Parents with children in school today should listen to Dan Proft’s recent radio program that further illuminates the degradation of schools and the increasing violence that are making urban communities unsafe and unlivable.

Proft and his co-host Amy Jacobson began the show by reporting on the gunfire that rang out during a baseball game between St. Rita High School and Marmion Academy. At about 7:00 p.m., on April 28, twenty—three shots were fired from a McDonald’s next to St. Rita, leading the baseball players to duck or run for cover. Tragically, as Proft pointed out, such lawlessness and violence are common on the South and West sides of Chicago.

Each year that Democrats control Chicago, the city becomes more violent, more dysfunctional, and more unfit for families.

The second story was about a racist attack at Lyons Township High School by a black girl, Heavyn Washington, on a white girl, which Washington’s friend cheered on using obscene language while recording the outrageous attack.

According to West Cook News, Washington told her friends that “she attacked her classmate because ‘she was being racist.’” Where did Washington get the idea that the proper response to (alleged) racism was pummeling people in the face and head and dragging people by their hair? Maybe she watched too many BLM riots.

According to news reports, Washington was the victim of racist taunts via Snapchat in February. No worries. Just last August, District 204, which includes Lyons Township High School, hired a new and expensive Diversity, Inclusion and Equity (DIE) director “Dr.” Jennifer Rowe. In response to the Snapchat ugliness, the school held “healing circles.”

Yeah, that’s the ticket. Healing circles will make everything better #eyeroll. Sometimes I wonder if leftist high school administrators have ever met teens.

Rowe was hired last August, starting salary $155,000, to be the “director of equity and belonging.” For Rowe, a former English teacher (of course),

Equity is not something added to the plate. … It is the plate. It’s the lens through which we look at all things.

If that’s not a troubling enough claim, Rowe also made this racist and oxymoronic statement:

We always want to racialize equity work.

But do we?

A father of a Lyons Township student called in to Proft’s show to share information about the racial division in both Lyons Township high schools, suggesting that what goes on in the classrooms—particularly English classes—foments racism. I wonder how many English teachers are devotees of critical race theory.

This photo of Rowe celebrating the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network’s Day of Silence provides yet more evidence that she’s just another overpaid leftist activist.

Get your kids out of public schools, and look very carefully at any private religious institution you’re considering.

Read more:

“Furries” Trend is a Result of the Slippery Slope

What if I told you that a community of American citizens who are defined by a set of subjective, self-disclosed, and self-defined characteristics and personal behaviors have designated at least 163 days of the calendar year to national and international observances honoring their choices? What if I also told you that the group made up only a fraction of the U.S. population? What would you think?

You would probably have two questions: who are these people and what gives?

“These people” are members of the LGBTQ+ syndicate and we’re right in the middle of their annual “LGBT Pride Month.” If you think 30 days of celebrating anal sex, leather bondage, gender confusion, self-mutilation, sadomasochism and other expressions of sexual anarchy might seem like more than enough, you’re wrong. They’re only halfway through the year and you’ve already missed:

Aromantic Awareness Week, Bisexual Health Awareness Month, Day of Silence, Harvey Milk Day, International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, International Non-Binary People’s Day, International Stand Up to Bullying Day, International Transgender Day of Visibility, Lesbian Visibility Day, National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, National GLBT Health Awareness Week, No Name-Calling Week, Pan Visibility Day, Pulse Night of Remembrance and Zero Discrimination Day.

Although you probably weren’t aware of these observances, don’t worry. There’s plenty more for you to engage with. Beginning at the end of June with the Stonewall Riots Anniversary, the rest of the year offers:

Ally Week, Asexuality Awareness Week, Bisexual Awareness Week, Celebrate Bisexuality Day, International Drag Day, International Lesbian Day, International Non-Binary People’s Day, Intersex Awareness Day, Intersex Day of Remembrance (or Intersex Solidarity Day), LGBT History Month, National Coming Out Day, Pan Pride Day, Spirit Day (annual LGBTQ awareness day), Trans Parent Day, Transgender Awareness Week, Transgender Day of Remembrance and World AIDS Day.

The only month not represented by any of these annual observances is August, which is kind of like a seventh inning stretch (only longer). After all, you’ve got to take some time off from all that observing!

A couple of the observances are understandable. International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the Pulse Night of Remembrance honor the homosexual victims of both events, none of whom deserved losing their lives to madmen.

But the rest? The most curious thing about all this is the inverse relationship of their minority status with their complete domination of the Gregorian calendar. Eleven million people have staked a claim to 45% of available days which seems, I don’t know, excessive. Imagine some version of the 10-member Glee Club appearing on every other page of the high school yearbook. For comparison, the nine largest world religions representing 5.5 billion people (or about 80 percent of the world’s population) observe 138 days combined. Christianity, the largest of the nine with 2.4 billion followers, only observes 12 days.

What gives?

A quick analysis reveals four main themes behind the designated LBGTQ+ observances: 1) to raise awareness, 2) to prevent bullying, 3) to honor select people or events and 4) to celebrate. If we break down the 35 observances I cite by theme, here’s what we find (some observances have multiple themes):

This tells us “what gives.” The majority of these observances (28 of 35) are to “raise awareness” and to “prevent bullying,” which account for 95 percent of designated days (156 of 163). The LGBTQ+ community is extremely concerned about educating the rest of us about their proclivities and suppressing any kind of bullying.

I will be the first to say that no one, including members of the LGBTQ+ community, should be bullied. Bullying is cruel and unloving, no matter the reason. “‘Love your neighbor as yourself,’” says Jesus. The only problem with the anti-bullying initiative is that none of those days make a clear and explicit distinction between bullying and moral disapproval. While bullying does happen and should be opposed, one wishes that the LGBTQ+ folks would heed their own advice and stop bullying people like Jack Phillips, Barronelle Stutzman, or Aaron and Melissa Klein.

As far as being “educated” or having my “awareness” raised, does anyone seriously think that we need more awareness of the LGBTQ+ crowd? They are represented in music, film, television, advertising, sports, science, federal government, state government, city government, the military, business, education, children’s programming, legal mandates, law enforcement, dedicated parades and, as of this writing, we have an openly gay (and “married”) man running for president of the United States.

It may be true that back in the 1960s, people who called the LGBTQ+ community home were an obscure minority. But that’s no longer true. What is true is that the over-indulgence of the queer-all-year calendar is no longer just about becoming visible, but about pushing an agenda. In fact, that’s what it’s been all along.

The LGBTQ+ movement isn’t just “educating” us; it is indoctrinating us. It isn’t just opposing bullying; it’s demanding no resistance at all. The 163 days are 163 days of impressions being made on you, your children and our society. It’s how advertising works.

“Because of this repeated ‘nudging’ effect, advertising achieves best results on market share when it maintains a continuous presence and a sufficient weight relative to competition. (We also know this to be largely true because brands, on average, gain or lose share of market when their ‘share of voice’ becomes larger or smaller.)”

As further evidence, in their 1989 book, “After the Ball: How America Will Conquer Its Fear and Hatred of Gays in the 90’s,” Marshall Kirk and Hunter Madsen wrote, “Thus propagandistic advertising can depict all opponents of the gay movement as homophobic bigots who are ‘not Christian’ and the propaganda can further show them homosexuals as being criticized, hated and shunned…” (p. 152-153). Madsen earned “a doctorate in politics from Harvard and was an expert on public persuasion tactics and social marketing.”

The more impressions you receive, the more inclined you are to choose the advertised product over a competitor’s. In this case, the “competitor” is the Church. For example, Chai Feldblum, a lesbian and leading gay rights activist, a former law professor at Georgetown University, and an Obama-era appointee who served almost nine years as the Commissioner of the EEOC, said during an interview in 2006 that she was “having a hard time coming up with any case in which religious liberty should win,” when religious and sexual liberties competed.

Fifteen years ago Albert Mohler, Jr., wrote,

“There can be no doubt that Christianity represents the greatest obstacle to the normalization of homosexual behavior. It cannot be otherwise, because of the clear biblical teachings concerning the inherent sinfulness of homosexuality in all forms, and the normativity of heterosexual marriage.”

If you are a believer and you (or your children) participate in any of these so-called “Pride” observances, you have been seduced by a lie. Refuse to participate any longer and “be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:15-16).

No group needs 163 days of recognition. It’s all propaganda, part of a master plan for the LGBTQ+ consortium to acquire more power, pressure society into approving sexual anarchy and, ultimately, to destroy the Church.

IFI Fall Banquet with Franklin Graham!
We are excited to announce that at this year’s IFI banquet, our keynote speaker will be none other than Rev. Franklin Graham, President & CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Christian evangelist & missionary. This year’s event will be at the Tinley Park Convention Center on Nov. 1st.

Learn more HERE.

An arm of, arguably, the most tyrannical, divisive, hateful, and destructive political movement in the country will once again urge children and teens to disrupt government schools for an entire day on Friday April 12, 2019. And for the 23^rd year in row, spineless Christians will take it on the chin. They tolerate the intolerable—not for principled reasons—but out of cowardice.

The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) sponsors and promotes the political protest called Day of Silence whose goal is to exploit taxpayer-funded middle and high schools for the purpose of transforming the moral, political, and ontological views of other people’s children. GLSEN even provides a guide for “educators” that teaches teachers how to promote Leftist views of homosexuality and the “trans” phenomenon on Day of Silence.

GLSEN urges students to refuse to speak for the entire day—including during instructional time—in the service of normalizing disordered feelings and sexual acts that God abhors. And Christians shamefully say and do nothing.

Day of Silence uses government schools to propagate arguable assumptions about the nature and morality of homosexual acts and relationships and of biological-sex impersonation. And Christians rationalize their capitulation as fostering unity and demonstrating “niceness.”

Why are “LGBTQ” activists more impassioned, tenacious, and persevering in promoting wickedness than Christ-followers are in opposing it? Do Christians not remember that we are to deny ourselves and take up our crosses daily, to hate evil and love good, to expose the unfruitful works of darkness, and to count it all joy when we encounter trials because of our identity in Christ?

Have Christians forgotten these words of Jesus: “It is inevitable that stumbling blocks will come, but woe to the one through whom they come! It would be better for him to have a millstone hung around his neck and to be thrown into the sea than to cause one of these little ones to stumble”?

As children and teens are inculcated with a body-, mind-, and heart-destroying ideology, one must wonder if Christians love—or even like—their neighbors.

There is something Christian parents can do. They can contact their children’s middle and high school administrators to ask if students and/or teachers will be permitted to refuse to speak on Day of Silence. If the answer is “yes,” keep your children home. Stop acquiescing to every moral offense the sexually deviant among us do in the service of their ideology.

Schools have a legal and pedagogical right to prohibit students from refusing to speak during class time. Schools may prohibit any actions they deem disruptive, and surely refusing to speak during instructional time is disruptive.

Imagine if another group of students refused to speak for an entire day to draw attention to the plight of women in Muslim countries, or the plight of Christians in China, or to object to American military intervention around the world, or to oppose socialized medicine, or endorse the Green New Deal. Such hijacking of government schools is disruptive and inappropriate. Students can engage in political action on their own time and their own dime—not in public schools supported by the hard-earned money of diverse peoples, many of whom object to the assumptions of the “LGBTQ” ideology.

A month ago, a Fresno, California high school spokesperson prohibited students from wearing MAGA hats, implying that the hats would be “distracting.” Translated: She feared intolerant leftist high school students would respond obnoxiously to the presence of peers wearing MAGA hats.

It’s well-known that conservative kids are far less likely to respond obnoxiously to “progressive” paraphernalia or political action than Leftist kids would to conservative paraphernalia or political action. Therefore, only conservative paraphernalia and political action are deemed distractions and banned. Leftist brats, bullies, and boors win again.

If the Leftists who control government schools really cared about creating a learning environment free of political distractions and disruptions, they would establish policies that prohibit all clothing with political messages and all controversial political action. But they don’t.

I learned from my experience working at Deerfield High School on Chicago’s North Shore that the claims of Leftist teachers about their commitments to tolerance, inclusivity, and diversity are lies. They don’t value true tolerance, inclusivity, or diversity. They don’t seek to make schools “safe” places for all students. They don’t care if Orthodox Jews, Muslims, or theologically orthodox Christians feel excluded, uncomfortable, and “unsafe.”

The central pedagogical goals of Leftist “teachers”—better known as agents of change—are ideological not pedagogical. And they’re shameless in their hyp0crisy.

Conservative Parents: If your middle or high school allows students to refuse to Speak on Day of Silence, please keep your children home.

Click here for more information.

Listen to this article read by Laurie:

https://staging.illinoisfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/mp3-What-the-World-Needs-Now-is-Some-Conservative-Civil-Disobedience_01.mp3

IFI works diligently to serve the Christian community in Illinois with email alerts, video reports, pastors’ breakfasts, special forums, worldview conferences and cultural commentaries. We do not accept government funds nor do we run those aggravating popup ads to generate funds.  We depend solely on the support of readers like you.

If you appreciate the work and ministry of IFI, please consider a tax-deductible donation to sustain our endeavors.  It does make a difference.

Arguably, the most tyrannical, divisive, hateful, destructive political movement in the country will once again urge children and teens to disrupt government schools for an entire day on Friday April 12, 2019. And for the 23^rd year in row, spineless Christians will take it on the chin. They tolerate the intolerable—not for principled reasons—but out of cowardice.

read more here

For decades homosexual and “trans” activists have used schools to indoctrinate children with the disordered and destructive “LGBTQ” ideology. Thirteen years ago, the Journal of Gay & Lesbian Issues in Education published an article titled “Trans-Friendly Preschool” by now-ordained Rev. Laurel A. Dykstra, a “bisexual Christian activist” who has twins via a sperm donor. I wrote about her article for IFI in 2008—a decade ago. Here are some of Dykstra’s ideas for training up children in the way they should go:

• She said that the “gender binary system…. is harmful to everyone.”

• She moralized that “It is not enough for classrooms, teachers, and schools to be ‘open’ or ‘non-judgmental’; they need to be actively trans-positive.”

• Dykstra recommended that when talking to preschoolers, teachers should say things like “‘Well, most men have penises, but some don’t,’” and “‘Some girls grow up to be men.’”

• She urged teachers to “Encourage kids to question their assumptions. ‘How do you know that that person is a woman? Could a man wear a dress?’”

• She instructed teachers to “Call children by the name and the pronouns they choose.”

• She recommended accessorizing classrooms with a “Tranny Teddy. Have a non-gendered toy/doll/puppet…. Do not use pronouns and give this creature a variety of gendered clothing, such as a skirt and tie. If asked, say ‘Oh, Binker isn’t a boy or a girl.’”

• She suggested having a “Butch/Femme Day. Why not teach kids language like butch/femme, as an alternative to boy/girl or male/female? You could have dress-up days to play deliberately with gender, like ‘Fabulous and Fearless Day’ or ‘Capable and Campy.’”

• She encouraged teachers to “Invite a drag performer or transsexual person who would be willing to share their story and a photo album.”

• When reading picture books to preschoolers, Dykstra recommended “switching pronouns, avoiding them altogether, or using alternative pronouns.”

• Dykstra rationalized using deceit in the face of parental opposition: “For ‘stealth practitioners’ (i.e., teachers in a transphobic setting), these classroom suggestions can be implemented without fanfare to create a more just and welcoming classroom.”

Remember, these recommendations were made 13 years ago, and we now have drag queen story hours for toddlers in public libraries. This is what happens when we ignore warnings and succumb to peer pressure and cowardice.

The efforts of sanctimonious and arrogant “LGBTQ” activists to “queer” schools are not limited to preschools. Illinois lawmakers captivated by bad ideas in general and in thrall to the “LGBTQ” ideology are pushing a bill that would require teachers to discuss the disordered homosexual and biological-sex-rejecting predilections of anyone who has contributed something noteworthy to culture. This is a tricksy way of transferring the good feelings children and teens have about achievements to homosexuality and opposite-sex impersonation—which is the ultimate goal of LGBTQ activists. Only California has a similar law.

Someone should ask lawmakers why this bill is limited to the “roles and contributions” of homosexuals and opposite-sex impersonators. Why doesn’t it mandate discussions of the roles and contributions of polyamorists or the “trans-abled”? “Trans-abled” persons identify as disabled persons and wish to bring their bodies into alignment with their subjective, internal, “felt” sense of being disabled. They often want a limb amputated. What about “Minor-Attracted” persons, those who experience “Genetic Sexual Attraction,” and those who experience all manner of paraphilias, like sadomasochists, fetishists, infantilists, and voyeurs. If homosexuals and opposite-sex impersonators are entitled to see people who share their experiences represented in curricula, shouldn’t children and teens who experience other powerful, persistent, unchosen feelings see people who share their experiences  represented positively in curricula?

Oh, but that’s not all. Schools also allow activities—including protests—created and promoted by outside “LGBTQ” activist organizations to disrupt instructional time. The queen of all classroom-invading protests, the Day of Silence, takes place this Friday, April 27 in thousands of high schools and middle schools across the country.

The Day of Silence is a protest organized and promoted by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, which urges students to refuse to speak all day on Friday—including during class—in support of all things homosexual and “trans.”

In response to this usurpation of public schools for a partisan political protest, a national coalition of almost 50 pro-family activists and organizations, including the Activist Mommy, American Family Association, Capitol Resource Institute, Minnesota’s Child Protection League, Coalition of African-American Pastors, Dr. Michael Brown’s Coalition of Conscience, Concerned Women for America, Illinois Family Institute, Liberty Counsel, MassResistance, and Mission America are urging parents to keep their children home. The Day of Silence Walkout (which is not technically a Walkout) has been taking place for over a decade.

There are three major reasons to keep your children home on the Day of Silence:

1.)  To remove your children from exposure to yet more corrupt ideas and coercive social pressure.

2.)  To communicate to administrators, faculty, and school board members that if they allow instructional time to be disrupted—and yes, refusal to speak disrupts instructional time—your children will not be present.

3.)  To prevent political protests from metastasizing in government schools.

Efforts like the Day of Silence are not solely or centrally about ending bullying. These efforts are intended to eradicate moral distinctions between right and wrong sexual behavior and to mainstream homosexuality and the “trans” ideology. One can oppose both bullying and the Day of Silence.

Efforts like the Day of Silence, the school sexuality-indoctrination bill, and Dykstra’s recommendations for “transing” preschools are about using public monies and captive audiences of children to transform their moral and political views. That is not the role of government employees. The presupposition on which all of these efforts are based is that homosexual activity and opposite-sex impersonation are moral, which is an arguable belief—not an objective fact.

To find out more about the Day of Silence Walkout and see a complete list of coalition partners, go to the Day of Silence Walkout website.

I will conclude with what I wrote in 2008:

No civil society, let alone those who claim to be followers of Christ, would countenance such evil being perpetrated on our most innocent. The ideas articulated by Dykstra [and GLSEN and the school sexuality-indoctrination bill] constitute not education but unconscionable educational malpractice.

Virtually every cultural institution—from our churches to our courts to our legislatures to our news media to our entertainment industry to our government schools—has been commandeered by homosexuals and those who support their destructive cultural agenda. Those who hold traditional Judeo-Christian values must boldly and tenaciously oppose through word and deed efforts to normalize homosexuality and the “trans” ideology, including in government schools that our taxes subsidize.

If ever there was a time for weeping, it is now. If ever there was a time for righteous indignation, it is now. If ever there was a time for uncompromising courage, it is now.

Listen to this article read by Laurie:

https://staging.illinoisfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Queering-Schools-Just-Say-No.mp3

Worldview Conference May 5th

Worldview has never been so important than it is today!  The contemporary culture is shaping the next generation’s understanding of faith far more than their faith is shaping their understanding of culture. The annual IFI Worldview Conference is a phenomenal opportunity to reverse that trend. This year we are featuring well-know apologist John Stonestreet on Saturday, May 5th at Medinah Baptist Church. Mr. Stonestreet is s a dynamic speaker and the award-winning author of “Making Sense of Your World” and his newest offer: “A Practical Guide to Culture.”

Click HERE to learn more or to register!

For decades homosexual and “trans” activists have used schools to indoctrinate children with the disordered and destructive “LGBTQ” ideology. Thirteen years ago, the Journal of Gay & Lesbian Issues in Education published an article titled “Trans-Friendly Preschool” by recently ordained Rev. Laurel A. Dykstra a “bisexual Christian activist” who has twins via a sperm donor. I wrote about her article for IFI in 2008—a decade ago. Here are some of Dykstra’s ideas for training up children in the way they should go:

READ MORE

Schools just endured a disruptive, Leftist anti-gun protest, and soon they will have to endure the disruptive, Leftist Day of Silence.

For those who don’t know, the Day of Silence is a purportedly “student-led” political effort sponsored and organized by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) to exploit government schools and captive audiences for the purpose of advancing the “LGBT” sexuality ideology. Instead of walking out of classes like students did last week, GLSEN urges students in middle and high schools to refuse to speak all day—including during class. It’s important to note that the ACLU has said students have no legal right to refuse to speak if asked to by teachers.

This year, GLSEN’s Day of Silence takes place in thousands of schools on Friday April 27, 2018.

For over ten years, a coalition of pro-family activists and organizations from all across the country (see list below) have urged parents to contact their children’s principals and teachers to ask if they will be permitting students to refuse to speak during class on the Day of Silence. If administrators and/or teachers are evasive or say that students may refuse to speak during instructional time, we urge parents to keep their children home. This counter-effort is called the Day of Silence Walkout (DOS Walkout). It’s not technically a walkout. Rather, parents should just keep their kids home.

The DOS Walkout is the only organized effort to oppose the hijacking of public education by “LGBT” activists.

In many school districts, student absences cost districts money. Since most administrators are not persuaded by reasonable requests to keep Leftist political action from disrupting instructional time, perhaps they can be persuaded by loss of funds. Until schools stop allowing “LGBT” activism in the classroom, parents should remove their children from exposure to it.

“LGBT” activism permeates government schools in numerous ways throughout the school year. Here are just some of the ways in which public elementary, middle, and high schools promote Leftists views on the controversial topics of homosexuality and gender confusion, and which make the DOS Walkout necessary:

• Many schools allow gender-confused students to share restrooms and locker rooms with students of the opposite sex, including even elementary schools.

• Many schools allow gender-confused students to participate on opposite-sex athletic teams.

• Teachers are being forced by the government to lie by being compelled to refer to gender-confused students by pronouns that designate the opposite sex.

• Girl students are running for prom king and boy students for prom queens.

• School staff are identifying as the sex they are not.

• California schools are legally required to teach positively about homosexuality and gender confusion in all social studies classes in grades k-12, and all resources that espouse dissenting views are censored.

• Schools normalize homosexuality and gender confusion in bullying prevention curricula; sex ed; social studies, English, and theater classes; and in grade school presentations about “family diversity.”

• Elementary schools make picture books that depict homosexuality and gender confusion positively available to children in their libraries.

• Schools host dances for homosexual students.

• Schools promote the normalization of homosexuality and gender confusion through Spirit Day, Ally Week, National Coming Out Day, “LGBT” History Month, and the queen of all homosexuality-affirming days: the “Day of Silence.”

Just recently, activists in Delaware proposed a school code amendment that, if passed, will permit students at any age to “self-identify” their “race or gender identity” at school without parental knowledge or permission. And just recently, activists in Illinois proposed a school amendment that would require every class from k-12 to include the “roles and contributions” of homosexuals and opposite-sex impersonators as well as the roles and contributions of “LGBT” activists.

Of one thing you can be certain: “LGBT” activists are relentless.

Every year a new crop of students enters middle and high schools whose parents naively believe that public schools value diversity, honor all voices, foster critical thinking, and are committed to creating a “safe” place for all views to be expressed. Those parents and many others whose children are returning students often have no idea the extent of the “LGBT” propaganda that pervades our schools or the degree to which schools censor dissenting views.

And many of those parents have never heard of the “Day of Silence.”

The Day of Silence Walkout offers an easy way for parents to tell school administrators and teachers that they oppose the promotion of non-factual Leftist beliefs about disordered sexuality.

There’s a role too for conservative teachers in this mess. They could be allies of conservative students by prohibiting student silence in class and by refusing to create assignments that accommodate silence. In other words, they should conduct class as if it’s just an ordinary school day.

What too few realize is that many students and teachers detest the Day of Silence. There are teachers—including even liberal teachers—who just want to teach their subject matter. They’re not invested in transforming the moral and political views of other people’s children.

And there are students who dread the controversy. About them, I recently wrote this:

[M]any students do not like divisive political events or discussions on hot button topics at school. Many teens are struggling with all sorts of issues. Their families are experiencing financial struggles, health issues, deaths, divorces, and dysfunction. They have interpersonal issues with peers. They struggle with grades and worry about what comes after high school. They’re exhausted from athletics, academics, part-time jobs, and sleep deprivation. Some struggle with eating disorders, substance abuse, depression, anxiety, and other psychological disorders…. [M]any of these kids do not want to confront controversial issues… at school.

These often emotionally vulnerable kids have peers—some acquaintances, some friends—who hold very different views on controversial issues, and for the sake of friendship and comity, these kids seek to avoid discussions and other kinds of events that bring to the fore issues that may affect their relationships. For these kids, political events like…. Day of Silence only make school more stressful.

What do adults do when forced into contexts (e.g., work or social gatherings) with people who hold very different political views? They stay away from the most contentious issues. And what do we do with teens who are struggling through adolescence—a period of developmental turmoil? We force them to be confronted with these very issues in places from which they cannot escape.

If your children are in public school, please consider keeping them home on the Day of Silence. For more information, please visit the Day of Silence Walk Out website.

Listen to this article read by Laurie:

https://staging.illinoisfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Another-Disruptive-Political-Stunt-Coming-to-Schools-in-April-Day-of-Silence.mp3

IFI Worldview Conference May 5th

We have rescheduled our annual Worldview Conference featuring well-know apologist John Stonestreet for Saturday, May 5th at Medinah Baptist Church. Mr. Stonestreet is s a dynamic speaker and the award-winning author of “Making Sense of Your World” and his newest offer: “A Practical Guide to Culture.”

Join us for a wonderful opportunity to take enhance your biblical worldview and equip you to more effectively engage the culture.

Click HERE to learn more or to register!

Schools just endured a disruptive, Leftist anti-gun protest, and soon they will have to endure the disruptive, Leftist Day of Silence.

For those who don’t know, the Day of Silence is a purportedly “student-led” political effort sponsored and organized by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) to exploit government schools and captive audiences for the purpose of advancing the “LGBT” sexuality ideology. Instead of walking out of classes like students did last week, GLSEN urges students in middle and high schools to refuse to speak all day—including during class. It’s important to note that the ACLU has said students have no legal right to refuse to speak if asked to by teachers.

This year, GLSEN’s Day of Silence takes place in thousands of schools on Friday April 27, 2018.

READ MORE

From working for a decade in a public high school, I can say with certainty and knowledge that many students do not like divisive political events or discussions on hot button topics at school. Many teens are struggling with all sorts of issues. Their families are experiencing financial struggles, health issues, deaths, divorces, and dysfunction. They have interpersonal issues with peers. They struggle with grades and worry about what comes after high school. They’re exhausted from athletics, academics, part-time jobs, and sleep deprivation. Some struggle with eating disorders, substance abuse, depression, anxiety, and other psychological disorders. They now worry about their safety at school.

They want to know that adults—parents, school staff, and law enforcement—are protecting them. But many of these kids do not want to confront controversial issues like gun-control at school.

These often emotionally vulnerable kids have peers—some acquaintances, some friends—who hold very different views on controversial issues, and for the sake of friendship and comity, these kids seek to avoid discussions and other kinds of events that bring to the fore issues that may affect their relationships. For these kids, political events like the National School Walkout and upcoming Day of Silence only make school more stressful.

What do adults do when forced into contexts (e.g., work or social gatherings) with people who hold very different political views? They stay away from the most contentious issues. And what do we do with teens who are struggling through adolescence—a period of developmental turmoil? We force them to be confronted with these very issues in places from which they cannot escape.

A good middle and high school education—even a stellar education—does not require discussions of the most controversial issues dividing the country, issues that inflame the passions of even mature adults. And prohibiting disruptive political agitation at school does not compromise either the quality of education or students’ speech rights.

Adults who permit, facilitate, or encourage divisive, inflammatory, emotionally-charged events in schools demonstrate their ignorance, and from that ignorance emerges a lack of compassion.

Let the kids who want to protest guns (or promote homosexuality and biological-sex rejection) do it on their own time and not in the faces and compulsory spaces of all students.

Listen to this article read by Laurie:

https://staging.illinoisfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Political-Agitation-at-Schools-Vulnerable-Kids.mp3

RESCHEDULED: IFI Worldview Conference May 5th

We have rescheduled our annual Worldview Conference featuring well-know apologist John Stonestreet for Saturday, May 5th at Medinah Baptist Church. Mr. Stonestreet is s a dynamic speaker and the award-winning author of “Making Sense of Your World” and his newest offer: “A Practical Guide to Culture.”

Join us for a wonderful opportunity to take enhance your biblical worldview and equip you to more effectively engage the culture.

Click HERE to learn more or to register!

In just six weeks, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) will again attempt to ram their sexuality ideology down the throats and into the hearts and minds of other people’s children via the hijacking of government schools for the political protest called the Day of Silence.

On Friday, April 21, 2017 at thousands of middle and high schools around the country, GLSEN will ask students to refuse to speak all day in support of the promotion of Leftist assumptions about homosexuality and gender dysphoria.

GLSEN laughably calls this a “student-led” event while providing 15 resources that direct students into pro-homosexual school activism.

And those resources don’t include the for-profit merchandise GLSEN sells to adorn students on the Day of Silence, Ally Week, and other days. This merchandise includes t-shirts, pins, temporary tattoos, keychains, wristbands, lanyards, socks, sweatshirts, hoodies, and a $500 denim trucker jacket made by “Levi Brand.”

Although technically it is students—often students who belong to the “gay” clubs in schools—who sponsor the Day of Silence, all their activities are directed by the biased, Leftist organization GLSEN. Here are some of GLSEN’s “Jump-Start” documents to help students start “gay” clubs (also known as Gay and Straight Alliances) in their schools:

• “Building and Activating your [Gay Straight Alliance] or Student Club”
• “Strategies for Training Teachers”
• “Understanding Direct Action Organizing”
• “Power, Privilege and Oppression”
• “Your Student Club Trans-Inclusive”

In addition, GLSEN incentivizes participation in the Day of Silence by offering free materials to all participants and extra “free swag” to the “first 3,000 registrants.”

In addition to the Day of Silence, there are numerous trends in public elementary, middle, and high schools regarding the controversial topics of homosexuality and gender dysphoria that make a vigorous public response necessary:

• Increasing numbers of schools are allowing gender-dysphoric students to share restrooms and locker rooms with students of the opposite sex, including even elementary schools, and often with no parental notification.

• Teachers—who are government employees—are being forced by the government to lie by being compelled to refer to gender-dysphoric students by pronouns that designate the opposite sex.

• Girls students are being permitted to run for prom king, and boy students are being permitted to be prom queens.

• Elementary schools are marching in “gay” pride parades.

• California schools are legally required to teach positively about homosexuality and gender dysphoria in all social studies classes in grades 6-12, and all resources that espouse dissenting views are by law censored.

• Schools—including elementary schools—promote Leftist views of homosexuality and gender dysphoria in sex ed curricula, in presentations about “family diversity,” in bullying prevention programs, and via “social and emotional” learning standards.

• Elementary schools make picture books that depict homosexuality positively available to children in their libraries.

• Schools host dances for homosexual students.

• School theater departments mount productions of The Laramie Project; Zanna, Don’t!; and Rent. And English teachers teach Angels in America, The Laramie Project, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

• Film teachers show Brokeback Mountain.

• Schools promote the normalization of homosexuality and gender confusion through Spirit Day, Ally Week, National Coming Out Day, “LGBT” History Month, and the queen of all homosexuality-affirming days: the Day of Silence.

What can parents and teachers do?

While “progressives” in and outside of schools are using countless resources and activities to promote the normalization of homosexuality and gender dysphoria, there is only one organized annual event that allows conservatives to express their opposition to the hijacking of government schools for the pernicious purposes of homosexual activism: the Day of Silence Walkout, which offers several ways the Day of Silence can be opposed:   

1.)  The Day of Silence Walkout is sponsored by a coalition of pro-family organizations that is again urging parents to keep their children home on the Day of Silence if their school administrations permit students and/or teachers to refuse to speak during class time on the Day of Silence. The Day of Silence Walkout Coalition does not object to student silence during passing periods or free periods, but neither teachers nor students should be permitted to refuse to speak during instructional time.

2.)  Parents should insist that their school administrations notify all parents that the Day of Silence political action is taking place on April 21 and insist that their administrations inform all parents about what students will be permitted to do or be prohibited from doing on the Day of Silence.

3.)  Conservative teachers should plan activities that require student participation. The ACLU—which supports the Day of Silence—has issued this statement: “[Students] do NOT have a right to remain silent during class time if a teacher asks you to speak.”

For years, teachers have been either modifying their lesson plans to accommodate student silence, creating lesson plans to reinforce the ideology of GLSEN’s Day of Silence, or participating in the Day of Silence themselves. It’s time for conservative teachers to do something constructive and courageous in the service of removing political hijinks from instructional time.

Every year a new crop of students enters middle and high schools whose parents naively believe that public schools value diversity, honor all voices, foster critical thinking, and are committed to creating a “safe” place for all views to be expressed. Those parents and many others whose children are returning students have no idea the extent of the pro-homosexuality propaganda that pervades their schools. And many have never heard of the Day of Silence.

The Day of Silence Walkout alerts parents to the exploitation of their public schools in the service of transforming the moral and political beliefs of their children.

The Day of Silence is not centrally a day committed to the eradication of bullying—a goal all decent people support. Rather, the Day of Silence organizers, promoters, and participants seek to exploit legitimate anti-bullying sentiment to normalize homosexuality and the “trans” cult. Despite what GLSEN says, it is possible to oppose bullying and oppose GLSEN’s Day of Silence.

The Day of Silence Walkout offers an easy, safe way for parents to express to school administrations, school boards, and their children’s teachers that they oppose the promotion of non-factual Leftist beliefs about disordered sexuality in taxpayer-funded public schools.

Student absences cost many schools money, and often that matters much more to school administrations and school boards than the beliefs and feelings of parents.

For more information on the Day of Silence Walkout and a list of the coalition partners, please visit the Day of Silence Walkout website.

Read more recent articles from Laurie:

Former “Transgenders” Talk About De-“Transitioning”

Beauty and the Beast: A “Gay” Tale for the Kiddies

New Trier High School Needs Accounting, Diversity, and Logic Lessons

The Radical “Trans”-Formation of America

IFI Forums: Climate Change & the Christian

Join us during the last week of April as we have Dr. Calvin Beisner, the founder & national spokesman for The Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation discuss the Christian responsibility to the environment as we learn how to discern truth and myth in the climate change controversy.

April 25th in Rockford
April 26th in Arlington Heights
April 27th in Orland Park
April 28th in Peoria

Click HERE to learn more!

Well known Christian radio host Mark Elfstrand, of WYLL’s “Let’s Talk,” often has Laurie Higgins on his program to discuss cultural issues in the news.  His show airs weekdays from 4 to 6 pm on 1160 AM in the greater Chicago area.

Last week Mark interviewed Laurie about a number of important issues, including GLSEN’s “Day of Silence,” which is a political hijacking of the classroom for the advancement of the LGBT agenda.

Mark also asked Laurie about the Left’s push to end sex segregation in bathrooms and locker rooms, and the proposed $80K fine of Christian businessman Jim Walder by the Illinois Human Rights Commission.  As you may remember, Mr. Walder simply declined to allow his Timber Creek Bed and Breakfast to be used for the celebration of a same-sex union. (Read more HERE.)

Mark wraps up their interview by discussing HB 6073, a legislative proposal under consideration in Springfield which would make it easier for men and women who wish they were the opposite sex to obtain falsified birth certificates by merely getting a declaration from any licensed medical or mental health professional stating that the person has undergone clinically appropriate “treatment.”  No surgeries or hormone treatments would be necessary to change their birth certificate.

I recommend that you stream or download the podcast of this program and take 12 minutes to listen to it in the near future, and then please consider sharing this interview with your friends, family and neighbors.  It will bless you and equip you in defending our faith.

Click on the button below to stream the MP3, or right click and “save link as” to download the file:

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The upcoming National Day of Silence (DOS) On Friday, April 15, organized and promoted by the extreme leftist Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), urges students to refuse to speak for an entire school day including during class. The stated purpose of DOS is to encourage sympathy and support for students involved in homosexual and cross-dressing behaviors whose voices have been allegedly silenced by the disapproval of society. The unstated purpose is to undermine the true belief that homosexuality and cross-dressing (as well as quackish chemical and surgical interventions) are immoral. Parents should no longer passively countenance the political usurpation of public school classrooms through student silence.

Some school administrators assert that DOS merely seeks to promote “acceptance.” They fail to clarify, however, precisely what they want students to accept. While it is legitimate to teach students that there exist diverse opinions on the issues of homosexuality and gender dysphoria, it is not legitimate for an arm of the government to imply that one set of opinions is preferable to another. While it is appropriate to teach acceptance of people, meaning that we should treat all with civility, it is not appropriate to suggest that students should accept one set of beliefs about homosexuality and gender dysphoria and reject the other. One can accept persons while rejecting their beliefs, desires, and life choices. These important distinctions are never made in public school discussions of “acceptance.”

Another oft-repeated mantra is that the goal of DOS is to keep “LGBTQ” students safe—a goal all decent people share. The rhetoric of “safety,” however, substitutes speciously for the more accurate term of “comfort.” To suggest that in order for those who self-identify as homosexual (or “transgender”) to be “safe,” no one may disapprove of homosexual conduct is both absurd and dangerous. If this understanding of “safety” were to be applied consistently, all statements of disapproval of any behavior would be prohibited.

If conservative parents, teachers, and administrators do not actively oppose the disruption of instructional time by DOS, it will metastasize from our high schools into our middle schools and then into elementary schools. Increasing numbers of students will participate, and increasing numbers of teachers who view themselves as “agents of change” will participate, emboldened by the ignorance and cowardice of colleagues, administrators, school board members, and parents.

Don’t believe me? Well, take a gander at how one middle school in New York—coming up on its fifth year of participation—has been celebrating DOS: Click HERE.

Worse still, some schools devote an entire week to promoting the normalization of homosexuality, culminating on Friday’s Day of Silence. While schools can no longer acknowledge Christmas, they may spend valuable class time celebrating life-destroying homosexuality, all the while misrepresenting it to gullible parents as an bullying-prevention effort.

Unfortunately, not even our private religious schools are exempt from the intrusive efforts of GLSEN. Last year five Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist nuns at Marin Catholic High School near San Francisco walked out of their classes to protest the intrusion of GLSEN through the Day of Silence.

The nuns were uncomfortable that GLSEN materials, which espouse positions that conflict with Catholic teaching, were being distributed to students on school grounds. Those who naively believe DOS is solely about bullying with no connection to conservative moral beliefs should peruse GLSEN resources, one of which identified “a house of worship that teaches homosexuality is a sin” as an example of oppression. In GLSEN’s perverse moral universe, churches are places of oppression, and oppressors are bullies. Eliminating bullying requires eradicating biblical beliefs about homosexuality.

The nuns were also troubled when they learned that “students were feeling pressured to accept and wear stickers” produced and distributed by GLSEN.

Those who oppose the Day of Silence will be maligned with the charge that opposition to the Day of Silence is proof of support for bullying. Of course, the truth is that it’s entirely possible to oppose both bullying and GLSEN’s Day of Silence.

Some dismiss the Day of Silence by claiming that there is only a small group of students who participate in it in their school, or that it’s only a few teachers. But does that matter? Would parents tolerate school administrations permitting a group of students to refuse to speak in class in support of consensual adult incest, promiscuity, polyamory, sadomasochism, or racism as long as the protesters were few in number?

For school administrations to permit student silence in class for DOS necessarily means they have come to prior conclusions about the nature and morality of homoerotic activity and relationships. How do I know this? Well, imagine there were a small group of students who identified as promiscuous or polyamorous and were bullied for their promiscuity or polyamory. Would any school administration permit a DOS during which promiscuity and polyamory were treated exactly as homosexuality and “transgenderism” are treated? Surely, neither school administrators nor teachers want promiscuous or polyamorous students bullied. Surely they want to create a “safe” space for them. So, what’s the difference?

The difference is school administrations know that the DOS doesn’t merely work to curb bullying. They know it has the effect (intended effect) of undermining disapproval of homosexuality and cross-dressing, but that’s okay because they have concluded that homoerotic feelings are 100 percent heritable, immutable in all cases, and that acting on them is intrinsically moral. School administrators have come to different moral conclusions, however, with regard to promiscuity or polyamory, and they realize that a DOS for promiscuity and polyamory would not merely end bullying but undermine moral disapproval of both—which they wouldn’t want to do. They would seek other means to curb bullying of promiscuous and polyamorous students.

Please muster the little courage it takes to email your middle and high school administrators and your children’s teachers to ask the questions below, and if the answers are unsatisfactory, keep your children home on the Day of Silence, Friday, April, 15, 2016:

Questions to ask administrators

• Do you permit students to refuse to speak during instructional time on the DOS?
• Do you permit teachers to refuse to speak during instructional time on the DOS?
• Prior to the DOS, do you notify all parents about it, including sharing complete information about GLSEN’s role in organizing and providing materials for it and informing parents about what will be permitted in the classroom?

Questions to ask teachers

• Do you create classroom assignments or activities that accommodate student-refusal to speak on the DOS?
• Do you teach lessons on oppression, censorship, or bullying in class on the DOS?
• Will you be using any information from GLSEN to shape or inform your activities on the DOS?
• If you accommodate student-refusal to speak and/or shape activities around ideas promoted by GLSEN for the DOS, will you be notifying parents ahead of time?

Cultural change rarely happens through dramatic single events. Rather, it happens through the slow accretion of little events that we dismiss as trivial. Gradual, incremental changes ignored eventually result in titanic cultural shifts. Those parents, teachers, and administrators who have known about the Day of Silence and have said and done nothing should feel ashamed of their acquiescence and cowardice. It is long past time that conservatives cease rationalizing their own passivity. The temporal and eternal lives of children are at risk.

Concerned about Common Core Standards?

Join us on April 8th in Orland Park for yet another IFI Forum, this time exploring The Case Against Common Core with Dr. Duke Pesta.  Click HERE for more information.

Click HERE for a flyer of the event.

The annual, well-organized, and nearly ubiquitous pro-homosexual/pro-gender-confusion political event called the Day of Silence (DOS) invades our public schools on Friday, April 12, 2019. The Day of Silence is sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) whose sole reason for existence is to use public schools to transform the beliefs of other people’s children about homosexuality and gender-confusion. The name is intended to convey the absurd notion that homosexual students are silenced by the hatred, bigotry, and ignorance of those who believe homoerotic activity, cross-dressing, and bodily mutilation are neither moral nor healthy.

While there are numerous pro-homosexual/pro-gender-confusion political events in our public schools, which are aided and abetted by liberal teachers who use curricula to reinforce their beliefs and social goals, there is only one organized event that seeks to oppose the DOS: the Day of Silence Walkout.

The Day of Silence Walkout is sponsored by a coalition of pro-family/pro-education groups from across the country who urge parents to ask their school administrators and children’s teachers these questions:

For administrators

• Do you permit students to refuse to speak during instructional time on the DOS?
• Do you permit teachers to refuse to speak during instructional time on the DOS?
• Prior to the DOS, do you notify all parents about it, including sharing complete information about GLSEN’s role in organizing and providing materials for it and informing parents about what will be permitted in the classroom?

For teachers

• Do you create classroom assignments or activities that accommodate student-refusal to speak on the DOS?
• Do you teach lessons on oppression, censorship, or bullying in class on the DOS?
• Will you be using any information from GLSEN to shape or inform your activities on the DOS?
• If you accommodate student-refusal to speak and/or shape activities around ideas promoted by GLSEN for the DOS, will you be notifying parents ahead of time?

If administrators and teachers will be accommodating or participating in the DOS in any way, we urge parents to keep their children home. Every student absence costs districts much-needed money. If every year, administrative and faculty accommodation of political activity in the classroom costs districts money, perhaps they will cease accommodating it.

The goal of the DOS Walkout is not to exacerbate social and political turmoil within public schools or to advance a counter position. If parents keep their children home, social turmoil may, however, result because liberal teachers and homosexual activists respond poorly to opposition.

The goal of the Walkout is to tell public school administrations, teachers, and school boards that schools have no business allowing classrooms with captive audiences to be politicized. The Walkout conveys that message in the only language schools administrations and school boards that are terrified of homosexual activists understand: loss of funds.

Schools have every right to prohibit students from refusing to speak during class. Schools have every right to prohibit teachers from refusing to speak in class. Schools have an ethical obligation to inform parents about the Day of Silence and to tell both parents and students that students may remain silent during passing periods and free periods but that they may not refuse to speak during class. And teachers have the right to create classroom activities that require verbal participation. This is one way conservative teachers can work against the relentless efforts of liberal teachers and students to use public schools to promote their subversive beliefs.

Here is some little known information about the Day of Silence:

• The Day of Silence began 20 years ago at the University of Virginia, has spread like a cancer into countless public high schools, and is now making its way into middle schools.
• GLSEN proudly announced in 2013 that “Hundreds of thousands of students from more than 70 countries” participated in the National Day of Silence.
• GLSEN offers videos and resources directed specifically at teachers—that is to say, government employees—that tell them how to help DOS participants in their political activities during instructional time.
• GLSEN instructs teachers on what to do both prior to and on the Day of Silence:
  • Visit the Day of Silence website prior to the Day of Silence and share the resources available there “on social media, in your classroom, and with your colleagues.”
  • “Focus on supporting your students who are participating in Day of Silence and on educating all of your students.”
  • “Dedicate class time to exploring concepts of censorship, oppression, and social justice.”
  • “Provide opportunities for students to journal on times when they felt silenced.”
  • “…plan your typical classroom activities, but use the silence. Switch out discussions and group work for reading, writing, and even drawing.”
  • “Most importantly on the Day of Silence, your students need you to be an ally and an advocate.”
  • “Visit glsen.org for LGBT-inclusive classroom activities and lesson plans, model policies and practices, research, and to connect with a local GLSEN chapter near you.”

The homosexual clubs in public schools that serve as the water carriers for GLSEN put up posters, host bake sales, and distribute cards, buttons, and stickers. Such activities are permitted by the Equal Access Act, a federal law that requires all extracurricular clubs to be treated the same. There is no law, however, requiring schools to permit students to refuse to speak in class. In fact, the DOS website posts this statement from the ACLU:

You DO NOT have a right to remain silent during class time if a teacher asks you to speak. [emphasis added]

Political activity in the service of highly controversial issues should not be permitted to disrupt instructional time. The Day of Silence is not centrally about ending bullying. The Day of Silence cynically exploits legitimate anti-bullying sentiment as a means to achieve GLSEN’s ultimate goal: the eradication of conservative beliefs on the nature and morality of homoerotic activity and “transgenderism.”

Day of Silence WALKOUT Endorsements:

Abiding Truth Ministries

Activist Mommy – Elizabeth Johnston

American Family Association

AFA Michigan

AFA Pennsylvania

Americans for Truth

Barbed Wire

Called2Action

Capitol Resource Institute

Carolina Crossroads News

Child Protection League (Minnesota)

Christian Rights Ministries

Citizens for Community Values

Coalition of African-American Pastors (CAAP)

Coalition of Conscience

Community Issues Council

CWA of California

CWA of Florida

CWA of Hawaii

CWA of Illinois

CWA of Iowa

CWA of Kansas

CWA of Missouri

CWA of North Carolina

CWA of Ohio

CWA of South Dakota

CWA of Texas South

CWA of Virginia

CWA of Washington

Don Feder, Don Feder Associates

Faith2Action

Faith, Family & Freedom Alliance

Faith & Freedom Family Ministries

Good News Communications, Inc.

Illinois Family Institute

Informing Christians

Liberty Counsel

MassResistance

Matt Abbott, Catholic Columnist for Renew America

Mission: America

Montana Family Foundation

Ohio Value Voters

One By One

Operation Save America – Pastor Christopher Clegg

Sandy Rios, Director of Governmental Affairs for American Family Association

SaveCalifornia.com

Virginia Christian Alliance

The Day of Silence, which is sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), fast approaches. This year it will take place in most public schools on Friday, April 17.

On this day, thousands of public high schools and increasing numbers of middle schools will allow students to remain silent throughout an entire day-even during instructional time-to promote GLSEN’s socio-political goals.

Parents must actively oppose this hijacking of the classroom for political purposes. Please join the national effort to restore to public education a proper understanding of the role of government-subsidized schools.

You can help de-politicize the learning environment by calling your child out of school if your child’s school allows students to remain silent during instructional time on the Day of Silence.

If students will be permitted to remain silent, parents can express their opposition most effectively by calling their children out of school on the Day of Silence and sending letters of explanation to their administrators, their children’s teachers, and all school board members. One reason this is effective is that most school districts lose money for each student absence.

School administrators err when they allow the classroom to be disrupted and politicized by granting students permission to remain silent throughout an entire day.

Visit www.doswalkout.net for complete information on opposing the Day of Silence.

TAKE ACTION

1. Call your local schools and ask whether they permit students or teachers to remain silent in the classroom on “Day of Silence.” IMPORTANT: Do not ask any administrator, school board member, or teacher if the school sponsors, endorses, or supports DOS. Schools do not technically sponsor the Day of Silence. Technically, it is students, often students in the gay-straight alliance, who sponsor it. Many administrators will tell you that they do not sponsor the DOS when, in fact, they do permit students and sometimes even teachers to remain silent during instructional time. Also ask administrators whether they permit teachers to create lesson plans to accommodate student silence.

2. Find out what date the event is planned for your school. (The national date in 2015 is Friday, April 17, but some schools observe DOS on a different date).

3. Inform the school of your intention to keep your children home on that date and explain why.

This alert was originally posted at the American Family Association website.

Written by Linda Harvey

On a day when the truth is suppressed and sin exalted, why let our children participate?

A broad coalition of pro-family groups recommends that students stay away from school on Friday, April 17, 2015 the national “Day of Silence,” if the school is officially recognizing and/or encouraging students to observe this event during instructional time by a silent protest. High schools and even some middle schools are now the focus of this event.

The Day of Silence goal is not, as I am told frequently by outraged emails from misinformed students, to “help end all bullying.” The real goal is to exploit the tender sympathies of kids to promote homosexuality and gender confusion. The agenda is everything, Judeo-Christian morality is the enemy—and sadly, kids are the tools.

GLSEN teaches students that homosexuals and gender confused people are “silenced” and under persecution by those who object to this behavior, and that traditional moral concerns cause bullying. No hard, objective data exists to support this contention, and the event itself causes hostility, confusion, and division.

Here are ten reasons I believe Christian students in particular and possibly even teachers and staff should refuse to honor this event by school attendance:

1. A silent protest in support of immoral, God-dishonoring behavior is in itself profoundly deceptive. All sexual behavior outside man/woman marriage is sinful in God’s eyes. Why should Christian students and teachers be in the position of accommodating this flagrant violation of their principles?

2. Any explicit or implicit message encouraging teens and even younger students to experiment freely with homosexual behavior is not “social justice” or “tolerance,“ but actually, child corruption.

3. Allowing classroom silence to honor the Day of Silence unleashes tremendous peer pressure for students and even teachers to endorse sexual immorality, or be considered “enemies” of those peers and teachers proudly involved in homosexuality. This puts people of faith in the position of violating Christian doctrine through tacit approval ( Romans 16:17-18; Ephesians 5:11). They are also intimidated into self-censoring their First Amendment rights.

4. The Day of Silence encourages students to nurture prejudiced, hostile and bigoted attitudes against Christians and others with traditional moral beliefs, and to spread inaccurate and harmful information.

5. Using legitimate concerns about bullying and teen suicide to advance the promotion of homosexuality in schools is educational malpractice. It’s totally unnecessary to stop bullying and prevent harm to students, and Christians should not be a party to this gross distortion of a genuine problem. No one needs to embrace homosexuality or gender confusion in order to prevent bullying, but GLSEN routinely takes this deceitful position.

6. Teachers know harassment when they see it. They can simply say, “Cut it out!” But GLSEN and the Day of Silence pressures teachers to amend this to, “Cut it out, because you are only permitted to say good things about homosexuality!” When did we all sign up to become public relations agents for the good reputation of homosexuality? This viewpoint discrimination forces an untruthful and ungodly agenda on staff members, when stopping verbal harassment can be accomplished without becoming champions of “gay” behavior.

7. There are legitimate lessons students should learn about prejudice and bias. But Day of Silence promoters deceptively link moral objections about homosexuality to racial discrimination or anti-Semitism in an attempt to legitimize the pro-homosexual agenda and portray homosexuals as perennial victims, while disguising the harmfulness and risk.

8. Teachers have used the DOS to inappropriately become classroom advocates and models of this deviant behavior. In one Ohio school, a teacher used a Power Point to tell students about her “gay” support and even disclosed to students that she was a lesbian, without prior notice to parents or permission from her principal.

9. The health and lifestyle risks of homosexuality are virtually never shared on the Day of Silence. Instead, students are given the deceitful impression that homosexuality is just as safe and worthy an identity as heterosexual dating and marriage.

10. The DOS message inhibits Christians from witnessing to their peers caught up in homosexuality or gender confusion. There is salvation through Jesus Christ and the hope of leaving this sin behind. Calling homosexuality a sin on the Day of Silence would be considered “hateful,” when it is actually God-honoring and respectful to the hearer. It may lead them to an eternal home with God. But that won’t happen if the truth is suppressed, which it always is on the Day of Silence. Stay home that day, and choose to witness on another, where perhaps you will have a fair chance of being heard.

For more information about the DOS Walkout, go HERE.

Originally posted at MissionAmerica.com.