprehensive” sex-education to young children in our government schools,  what’s next?

Let’s put aside for the moment the fact that our state lawmakers didn’t listen to us–we the people–in their feckless decisions. As for same-sex “marriage,” they decided to make the decision without us, our input or our approval, caving in to the political pressure of Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) and the multi-million dollar homosexual lobby. But as frustrating as this is, what is of more concern right now is what will happen next?

Well, the day after the Illinois House voted to redefine marriage, we may have been given a preview of things to come. As I was waiting to be interviewed by Tony Sarabi of Chicago’s Public Radio (WBEZ), I listened to him interview Tracy Baim, the publisher and executive editor of Windy City Times, a homosexual Chicago newspaper.  During the interview, she revealed that the true goal of the radical LGBTQ agenda is to silence and punish any moral opposition to their lifestyle–even pastors and priests:

...the problem with Religious Freedom [and Marriage Fairness] Act is that there are all these exemptions on religion, and believe me, I don’t believe that a church should be forced to perform a same gender wedding.  But if you continue down those exemptions after a legitimate church what happens is you have other people that say on religious grounds that they don’t want to serve people, they don’t want, literally, to serve them at their breakfast counter or serve them in their B&B, or provide wedding photography. And while that is really an emotional issue, and I can understand why the right-wing is very upset about B&B owners being sued, we have to look at this through historical lens–and that is so offensive that people could just decide who to serve and who not to serve based on characteristic of who they are, including their religion. [emphasis added.]

Baim continued:

…this new law that just passed yesterday has a whole series of things in it that are questionable of what is a religious institution. So they bent over backwards to try to be accommodating , but in many ways it is a violation of–well it will be played out in court–of what really can be considered.  So can a club, like the Rotary or the Kiwanis or whatever say based on their religious beliefs they don’t want to do something.  Well they can say they don’t want to serve someone who is of a different race or who is Muslim, etc. So it will be interesting to see how this will play out…  [emphasis added.]

Five law professors who favor same-sex “marriage” identified Illinois’ law (SB 10) as the absolute worst in the nation in protecting religious liberty and freedom of conscience, and still Baim and other radical activists in her community will not rest until all exemptions are eliminated and all opposition is punished.

Baim demonstrates an utter lack of respect for religious liberty, which, unlike “sexual orientation,” is actually included in the U.S. Constitution. Religious beliefs and conscience objections to being involved with an activity–not a person–but an activity we believe is immoral is irrelevant to activists like Baim. All rights are subordinate to their purported right to engage in homosexual acts. Our First Amendment civil rights to freely exercise religion be damned.  

That is exactly what is happening in Colorado where a Christian-owned bakery was ordered by a judge from the Colorado Civil Rights Commission to make cakes for same-sex ceremonies or face fines. The baker didn’t refuse to serve homosexuals. He refused to participate in a ceremony that celebrates a union that his faith teaches is an abomination to God. Baim is either dishonest or ignorant when she claims that people of faith will seek to refuse “literally to serve” homosexuals, or “to serve them at their lunch counter.” There is no evidence that Christians seek to refuse to provide lunch to homosexuals at their lunch counters or to sell them donuts on their way to work. Some Christians refuse to use their gifts to provide goods and services for activities (e.g., weddings, civil ceremonies, or sleepovers) that violate their religious convictions.  

And remember how many of our “tolerant” liberal political officials treated the religious views of Chick-Fil-A’s CEO Dan Cathy when he dared to speak in favor of natural marriage? His company was threatened with being blacklisted and forbidden to do businesses in Chicago. Mayor Rahm Emanuel went so far as to say that “Chick-fil-A’s values are not Chicago’s values,” (a strange claim in light of the fact that he worked for Obama when Obama opposed same sex “marriage”).  Elected officials in Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Washington DC said the same thing: Chick-Fil-A was not welcome because the owner holds a traditional view of marriage. 

We have been warning our subscribers for years now:  The end goal of the radical LGBTQ agenda isn’t “marriage equality.” The end goal is to silence any and all moral opposition to homosexuality. And they plan to use the heavy hand of government to censor and punish conservative and Judeo-Christian views on sexuality and marriage. How long before they tell our churches, our ministries and our families that our values are not their values? It’s coming faster than you realize.

Further, if the government redefines marriage for homosexuals, it must continue to redefine marriage for other groups or risk being guilty of the same kind of discrimination of which natural marriage supporters stand accused. So, what will be the next legal battle facing marriage?

Already efforts are under way to legalize plural unions in order to protect the “rights” of polygamists and polyamorists. Late last week, a federal judge in Utah struck down part of a Utah law that outlawed plural marriage. This is the logical and inevitable next step after eliminating sexual complementarity from the legal definition of marriage. After all, it is far more radical to jettison sexual complementarity from the legal definition of marriage than it is to jettison the requirement regarding number of partners. 

These “alternative lifestyles” further reduce marriage to any group of people that want to live together and have sexual relations. They also place the desires of adults above what is best for children while ignoring recent studies showing that kids are better raised in a home with a mother and a father.

Now more than ever we need you to stand with the Illinois Family Institute in defending the Judeo-Christian worldview. As we actively defend the traditional, conservative values upon which our country was built, we recognize that we can’t do it without your support.

The attacks our values face are many. They are well-funded, well-organized attacks aimed at destroying our shared values–values that are essential to the continued health of the nation. But we have something that our opposition doesn’t: the majority. Our numbers are far greater than theirs as recent studies continue to show a strong support for natural marriage, life and religious freedom.

Though our adversary is well-funded, politically connected and speaking loudly, we the people have greater numbers that can make an incredible impact if we stand together. Will you commit right now to stand with the Illinois Family Institute in defending our shared values from the attacks of a few people that want to fundamentally change our country?

Whether you can commit to sending a one-time gift, become a monthly donor or help underwrite the cost of specific needs we have right now, every person, and every effort makes a difference.

Please stand with the Illinois Family Institute by donating right now!

Now is not the time to sit back and wait for someone else to get involved. Now is the time to stand up and become a proactive force in defending the values we cherish. Imagine what could be accomplished if you, your family and your friends each decided to get involved. The momentum we could create would be an unstoppable force.

IFI will be leading the charge in 2014 educating voters throughout our state with our Voter Guide, standing up to those seeking to attack the family, continually standing for innocent human life and opposing those seeking to undercut our family values in our government schools.

Our mission at Illinois Family Institute is to stand for biblical, Judeo-Christian values, and in doing so, help bring Illinois back to a state in which religious liberty flourishes, families prosper and every human life is valued. Your support by the end of the year will ensure that we have the resources necessary to fulfill our mission in 2014.

I want to remind you that we have a $25,000 Year-End Matching Grant offered by a group of generous benefactors.  Any donation given or mailed by December 31st will go toward this matching challenge and will be fully tax-deductible, lowering your 2013 tax burden.

Any donation received by (or postmarked on) December 31st will be matched. If you contribute $50 IFI will receive $100, if you give $1,000 we will receive $2,000 and so forth.  No amount, whether a monthly or one-time gift, is too small or too large. We appreciate all of your donations more than we can possibly say.

Please partner with us and make a tax-deductible gift today.

May God bless you and your family this Christmas season.

Sincerely,

David E. Smith
Executive Director 

P.S. Help us reach our goal of raising a total of $50,000 by the end of the month – Donate today!  To make a credit card donation over the phone, call the IFI office at (708) 781-9328.  

You can also send a gift by mail to:

Illinois Family Institute
P.O. Box 88848
Carol Stream, IL  60188




FBI Partners with Left-Wing Extremist Group

The magnitude of this Obama administration’s “progressive” radicalism becomes more evident with each passing day. In recent months, there has been a drastic spike in acts of both anti-Christian and anti-conservative discrimination and intimidation on military bases across the country. This mounting harassment is not being carried out at the hands of regular enlisted folk but, rather, at the hands of high-ranking officials who, in their official capacity, are targeting Christian and conservative organizations and individuals in an effort to silence them.

It has long been suspected that the Obama administration is using propaganda circulated by the roundly discredited Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a left-wing extremist group that, in recent years, has adopted two primary goals: 1) raising truckloads of money and 2) smearing as “domestic hate groups” dozens of mainstream Christian ministries like the Family Research Council (FRC), the American Family Association (AFA), and local groups like Illinois Family Institute (IFI).

This suspicion has now been verified.

The problem on military bases has gotten so bad, in fact, that the U.S. Congress is demanding answers from the Pentagon. Recently, the AFA-affiliated OneNewsNow.com newsgroup reported that “Congressman Alan Nunnelee (R-Mississippi) is 1 of 38 members of Congress signing off on a letter to the Secretary of the Army – especially about an incident last month at Camp Shelby, Mississippi, in which the Tupelo-based American Family Association was labeled in Army training material as a ‘hate group.’ The Army initially claimed it was an isolated incident.

“‘But as we looked into it, [we found] this is not an isolated incident,’ Nunnelee [told] OneNewsNow. ‘There are a number of cases where the Army has singled out the American Family Association and other Christian organizations as hate groups, and service men and women have been threatened with sanctions if they support these groups.”

After a tremendous public outcry – and in an embarrassing slap to the face of the SPLC – the Pentagon quickly backpedaled, later apologizing about the Camp Shelby incident and publicly admitting that, despite the SPLC’s absurd claims to the contrary, the AFA is not a “hate group.”

Still, rather than distancing itself from the anti-Christian SPLC as one might expect, the Obama administration has, instead, strengthened ties to the hard-left outfit. Even after this string of military scandals.

For instance, I recently learned that on its official website, the FBI lists as one of its primary “hate crimes resources,” the Southern Poverty Law Center.

This is especially mysterious when you consider that the FBI’s own verified hate crimes statistics are completely at odds with numbers put out by the SPLC in its fundraising propaganda. Whereas the FBI indicates that there was a sharp 24.3 percent decrease in hate crimes from 1996 to 2010, with racial hate crimes dropping by 41.9 percent, the SPLC incongruously claims that since 2000, the number of “hate groups” has somehow increased by 67.3 percent.

So send your money right away!

The FBI’s empirical data doesn’t track with the SPLC’s political propaganda. Consequently, by partnering so closely with this discredited organization, the Department of Justice significantly undermines its own credibility.

Still, while the SPLC has proven utterly unreliable in its actuarial acumen – as well as intentionally dishonest – it has also proven demonstrably dangerous in its prolonged campaign of anti-Christian agitation.

You may recall that it was the Southern Poverty Law Center’s somewhat clever, yet patently dishonest and reprehensible strategy of juxtaposing, as fellow “hate groups,” mainstream Christian organizations like the FRC and the AFA alongside violent extremist groups like the Aryan Brotherhood and the Skin Heads that, on Aug. 15, 2012, led to an actual act of domestic terrorism.

On that date, “gay” activist Floyd Lee Corkins II – who later confessed in court that he was spurred-on by the SPLC’s anti-Christian materials – entered the lobby of the Washington-based Family Research Council intending to kill every Christian within.

Corkins was armed with both a gun and a backpack full of ammunition. He also had 15 Chick-fil-A sandwiches that he intended to rub in the faces of his would-be victims. (FRC had recently defended the food chain’s COO Dan Cathy for pro-natural marriage statements he made.)

The only thing standing between Corkins and mass murder was FRC facilities manager and security specialist Leo Johnson. As Corkins shouted disapproval for FRC’s “politics,” he shot Johnson who, despite a severely wounded arm, managed to tackle Corkins and disarm him.

Of Johnson’s actions, D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier said, “The security guard here is a hero, as far as I’m concerned.”

I agree.

Upon hearing of Leo’s selfless act of heroism, I was reminded of John 15:13: “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”

But according to both the SPLC and the FBI (by virtue of its close ties to the group), Leo’s heart is, instead, full of hate. Everyone at FRC is hateful.

In fact, if you happen to be a Bible-believing Christian, you too are hateful.

You get the drill.

The Obama administration has absolutely no business partnering with this extremist organization – and it’s an outrage that it does. If this troubles you as much as it does me, please contact the FBI at (202) 324-3000 and respectfully voice your concern. Then call or email your local FBI office. (Click here to find that location.) It’s critical that freedom-loving Americans light-up the FBI’s phone lines and demand that all facets of government completely disassociate from the SPLC and disavow any further use of its anti-Christian propaganda.

The Southern Poverty Law Center must be held accountable for its inflammatory and potentially deadly anti-Christian bigotry.