Franklin Graham, president of Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, recently had a warning for the Christian church: be cautious of the infiltration of the false doctrine of the progressive Christian movement. “Progressive Christianity denies the divinely inspired, authoritative truth of the Bible as it intersects every facet of living,” Graham states in his article, “The Eternal Peril of Christianity.” Graham says that the distortion of the gospel is potentially causing confusion and ultimately sending people to Hell.

Some may wonder what comprises progressive Christianity. The teaching of progressive Christianity encompasses a few different ideas that are in complete opposition to the Bible’s teaching. According to Progressive Christianity.org, there are eight main tenets held by the group. They are:

1.) Belief that following the path and teachings of Jesus can lead to an awareness and experience of the Sacred and the Oneness and Unity of all life;

2.) Affirm that the teachings of Jesus provide but one of many ways to experience the Sacredness and Oneness of life, and that we can draw from diverse sources of wisdom in our spiritual journey;

3.) Seek community that is inclusive of ALL people, including but not limited to:

1. 1. Conventional Christians and questioning skeptics,
   2. Believers and agnostics,
   3. Women and men,
   4. Those of all sexual orientations and gender identities,
   5. Those of all classes and abilities

4.) Know that the way we behave towards one another is the fullest expression of what we believe;

5.) Find grace in the search for understanding and believe there is more value in questioning than in absolutes;

6.) Strive for peace and justice among all people;

7.) Strive to protect and restore the integrity of our Earth; and

8.) Commit to a path of life-long learning, compassion, and selfless love.

Although progressives attempt to make these tenets their “gospel,” Graham notes that “progressive Christianity is not a Gospel at all.” He is correct in his assertion. The eight tenets are an unequivocal rejection of the true Gospel of Jesus Christ.

When examining the tenets against the true Word of God, it is easy to see their errors. In the first point, the progressives state the willingness to explore the teaching of Jesus, but they believe that knowing the Word is enough to create the New Age idea of sacredness and unity. However, Jesus said in the book of John 5:38-40:

“But you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom He sent, Him you do not believe. You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.”

In other words, they willingly search out the scripture, thinking it is enough to connect to God, but they are unwilling to give their lives to Jesus.

We are told in John 3:3, “‘Jesus answered and said to him, Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Progressives believe they can connect to God without giving their lives to Christ.

The group goes on in the second tenet to argue that Jesus isn’t the only way to God and that a person can use other sources of knowledge. Of course, this is in direct opposition to the Word of God and is a fallacy. In John 14:6, “Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” As noted by Franklin Graham, many in this movement have what is described as having “itching ears.” (2 Timothy 4:3)

In their third tenet, progressives claim to be “inclusive.” Indeed, we are all sinners, and as such, all are invited to be included in the Church. But it is so we can accept Christ’s forgiveness of our sins and get help to stop sinning, never in having our sin affirmed. In calling for the acceptance of skeptics, agnostics, and those who identify as LGBTQ, progressives affirm the sins from which the sinners need Christ’s divine help.

Progressive Churches have started gay choirs and fly the LGBT rainbow flag, announcing that they are inclusive. It is the antithesis of Christianity to celebrate the sexual immorality and unbelief that the Bible clearly condemns. “But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” (Revelation 21:8) Progressives’ weak theology is sending people to Hell!

The rest of the points continue to use the language of social justice and equity but deny that true justice comes from God. Only through the redemptive blood of Jesus can we ever have the hope of redemption and peace.

The scariest part of this false gospel is that it is beginning to infiltrate the mainstream church at an alarming pace. Many churches have adopted one or several of these points in their attempt to have an inclusive church. They water down the true gospel and fail to call their congregation to repentance. The congregants are not called to repent and accept Christ’s substitutionary punishment for their sins, but rather are rocked into a false sense of security by the lies of inclusion and a twisted form of grace.

It is true that every church should welcome anyone through its doors, and no church should reject someone who is trapped in sexual immorality, unbelief, or any other sin. However, the church’s mission is to share the true Gospel with the goal of leading the person to repentance. The true gospel must be preached from the pulpit boldly.

Take ACTION: We should heed the warning from Franklin Graham and use extreme caution in correctly handling the Word. Twisting it to suit your lifestyle has eternal consequences. Pray for your pastor and the leaders in your church – that they would remain steadfast in preaching the true Gospel and not compromise. Pray that these false teachers that Jesus warned about would not deceive your family and friends. Without a doubt, the best thing we can all do is read the Bible for ourselves and make sure we know the Word of God. That way we can easily recognize falsehood and expose it.

“Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all long-suffering and teaching.
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine,
but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers;
and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.
But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”
~2 Timothy 4:2-5

Watch More:

[VIDEO] Dr. Rob Rienow: The Sufficiency of Scripture

[VIDEO] Dr. Voddie Baucham: Why You Can Believe the Bible

[VIDEO] Dr. Jorrdan Peterson: The Bible is True

Twenty years ago, Christian leaders warned the church in America of the “slippery slope” that we were descending. Homosexuality was becoming more accepted and the gay community was demanding tolerance. Leaders like Dr. James Dobson and Franklin Graham warned us then that the outright acceptance of sin would lead to tolerance for other types of abominations. Academics, politicians, and advocates of homosexuality all insisted that tolerance of the LGBTQ+ community would not lead to other non-traditional lifestyles. These advocates decried the “slippery slope” theory as a fallacy. Fast forward to 2021, and the truth of the descent of morality is becoming clear. The church has dealt with not only homosexuality but now is facing problems with the expanding sexual, gender, and species dysphoria of transexuals, “furries,” “therians,” and “otherkins.”  

Many likely have never heard of furries, therians, and otherkins. Furries are individuals that identify as an animal, frequently a cat, dog, or wolf. People identifying as a furry will dress up in animal ears and tails and act like that animal in their everyday life. Therians claim to have the spirit of an animal trapped in their human bodies. Otherkins typically claim to identify as something more mystical like elves, dragons, or vampires. As bizarre as all this may sound, it is spreading and becoming a commonplace occurrence in our schools.

At the beginning of this school year, the Meade County School District in Kentucky had a large group of students dressing and acting like animals. Their behavior included hissing, barking, growling, and pretending to scratch others. It became such a disruption that a petition was created and signed by over 1,000 people to force the school to prohibit the practice.

Kentucky, however, is not the only place where this is occurring. In Twins Falls, Idaho, parents complained of teens acting like animals and disrupting class. The school district denied any knowledge of the behavior. Parents in several other states have had similar reports of this behavior, and the schools are doing nothing to address the problem. Parents of children in one Iowa school have even claimed that a girl requested a litter box in the girl’s restroom. The school district has denied the claim.

Public school districts have already proven they lack transparency and are willing to tolerate any abhorrent behavior. In 2018 a blog for school counselors published a post entitled “Making a Safe Place for Students Who Identify as Furries, Therians, and Otherkins.” The author states that these students are five times more likely to be homosexual and seven times more likely to be transexual. They also recognize that students claiming to be furries, therians, or otherkins may suffer from isolation, depression, and anxiety, but never state that the identity the students are creating may directly correlate to the psychological problems they are exhibiting. Instead, the author claims the lack of tolerance and acceptance causes emotional difficulties.

The blog encourages school counselors to be supportive and to prevent others from bullying the students. Although I agree we should not promote bullying, the school counselors that accept this type of behavior are doing a great disservice to these children. They are creating a false reality in which a person can do anything without repercussions. As a result of this accepted behavior, our society is yet again slipping further down the slope of moral decline.

It is time for parents, churches, and Christians to rise up and declare that not everything is acceptable, and disruptive and repugnant behavior will not be tolerated. Believers are called to show love and mercy; however, the secular world has defined that mercy as tolerance. Christians must put into practice what the Word tells us in Proverbs 28:13:

“He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.”

Our job as Christians is not to idly sit by as these misled children suffer in their confusion. It is our job to love them to Christ and reveal their sin so they may confess and renounce evil, and therefore find mercy.

Christian parents first and foremost must protect their children, and this means renouncing the government-run schools that not only allow sin to run rampant but encourage sinful behaviors. As good stewards of our tax dollars, including the funding of our local public schools, we all should be demanding that the school board address these problems with dress and behavior codes that all students must follow. It is long past time for churches to become more directly involved in these students’ lives. Today’s children are desperate for guidance and love, often lacking two-parent homes and seeking attention from any avenue. Our churches should be the first place they think of for that love. It is time to draw a line in the sand and stand against the slippery slope of immorality in our public schools.

The totalitarian-minded education establishment and its extreme left-wing allies are starting to freak out as conservatives abandon futile efforts to “reform” government schools in favor of a mass-exodus strategy. Even powerful union bosses are starting to panic.

The trend has been building quietly for years. But it has accelerated rapidly in recent months as a trickle of families fleeing the system became a tidal wave amid face-mask edicts, vaccine mandates, Critical Race Theory, Marxist indoctrination, extreme “sex education,” and other controversies.

The first major shoe to drop in response came on September 30, when the fringe left-wing magazine New Republic released a major article claiming Republicans were now out to destroy the public-school system instead of “reform” it.

“Republicans Don’t Want to Reform Public Education. They Want to End It,” blared the headline in the far-left magazine, famous for lying about and even praising the mass-murdering Soviet dictatorship. “Florida’s recent struggles over masks in schools augur a terrifying shift in the right’s approach to education policy.”

According to the article, conservatives are increasingly abandoning the idea of “reforming” public schools. Instead, the article argues, the new approach is to get as many children as possible out of the system and into private schools or homeschooling.

The article begins by examining a speech by Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran at Hillsdale College. Corcoran noted, correctly, that education will be the key to winning other issues, too. But Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, the article claims, is at the helm of pursuing the strategy to destroy government education.

“Trading in the decades-old, substantially bipartisan education reform agenda, a formula that was born in Florida, he is mustering a naked attack on the very existence of public schools,” the magazine claimed, arguing that this shift is taking place in the broader Republican Party in general as well.

And bigwigs of the trillion-dollar-per-year “education” regime are getting nervous. For instance, American Federation of Teachers (AFT) boss Randi Weingarten, who is quoted in the New Republic article, blurted out her concerns on Twitter.

“This isn’t just about masks or about Governor DeSantis’ political aspirations,” she said as state-level union bosses parroted her comments as well. “It’s about the complete destabilization of public education so that parents will choose private schools.”

And it is true: Conservative leaders nationwide are increasingly advocating an exit from government schools altogether. Just this weekend, conservative heavyweight Candace Owens urged parents to remove their children from government schools on Fox News.

“Pull your children out of public schools,” Owens told the cable network on Sunday. “The time is now, remove your children from these indoctrination camps, they’re not learning to be smart,  they’re not focused on hard academics, they are being brainwashed and and systematically controlled and what they want to produce, by the way, are failures.”

Before that, Evangelical leader Franklin Graham, conservative pundit Dennis Prager, talk-radio titan Rush Limbaugh, and many others also called for parents to remove their children in recent years.

Some have been sounding the alarm for decades. Exodus Mandate Director Lt. Col. Ray Moore (Ret.), the godfather of the exodus movement, was thrilled by the shift in the conversation. “After decades of futile efforts to reform government schools, conservatives and Christians are permanently opting out,” Moore told us by phone.

“The dam is about to break,” added Moore, who is also chairman of Public School Exit (where this writer serves as executive director) and the Christian Education Initiative (CEI). “When this happens, on a large scale, Christians and conservatives will become good neighbors again, by providing Christian education services for our nation. This is the great hope for renewal of our families, churches and our nation.”

Conservatives and Christians now have the momentum — the wind is in their sails when it comes to rescuing millions of children from the dumbing down, sexualization, and indoctrination in government schools. The exodus is already happening, and it will accelerate in the years ahead.

As the forces of liberty advance, the next challenge will be to keep the same “education” establishment from destroying homeschooling and private school by providing tax funding with strings attached or other subversive methods. The future of America depends on the outcome of this fight.

This article was originally published by FreedomProject Media.

Children and families under siege in Illinois are getting a lifeline! A national organization working to rescue children from the increasingly radical indoctrination and sexualization in public schools recently announced a new partnership with the non-profit Illinois Family Institute (IFI) to help get as many kids out of the system as possible.

The nationwide group, known as Public School Exit (PSE), was formed last year by a team of concerned Christian leaders, attorneys, pastors, educators, and advocates. The goal: Facilitate an exodus of as many children into the safe sanctuary of homeschools and good private schools.

In pursuing that mission, PSE is joining forces with IFI — the state’s premier pro-family organization — to deal with the urgent situation in Illinois. From mandating LGBTQIA indoctrination in government schools to forcing teachers to accept and promote highly controversial “progressive” ideology in the classroom, the state is at the forefront of the escalating educational abuse in America.

“Illinois is one of the worst states in the nation when it comes to imposing anti-American, anti-Christian extremism on captive children in public schools,” said PSE President Dran Reese, a homeschool mom with many years of experience in ministry. “However, even conservative states are moving in that direction, so we hope the lessons we learn in Illinois will help in our nationwide efforts as well.”

As part of the partnership between PSE and IFI, which was formalized in early March with an agreement between the two, the well-respected Illinois organization will utilize PSE materials, its powerful line-up of experts in the field, and its own vast network to encourage pastors and parents to get children out of the deteriorating public schools.

“It’s high time for Christian parents and grandparents to recognize the fact that government schools are undermining and supplanting Judeo-Christian faith,” said IFI Executive Director David E. Smith. “The nonsense and profane values they are teaching students are the antithesis of what the Bible teaches us. Parents and grandparents cannot afford to allow these secular ideologies and destructive philosophies to mislead our children from what is good, honest and virtuous.”

Consider that the government’s own data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) prove conclusively that the overwhelming majority of children in Illinois are not even proficient in core subjects. Meanwhile, the moral values being imposed on children in public schools would shock most parents, IFI and PSE leaders said.

“Taxpayer-funded schools have all but rejected academics as their principal responsibility,” added Smith. “Instead, at the behest of Big LGBTQ Inc, BLM and Planned Parenthood, their focus has shifted toward indoctrinating our children. And children are being taught to hate America.”

Government school systems, Smith continued, are broken. “It’s time for parents and grandparents to take action to protect their children’s spiritual, mental and physical wellbeing,” he said. “It’s time to get our kids out of government schools.”

PSE and IFI leaders point to the Bible, which clearly instructs parents to teach their children Biblical truths “diligently” throughout the day, every day. (Deut. 6:4-9). Parents are also instructed to “train up a child in the way he should go.” “We dare not allow left-wing agents of deception do that training in our government schools,” noted Smith, celebrating the partnership with a well-established national organization to deal with the crisis.

On the church front, IFI and PSE will work together to help pastors and churches understand the problem. Then, they will work together with pastors and churches to help set up Christian schools, homeschool co-operatives led by parents, micro-schools, scholarship programs, independent learning academies, or other options to help protect the children in their congregations. PSE’s list of renown church and education leaders are standing by ready to assist.

“The Bible speaks very clearly to all these issues, and Christians across the nation are starting to realize that something must be done,” explained PSE Chairman Lt. Col. E. Ray Moore (Ret.), a longtime ministry leader who has been promoting a Christian “Exodus” from public schools for decades. “We are so grateful to be able to work with IFI — known as one of the top pro-family groups in America — on this critically important mission. The timing could not be better.”

PSE’s world-class team of advisors includes leading attorneys, educators, pastors, celebrities, and experts who — combined — have all the expertise needed to get the job done, and to do it well. With help from the boots on the ground, depending on the needs of particular communities or churches, PSE and IFI will assemble the necessary expertise to ensure that every parent in a congregation or community has options.

The team even includes, among other stars, Diane Douglas, who served as Arizona’s superintendent of Public Instruction until 2019, when she recognized that the government schools were now rotten to the core and were not safe for children. Now she is working to get victims out as quickly as possible. “Parents must act to protect their children, because public schools are not going to do it,” she explained.

The tide is rapidly shifting on this issue, too. Just in the last year, the number of homeschooling families has doubled from 5 percent to 10 percent of families with school-age children as people flee from government schools in unprecedented numbers. Some school districts have seen more than a 10 percent decline in enrollment as families seek other options.

Top voices are joining in as well. Before he passed away this year, talk-show titan Rush Limbaugh repeatedly urged parents to get their children out of public schools. Responding to LGBT mandates in New Jersey schools, evangelical leader Rev. Franklin Graham urged parents to withdraw from the system, too.

Even former President Donald J. Trump repeatedly urged parents to protect their children from what he described as “failing government schools,” noting that indoctrination in public education was responsible for the “mayhem” in America’s streets last summer.

Christian actress and leading homeschool advocate Sam Sorbo, a fervent campaigner on the issue and a member of PSE’s advisory board, celebrated the new partnership, too. “More and more people are waking up to the tragic state of what we currently call education, but what is, essentially, only schooling. Training. Conditioning,” Sorbo said in a statement about the news. “We welcome partnering with all enlightened organizations!”

Similar arrangements with other state-level pro-family organizations are already being explored. Many millions of families have already made the choice to pursue better education alternatives for their children. And in Illinois, that movement is about to be supercharged.

Special Events: Consider attending one of the eight events being held in different areas of Illinois beginning on June 28th. A complimentary meal will be served. Reservations are required. You can email Kathy HERE or call the IFI office at 708-781-9328. Reservations are due by tomorrow, so don’t hesitate!

More information:

Reasons to Exit Illinois Government Schools

Illinois School Proficiency FAILURE

Did You Know?

How to Rescue Our Children

“Comprehensive” Sex Education

For Parents, Grandparents and Church Leaders

Overcoming Objections

Nearly a month after calling Christians to the nation’s capital for a prayer march, Franklin Graham is calling on them again, this time to join him for a day of prayer and fasting. Graham posted to his Facebook page October 20th,

“I urge you to join me for a day of prayer and fasting for our nation on this Sunday, October 25. The upcoming election is the most important in our lifetime—with two diametrically different directions for this country on the ballot. Our only hope is in God, and we need to call out to Him for His help and intervention. Will you join me—and will you share this with others?”

A similar message went out on his Twitter page.

The BillyGraham.org website shared a further appeal.

“Today, our nation is at a critical juncture. We need to call out to God for His help, His intervention, and His mercy. It is only by His hand that America will survive and be able to thrive again.”

Graham described how King Jehoshaphat, when the very survival of his nation was at stake, called on his people to fast. When the people turned to God, He delivered them. The story is captured in 2 Chronicles 20:3-4, “And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. So, Judah gathered together to ask help from the Lord; and from all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord.”

According to Graham, as much is at stake now as it was then. The decision is between “two vastly different directions for the future of this country. This not only affects us, but our children and our grandchildren.”

Pastor Myles Holmes of REVIVE Church in Collinsville agrees with Graham’s call to prayer and fasting, saying, “the most earth-shaking, culture-shaping interventions of God’s Holy Spirit changing our world have always been in response to the fervent, faith-filled fasting & prayer of God’s people. There is simply no other pathway to repentance, revival and restoration.”

Church of Christian Liberty Pastor Calvin Lindstrom wisely points out, “We trust not in our own prayers, but if we are not praying, then are we really trusting in the Lord? We must pray not because of who we are, but because we serve a faithful, sovereign God who does hear the prayers and cries of His people.”

Rev. Richard Valkanet, senior pastor of Living Waters Church in Grayslake reminds us that, “in times of great stress, people of God have always turned to the Lord with “fasting & prayer.” George Washington proclaimed a Day of Prayer in 1789.  Lincoln put forth a proclamation for a Day of Fasting and Prayer in March, 1863. If there ever was a day as the one we are in, it would be most appropriate for all true believers to unite, petitioning God’s divine intervention as we repent.”

Striking a similar chord in the October issue of Decision Magazine, Rev. Graham wrote,

“If we truly want the blessings of the Lord on our country, then we must come humbly before Him, seek His face in prayer and fasting and repentance, and ask if He might by His grace and mercy bring healing to our troubled nation.”

His “To the Point” column message paraphrased 2 Chronicles 7:14 and echoes his October 20th call. Decision is a Billy Graham Evangelistic Association publication, of which Graham serves as editor-in-chief.

The son of the late evangelist Billy Graham and CEO of Samaritan’s Purse Ministries was joined by thousands on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. for the September 26th National Prayer March. Participants in the non-political event asked God to save the country from its current situation and petitioned Him for peace. Other prayer topics included the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects, ongoing nationwide protests and rioting, and upcoming national elections.

Take ACTION: Join the IFI board of directors and staff as we intentionally fast and pray for our state and nation this Sunday. Please pray for God’s mercy on this state and on our nation. Pray for the election of God-fearing candidates to every level of government. Pray for wisdom for voters and a safe and fair election.

HELP: Our get-out-the-vote campaign is up and running. 

We are distributing the IFI Voter Guide to hundreds of churches and civic groups throughout the state..
Will you financially support our endeavor to educate Illinois voters and promote Christian family values?

As city after city in America is under assault, with buildings on fire and bloodied bodies laying in the streets, we need to unite in our condemnation of these violent riots.

There is nothing righteous about looting. Or bashing someone over the head with a skateboard and pelting him with stones. Or vandalizing the store of a black business owner.

This is chaos. This is anarchy. This is lawlessness. This is wrong.

We can be outraged over the killing of George Floyd and aggrieved over the sin of racism without resorting to this.

Here are four reasons why these race riots do far more harm than good.

First, they came at a time when more and more Americans were willing to talk about apparent racial injustice. As tweeted by the influential black rapper and podcaster, Zuby, “The USA temporarily had a moment where virtually ALL Americans were united in empathy and sympathy, over the pointless, awful killing of a fellow citizen.

“People of ALL colours and ALL political stripes, unanimous on an issue of clear injustice.”

“That’s extremely rare…”

He continued, “Now this unity and sympathy has been divided, diluted and misdirected as people fight on the streets, steal from their neighbours, and torch their own communities.”

“It’s fricking sad to see.”

“I’ll say it again. Some people thrive on division and anger. They don’t want solutions.” (A hat tip to my colleague John Zmirak for these references. He responded to Zuby’s tweets with his own: “The looters in Minneapolis no more represent black Americans than the neo-Nazi thugs in Charlottesville represented me.”)

As I emphasized in my latest article, “Hope for Black Americans,” this was a rare time when law and order conservatives like Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and Dan Bongino united with Christian conservatives like Franklin Graham in condemning the killing of a black American by a police officer. Yet the focus has now shifted to the violence and lawlessness of the riots. How on earth is this positive or helpful?

Second, the riots paint a negative picture of black Americans, as if this is what “they” do. As expressed in a May 31 email, conservative Christian activist Scott Lively “contends that the purpose of Black Lives Matter rioting is to INCREASE Racism to justify the Marxist race-war narrative, and laments that too many conservatives and constitutionalists fall into the trap of lumping the innocent majority of Black Americans with the trained thugs of the BLM and the useful idiots who run with them.”

Obviously, Lively’s words are confrontational and even inflammatory, and one can debate his larger thesis. But his overall point is clear: the race riots, allegedly carried out in the memory of George Floyd, play into the worst racial stereotypes of black Americans. I ask again: how on earth is this helpful?

Third, these riots are destructive in their very nature, appealing to our worst instincts. As I tweeted on May 31,

“Peaceful protests can be righteous, godly, and powerful, even reflecting the Spirit of Christ. Rioting and looting are unrighteous, ungodly, and destructive, reflecting the spirit of lawlessness and chaos and murder. Which spirit is that?”

One of my black friends, a historian with a strong social conscience, said to me, “Anything that comes to kill steal and destroy is the enemy” (meaning, from Satan; see John 10:10). Precisely so.

In response to my tweet, someone challenged me, saying, “Forgive me if I’m wrong but didn’t Jesus clear out the temple with a whip?”

I replied,

“1) He acted in perfect harmony with the Lord. We often do not. 2) He did not kill anyone. He did not set the Temple on fire. He did not destroy the businesses of honest, hardworking people. I could go on and on. Surely you must know this.”

Enough said.

Fourth, there appears to be strong evidence that these riots are being aided and abetted by bad players.

Pastor Jim Garlow reported via email on May 31, “A couple of hours ago, some bussed-in protesters were attacking the La Mesa, CA police station only a few miles from where I live.

“A close friend of mine who is black has reported that the Minneapolis Airport was full of people today being flown in to create havoc. Many were being bussed in. And now we are hearing reports of pallets of bricks being dropped off at street corners in cities to give weapons to the anarchists. The George Soros types have found their moment. We pray for our President, governors and mayors.”

This was confirmed by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, himself a liberal Democrat and an African American Muslim:

“We have evidence that outsiders have been present and, in some cases, have played a very negative role. But I’ve been talking with protesters and trying to get a sense of who some of these folks are and I’ve heard mixed things. Some of the negative stuff has come from people in Minnesota and some of it has come from people on the outside. What I’d say is we’ve got enough to handle on our own and that what we really need to do is refocus on justice for Mr. Floyd. And the negative behavior, looting, arson, does not help us achieve that goal.”

Conservative broadcaster (and former NYPD officer) Dan Bongino was even more blunt: “This isn’t a protest anymore, this is a coup,” he said.

He added, “This is an organized internal coup by a small group of agitators acting as a domestic terror group. That’s a fact.”

No wonder that President Trump has now declared Antifa a terrorist organization.

Groups like this rip at the very fabric of our nation, and their goals are vastly different than the goals of the vast majority of Americans.

Let us then work together for equality and justice. One way we can do that is by denouncing these violent riots. Then, we can refocus on the killing of George Floyd and the larger questions of equal treatment under the law.

This article was originally published at Townhall.com.

On Friday Oct. 8, IFI received this strangely kind email from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) “investigative reporter” Brett Barrouquere (an email similar, I learned, to one sent to Mark Krikorian, Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies, but more on that later):

Hi,

I’m a reporter with The Intelligence Project in Montgomery, Alabama. I hope this finds you well.

Currently, I’m assisting a colleague with a story about Franklin Graham speaking to IFI. Why did IFI choose him as a speaker? What did he tell the group? How was he received during his talk?

And, has Mr. Graham spoken to the group before? If so, when?

We are aiming to produce a story next week. Thank you for your time and assistance.

Sincerely,

Brett

I say “strangely kind” because IFI has been included on the SPLC’s “hate” groups list since 2008, one month after I began working for IFI. At the time, the SPLC had zero criteria for determining which groups or individuals constitute haters, a fact I pointed out in articles and to the unscrupulous, unpleasant Mark Potok and his equally unscrupulous, unpleasant henchperson Heidi Beirich, both of whom headed up the “Intelligence Project” that maligns conservative organizations as “hate groups.”

Both Potok and Beirich have “resigned” in the wake of widespread, bipartisan criticism of the SPLC’s profligate, unjustified labeling of conservative organizations as “hate” groups; the SPLC’s abandonment of its mission to combat racism; its greedy profiteering and fear-mongering; and accusations of sexual misconduct and racism leveled at disgraced and fired founder Morris Dees. You can read more about our history with the moral miscreants at the SPLC in my article “A True Story About the Southern Poverty Law Center.”

Upon receipt of this strangely kind email with strange questions about Franklin Graham, who just a week earlier was IFI’s keynote banquet speaker, I decided to find out a bit about Barrouquere. I discovered he omitted something from his job title. On the website Muck Rack, he identifies as “Investigative Reporter at SPLCenter and @hatewatch.”

The SPLC’s Hatewatch describes its mission as “Exposing hate groups and other extremists throughout the United States since 1981.” In the service of “exposing hate groups and other extremists,” Barrouquere contacted IFI to inquire about Franklin Graham. #Eyeroll

Barrouquere is profiled on the professional journalism website Muck Rack, which derives its name from the term muckrake. Theodore Roosevelt coined the term “muckrakers” to refer to journalists who investigate and expose corruption with the intent of reforming society. But the origin of the term muck-rake is older and more fitting of the SPLC’s dirty work. This is what I wrote to Barrouquere:

Dear Brett,

Surely you jest. You want IFI to help the ethically impoverished SPLC’s risibly named “Intelligence Project” produce what is likely yet another smear of a good person?

Muck-raker is a fitting description for those who do the dirty work of the SPLC. Here is the origin of the term “muck-raker” from John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress:

“the Interpreter takes them apart again, and has them first into a room where was a man that could look no way but downwards, with a muck-rake in his hand. There stood also one over his head, with a celestial crown in his hand, and proffered to give him that crown for his muckrake; but the man did neither look up nor regard, but raked to himself the straws, the small sticks, and the dust of the floor…. his muck-rake doth show his worldly mind. And whereas thou seest him rather give heed to rake up straws and sticks, and the dust of the floor, than to do what he says that calls to him from above with the celestial crown in his hand; it is to show that heaven is but a fable to some, and that things here are counted the only things substantial. Now, whereas it was also showed thee that the man could look no way but downwards; it is to let thee know that earthly things, when they are with power upon men’s minds, quite carry their hearts away from God.”

Many don’t know that the SPLC also has a toxic “educational” arm called “Teaching Tolerance” whose de facto goal is to carry the hearts of other people’s children away from God:

Our mission is to help teachers and schools educate children and youth to be active participants in a diverse democracy.

Teaching Tolerance provides free resources to educators—teachers, administrators, counselors and other practitioners—who work with children from kindergarten through high school. Educators use our materials to supplement the curriculum, to inform their practices, and to create civil and inclusive school communities….

Our program emphasizes social justice and anti-bias. The anti-bias approach encourages children and young people to challenge prejudice and learn how to be agents of change in their own lives. Our Social Justice Standards show how anti-bias education works through the four domains of identity, diversity, justice and action.

Conservatives should no longer be duped by leftist jargon. Anytime the terms “educate,” “civil,” “inclusive,” “social justice,” “anti-bias,” “challenge prejudice,” “identity,” and “diversity,” appear, you know you’ve entered the Upside Down where the meanings of terms bear little resemblance to their true meanings:

1.) Educate=indoctrinate

2.) Civil=incivility toward conservatives, especially Christians

3.) Inclusive=affirm homosexuality and cross-sex identification, ostracize Christians

4.) Social justice=same as above

5.) Anti-bias=promote anti-Christian bias

6.) Challenge bias=same as above

7.) Identity=treat “progressive” beliefs about sexuality as unassailable moral precepts

8.) Diversity=race/skin color, sex, class, and deviant sexuality

The SPLC’s description of Teaching Tolerance omits mention of the chief goal of the SPLC: the eradication of theological orthodoxy from the public square.

Coincidentally, on National Review’s blog “The Corner,” Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) shared that he received a similar email from another “investigative reporter” with the SPLC at about the time IFI received ours. CIS is part of a lawsuit against the SPLC, which added CIS to its infamous “hate groups” list shortly after Trump’s election.

Krikorian’s email, which he hilariously describes as a “Howdy, Hater!” email, came from senior investigative reporter Michael Edison Hayden, who in late September tweeted out “I’m extremely excited about the team we are assembling @Hatewatch.”

Hayden begins with the kind of warm salutation—the “Howdy” part—one wouldn’t expect from someone who views you as a hater and scourge of society: “I hope you guys are having a good day. If you DC folks are a Nationals fan, congratulations.”

Then, Hayden got down to the nitty-gritty “Hater!” part:

Anyway, I wanted to ask you guys about some stuff I have on my plate here. Someone sent me a rather large volume of Stephen Miller’s emails from the run-up to the 2016 election. There are a lot of newsworthy things in these emails…. I know he gave a keynote for you in 2015, so obviously there is some degree of connection but I didn’t know how much.

Hayden went on to ask five questions about CIS’ involvement with Stephen Miller, Trump’s senior policy advisor, including asking about the degree of “closeness” between CIS and Miller, which is similar to the question Barrouquere asked IFI about Franklin Graham.

Krikorian, who, rather than responding to Hayden, forwarded his email to attorneys handling the lawsuit, noted the bizarre conclusion to Hayden’s email:

The e-mail ends, inscrutably, with “Warm regards”. But either you’re writing to the head of a “hate group” who thinks foreigners are “cockroaches” or you offer “warm regards”—it can’t really be both.

The SPLC has proven repeatedly for decades that it is incapable of intellectual consistency, honesty, or morality. The SPLC hasn’t changed its stripes.

Listen to this article read by Laurie:

https://staging.illinoisfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/SPLC.mp3

IFI depends on the support of concerned-citizens like you. Donate now

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Illinois Family Institute is excited to announce our annual Faith, Family and Freedom Fall Banquet with special guest, The Rev. Franklin Graham!

Franklin Graham has devoted his life to meeting the needs of people around the world and proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The eldest son of Billy and Ruth Bell Graham, he serves as President and CEO of Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Under his leadership, Samaritan’s Purse has met the needs of poor, sick, and suffering people in more than 100 countries. As an evangelist for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, he has led crusades around the world.

Click HERE for a flyer.

Sponsorship packages and program advertisements for this great evening are available. I hope you’ll reserve this date on your calendar. If you have any questions, please call us at (708) 781-9328.

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Reverend Franklin Graham, the president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, posted a message on Facebook and sent an email to his social media followers requesting they dedicate Sunday, June 2, as a day of prayer for President Donald Trump. Two hundred and fifty Christian leaders quickly responded by signing the proclamation, including three former presidents of the Southern Baptist Convention (the largest Protestant denomination in America) and the general superintendent of the Assemblies of God.

The proclamation reads:

“We the undersigned are calling for June 2 to be a special Day of Prayer for the President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, that God would protect, strengthen, embolden, and direct him. We believe our nation is at a crossroads, at a dangerous precipice. The only one who can fix our country’s problems is God Himself, and we pray that God will bless our president and our nation for His glory.”

The full statement can be read on Rev. Graham’s Facebook page. Tens of thousands are expected to answer the call to pray for the president .

In an interview with Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, Graham referred to Trump as “the most Christian-friendly president” in his lifetime. He noted, “I don’t think any president in modern history has come under attack day after day after day by almost all the media. That’s just never happened. And it distracts the president. It weakens our country.”

While quick to point out that his call to prayer isn’t an endorsement of Trump, Graham quoted a scripture verse that calls on Christians to pray for “kings” and all those in authority. He asked his followers to leave a comment on his Facebook page stating that they will pray for the president: “And will you share this on your social media platforms so that we can have as many people as possible praying?” he added.

Graham concluded with a quote from the Apostle Paul:

“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12).

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Hail Satan?

It seems like Satan is getting a lot of positive nods in the last couple of months. In December, the secretary of state’s office at the Illinois Capital in Springfield allowed the Satanic Temple in Chicago to add a monument, which was placed next to a Nativity scene for Christmas and the Menorah to mark Hanukkah.

It sparked a great deal of controversy across the country. Even Franklin Graham spoke out against the move, quoting IFI’s executive director: “They fail to realize that the little baby in the manger has CRUSHED Satan’s head and the gates of hell will NOT prevail.”

Last Sunday evening at the Golden Globes, actor Christian Bale won the best actor award for his portrayal of former Vice President Dick Cheney in the film Vice.  In his acceptance speech, he thanked several individuals, including Satan.  He said, “Thank you to Satan for giving me inspiration for playing this role.”

While it was clearly a jab at Cheney, the Church of Satan praised Bale, tweeting this:

To us, Satan is a symbol of pride, liberty and individualism, and it serves as an external metaphorical projection of our highest personal potential. As Mr. Bale’s own talent and skill won him the award, this is fitting. Hail Christian! Hail Satan!

To those who hail Satan, to those who cheered on Christian Bale as he thanked Satan and to those who stood up for the justification of the Satanic Temple placing its pagan monument in the name of the devil himself, understand that Satan is a real being.

Jesus called him a murderer in John 8:44. He also told us that Satan comes to steal, kill and destroy. (John 10:10).  Jesus reminded us that he is a liar (John 8:44). In Ephesians we’re told that we need to put on the full armor of God to protect ourselves and extinguish the fiery arrows that come from him.

Satan is evil:

• Satan is the twister of truth
• The father of fallacy
• The shifter of Scripture
• The prince of perversion
• The first rebel who prided himself as equal to God
• The one who enticed Adam and Eve to sin
• The one through whom all rebellion, sin and evil came into the world
• And the slanderer of those whom God loves: the saints
• He is the motivating force behind murders, sexual assaults and every other evil and perversion we see today

But let us never forget that this battle of evil versus good, truth verses lies and hate verses love has already been won–at the Cross–over 2,000 years ago. And that victory will be fulfilled when Jesus returns for His faithful followers, His bride.

Let us also never forget that every knee will one day bow to Him who paid the ultimate price for the redemption of sin, and everyone will acknowledge Him as Lord, regardless of where they will be spending eternity. His Name is Jesus.

We sincerely hope that those reading this message will do it now.

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May I propose a New Year’s resolution for 2019? Let’s determine to speak up and to speak out, to raise our voices with clarity and compassion, to refuse to hold back regardless of cost or consequence. Will you join me?

To those of you who are already doing this, I encourage you to continue to stand strong.

To those who are not, now is most certainly the time. What are you waiting for?

One of the most important principles taught by Jesus was that if we try to save our lives, we lose them. But if we lose our lives for Him – for the gospel – we find them.

To apply this concept to our contemporary situation, if we try to avoid controversy and conflict so as to preserve our presence on social media platforms, we lose our souls in the process. We become compromisers, fearers of man rather than fearers of God. We are no longer guided by conviction; we are guided by convenience. We survive but we do not thrive.

If we speak what is right and do what is right and live what is right, we might lose a lot in the process, but we will find our souls. We become alive!

We can learn a lesson here from Wang Yi, pastor of Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu, Sichuan, China. He was addressing the sinful policies of Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is fashioning himself to be the new Mao and is actively persecuting Christians and other minorities.

In a sermon dated September 9, 2018, Pastor Yi said, “President Xi Jinping does not repent he will perish!”

Yes, he said, “The government he is leading has sinned greatly against God, for it is persecution the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, and if he does not repent, he will perish!”

But won’t Pastor Yi suffer consequences for preaching such a message? No doubt. In fact, he was subsequently arrested and is currently imprisoned. Yet he still preached with boldness and conviction.

“When we are not being persecuted,” he said, “we spread the gospel. And when persecution comes, we continue spreading the gospel. If we are talking about a President, we declare he is a sinner. And if we are talking about a general secretary, we still declare that he is a sinner. We believe that we have the responsibility to tell Xi Jinping that he is a sinner.”

What a contrast with today’s “gospel of nice,” a PC-compliant, made-for-America message if ever there was one. Whatever you do, don’t offend! Better to skirt the truth. Better to mislead. Just be sure to smile and be nice!

Of course, we should speak the truth in love. With broken hearts. With compassion.

Being mean is no more Christian than being weak.

But if ever there was time to crucify our cowardice, it is now. If ever there was a time to speak up and to speak out, regardless of cost or consequence, it is now. If we don’t, day by day, our freedoms will be taken from us, one at a time, until we find ourselves confined to a tiny, silent corner. This is how those words of Jesus’ apply.

Back in March, 2018, despite not being a fan of Infowars myself, I wrote an article titled, “Why YouTube’s Conflict with Infowars Should Concern Us All.”

I closed the article with this poem, inspired, of course, by the famous World War II poem of Martin Niemoller:

First they came for Infowars, and I did not speak out—because I found them offensive.

Then they came for Geller and Spencer, and I did not speak out­—because I found them obnoxious.

Then they came for Prager U, and I did not speak out—because I found them opinionated.

Then they came for a host of others, and I did not speak out—because I have my own life to live.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

I followed this up with an article on August 6, 2018, “Conservative Speech Be Banned!” This added further documentation and closed with the same poem.

Since then, many other conservative and Christian outlets have been affected (see this shocking list for 2018 compiled by Allum Bokhari). And most recently, Rev. Franklin Graham, arguably the best-known, most-prominent evangelical voice in America, was banned from posting on Facebook for 24 hours because of an innocuous post dating back to 2016.

Facebook quickly apologized and said he was banned in error, but the fact that this could happen at all is another sobering wake-up call.

In 2016, I drew attention to a ridiculous attempt at Princeton University to ban the “m” word (man!) from its campus. No more “man hours” or “manpower” or “layman.” Different, non-sexist terminology must be employed, such as “person hours” (for “man hours”) or “personnel” (for “manpower”) or “non-specialist” (for “layman”).

You might say, “But who cares about what happens on a university campus. That’s already an extreme PC-environment.”

Of course, we should care about what happens on our campuses, since that’s where the next generation is being educated.

But these things are not just happening on college campuses. The UK Telegraph reported on December 27, 2018, that “The European Parliament is attempting to stamp out the use of words such as ‘mankind’ and ‘manpower’ and have them replaced with more gender neutral terms such as ‘humanity’ and ‘staff”.”

Yes, the European Parliament is trying to enforce this hyper-PC speech control.

And, on a related note, let’s not forget that Canada passed a law in 2017 against “misgendering” people, while a similar law had already been passed (with stiff fines) in New York City.

So what will we do? Will we continue to retreat in order to avoid conflict, thereby muting our own voices? Or will we speak the truth in love – as compassionate as we are bold, as Christlike as we are firm, as wise as we are unwavering?

If not now, then when? If not you and me, then who?

Let’s make this our resolution in 2019: “I will not hold back for fear of consequences. I will speak up and speak out as the occasion demands. I will love my neighbor by speaking the truth.”

Are you in?

This article was originally published at AskDrBrown.org.

In stunning semi-secretive decisions motivated by fear of religious persecution, the boards of two major evangelical organizations, the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) and the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU), have voted to pass motions that represent an unacceptable compromise with homosexuals and the science-denying “trans” cult. These two influential organizations passed motions that would ask the government to add “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” as protected classes in federal anti-discrimination law in exchange for religious liberty protections that many people know would merely be stepping stones yanked out from under people of faith eventually.

According to World Magazine, in October, the NAE board unanimously passed its motion, titled “Fairness for All” (first discussed in Christianity Today in 2016), which asks “Congress to consider federal legislation consistent with three principles,” the problematic one which says this:

No one should face violence, harassment, or unjust discrimination on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity.

Of course, no one should face violence on the basis of any condition. So far, so good. But the rest of this principle is a theological, philosophical, political, and rhetorical mess. To illuminate the mess, here are a few questions for the Christian leaders who passed motions based on it:

1.) While this compromise may—for a short time—protect Christian colleges and universities, how might the religious liberty of ordinary Christians in, for example, wedding-related businesses, be affected if under federal law, homosexuality becomes a protected class?

2.) How are the terms “harassment” and “unjust discrimination” defined now? Could they be redefined or “expanded” later? Would a refusal to provide goods or services for the unholy occasion of homoerotic faux-marriage constitute unjust discrimination? Would opposition to co-ed restrooms and locker rooms constitute unjust discrimination? Would refusal to use incorrect pronouns when referring to those who masquerade as the opposite sex constitute harassment?

3.) Would those Christian leaders who voted for these motions have done so if, instead of the euphemisms “sexual orientation” and “gender identity,” in which are embedded false assumptions, the motions had used plain-speaking or even biblical terms? Let’s give the Fairness for All statement above a less-sanitized whirl:

No one should face unjust discrimination on the basis of their volitional choice to exchange natural sexual relations with persons of the opposite sex for unnatural relations with persons of their same sex, or for choosing to appear as the sex they are not.

How would that more accurately phrased statement have sat with the Christian leaders?

4.) Unlike other protected classes that are constituted by objective conditions that are in all cases immutable and carry no behavioral implications (e.g., sex and nation of origin), homosexuality, bisexuality, and opposite-sex impersonation are constituted by subjective and often fluid feelings and volitional acts with moral implications. Therefore, what other conditions similarly constituted will eventually be deemed protected classes? Why should homosexuality be included and polyamory or Genetic Sexual Attraction (aka incest) excluded?

To fully grasp the magnitude of the potential effect of these motions requires knowledge of the size of the organizations that passed them. The NAE “is an association of evangelical denominations, organizations, schools, churches and individuals. The association represents more than 45,000 local churches from nearly 40 different denominations and serves a constituency of millions.”

The CCCU “is a higher education association of more than 180 Christian institutions around the world,” including Bethel University, Calvin College, Colorado Christian University, Dallas Theological University, Franciscan University of Steubenville, Fuller Theological Seminary, Gordon College, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, Houghton College, Houston Baptist University, Judson University, Messiah College, Moody Bible Institute, Regent University, Taylor University, The King’s College, Trinity International University, and Wheaton College.

To be clear, we must not assume any of these colleges and universities supported the motion passed by the CCCU board. For example, Dr. Benjamin Merkle, president of New Saint Andrews College, which is a CCCU member, explained that “I’ve registered my opposition to this move, as have several other CCCU presidents.” 

While the CCCU and NAE boards capitulate to the Left’s relentless demand to have disordered sexual desires and deviant sexual behavior deemed conditions worthy of special protections, 75 prominent religious leaders oppose capitulation to such demands.

A document titled “Preserve Freedom, Reject Coercion” signed by religious leaders including Ryan T. Anderson, Rosaria Butterfield, Charles Chaput, D.A. Carson, Jim Daly, Kevin DeYoung, Tony Evans, Anthony Esolen, Robert A. J. Gagnon, Robert P. George, Timothy George, Franklin Graham, Harry R. Jackson Jr., James Kushiner, John MacArthur, Eric Metaxas, Al Mohler, and John Stonestreet explains why SOGI laws are dangerous:

In recent years, there have been efforts to add sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classifications in the law—either legislatively or through executive action. These unnecessary proposals, often referred to as SOGI policies, threaten basic freedoms of religion, conscience, speech, and association; violate privacy rights; and expose citizens to significant legal and financial liability for practicing their beliefs in the public square. In recent years, we have seen in particular how these laws are used by the government in an attempt to compel citizens to sacrifice their deepest convictions on marriage and what it means to be male and female….

SOGI laws empower the government to use the force of law to silence or punish Americans who seek to exercise their God-given liberty to peacefully live and work consistent with their convictions. They also create special preference in law for categories based on morally significant choices that profoundly affect human relations and treat reasonable religious and philosophical beliefs as discriminatory. We therefore believe that proposed SOGI laws, including those narrowly crafted, threaten fundamental freedoms, and any ostensible protections for religious liberty appended to such laws are inherently inadequate and unstable.

SOGI laws in all these forms, at the federal, state, and local levels, should be rejected. We join together in signing this letter because of the serious threat that SOGI laws pose to fundamental freedoms guaranteed to every person.

In a recent interview, John Stonestreet used the recent firing of a Virginia high school French teacher for his refusal to use incorrect pronouns when referring to a “trans”-identifying student to illustrate the potential danger SOGI laws pose to Christians in the work place:

Every version of the Fairness for All proposals that I have seen would not help Peter Vlaming at all. In fact, it would put us on the wrong side of that…. Here you have a government employee working at a public school who serves the public interest that has already been defined by Fairness for All and SOGI legislation as including “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” as a category of human being, and that basically sets Peter Vlaming up for failure.

It’s astonishing that time and again the experts—people like Ryan Anderson, Anthony Esolen, Robert Gagnon, Robert George, and Doug Wilson—who have been writing presciently for years on cultural/political issues related to disordered sexuality are ignored by those who spend far less time thinking and writing about them.

Shirley Mullen who is president of Houghton College and a member of the NAE Board, wrote that “the most viable political strategy is for comprehensive religious freedom protections to be combined with explicit support for basic human rights for members of the LGBT community.” What are the “human rights” of which members of the “LGBT” community are currently deprived? Near as I can tell, they are deprived of no human or civil rights. (Anticipating an objection, I will add that no man has a human or civil right to access women’s private spaces—not even if he pretends to be a woman.)

On his American Conservative blog, Rod Dreher quotes a pseudonymous friend called “Smith” who has been working behind the scenes for years on the Fairness for All compromise with “LGBT” activists. Smith argues that this compromise is necessary because conservatives—who have lost the cultural battle on sexuality—cannot count on either statutory or judicial protections of their free exercise of religion. But Smith revealed something more troubling:

[T]here really is a question of justice within a pluralistic society that conservative Christians have to face. We may sincerely believe that homosexuality is morally wrong, but at what point does the common good require that we agree that gay people have a right to be wrong?

First, since when do conservatives deny that “gay people have a right to be wrong”?

Second, since Smith isn’t really arguing that the common good demands that conservatives agree that gay people have a right to be wrong, what specifically is it he believes the common good demands of conservatives? In a consistently dismissive tone, Smith suggests that conservatives demonstrate an absolute rigidity but fails to identify the specific ways conservatives are being intolerantly inflexible and in so doing harming the public good. He seems to be suggesting that standing firm against SOGI laws—which put at grave risk religious liberty and constitute complicity with both moral and scientific error—is the issue that threatens the common good and on which we must capitulate compromise.

Smith continues:

If pluralism is about accommodating deep difference—if conservative Evangelicals are going to ask for accommodation of difference, then they can’t turn around and say in every single case when they are asked to accommodate sexual minorities, ‘No, we will fight to the death.’ That’s not pluralism if all you’re doing is protecting your own rights and saying error has no rights when it comes to you. Pluralism has to be seen by others who disagree with you as fair.

Yes, pluralism is about accommodating differences, but there are differences on which accommodation is impermissible for Christians. I doubt Smith would have made such an ambiguous claim about Christians who rigidly refused to compromise on the nature and intrinsic worth of enslaved blacks or who will not accommodate Planned Parenthood’s views of humans in the womb. The nature, meaning, and value of biological sex, marriage, and children’s rights are other issues on which it is impermissible for Christians to compromise, even if that inflexibility results in persecution.

Listen to this article read by Laurie:

https://staging.illinoisfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/SOGI_Compromise1.mp3

End-of-Year Challenge

As you may know, thanks to amazingly generous Illinois Family Institute partners, we have an end-of-year matching challenge of $100,000 to help support our ongoing work to educate and activate Illinois’ Christian community.

Please consider helping us reach this goal!  Your tax-deductible contribution will help us stand strong in 2019!  To make a credit card donation over the phone, please call the IFI office at (708) 781-9328.  You can also send a gift to:

Illinois Family Institute
P.O. Box 876
Tinley Park, Illinois 60477

The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) announced Wednesday that it will start admitting girls to its Cub Scouts program, and eventually will create a parallel program that allows older girls to rise to the level of Eagle Scout.

In a statement, the BSA said its decision was in line with its “core values” and was driven by changes in the American family and busy parents desiring a Scouts-like program for their daughters.

“Starting in the 2018 program year, families can choose to sign up their sons and daughters for Cub Scouts,” the statement said. “Existing packs may choose to establish a new girl pack, establish a pack that consists of girl dens and boy dens or remain an all-boy pack. Cub Scout dens will be single-gender — all boys or all girls.”

It continues: “Using the same curriculum as the Boy Scouts program, the organization will also deliver a program for older girls, which will be announced in 2018 and projected to be available in 2019, that will enable them to earn the Eagle Scout rank. This unique approach allows the organization to maintain the integrity of the single gender model while also meeting the needs of today’s families.”

‘Zir Scouts’ next?

Conservative critics like Christian talk show host Janet Mefferd pounced on the BSA’s gender-neutral decision.

“When you have the Boy Scouts accepting girls (and gender-confused girls who think they’re boys), then the next logical step is for the Girl Scouts to accept boys. What does gender even mean anymore? You might as well join forces and become the ‘Zir Scouts’,” Mefferd told LifeSiteNews.

(“Zir” and “Ze” is a genderless pronoun created by “transgender” activists to replace “her” or “his,” and “he” or “she.” Another variation spells it as “Xir.”)

Conservative activist and Eagle Scout Charlie Kirk, founder and executive director of Turning Point USA, tweeted in response to the BSA announcement:

I am an Eagle Scout

Only boys should be in Boy Scouts

Only girls should be in Girl Scouts

Don’t change things that work

The BSA — whose membership is declining — said its “historic decision comes after years of receiving requests from families and girls, the organization evaluated the results of numerous research efforts, gaining input from current members and leaders, as well as parents and girls who’ve never been involved in Scouting – to understand how to offer families an important additional choice in meeting the character development needs of all their children.”

Randall Stephenson, the BSA’s national board chairman, was effusive about the new girls policy: “The BSA’s record of producing leaders with high character and integrity is amazing,” he said in the BSA release. “I’ve seen nothing that develops leadership skills and discipline like this organization. It is time to make these outstanding leadership development programs available to girls.”

The ATT CEO has presided over some liberal social changes in the Scouts organization that have outraged many former Scouts and pro-family, faith-based advocates like Franklin Graham, who has urged Christians to pull their sons out of the Scouts.

Beginning in 2013, the Boy Scouts moved to end their “morally straight” policy of excluding homosexual boy members, a policy that they had successfully defended in court going all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2000. Then in 2015 the BSA decided to allow to adult homosexual men as leaders, despite the BSA’s history of adult male scoutmasters homosexually molesting boys in their care — the extent of which has still not been revealed to the public.

Earlier this year, the BSA waded into transgender controversies by saying it will allow severely gender-confused, biological girls (who identify as “boys” and want to live as “males”) to become Boy Scouts.

The Scouts’ politically correct moves appear to be taking a toll on membership, as new groups like the Christian-based Trail Life USA have been formed in response to the BSA’s liberal shift, while major church bodies like the Mormon Church have pulled away from the BSA. Perhaps this explains the opening to girls. The New York Post reports on the BSA’s plummeting numbers:

“Current participation in the Boy Scouts, which was founded in 1910, is down from 2.6 million in 2013 and more than 4 million in earlier years. The announcement comes as the organization and other youth service groups have seen dips in membership. The Girl Scouts, meanwhile, reported 1,566,671 youth members as of March, down from just over 2 million in 2014.”

“Just when you thought the Scout leadership could not be any more clueless about the actual purpose of the organization – raising boys to become responsible, masculine men – they come up with this,” said Robert Knight, a senior fellow with the American Civil Rights Union and an Eagle Scout.

“This is organizational vandalism and another sign that the current Scout executives care more about what the clinically insane Left and their media allies think than what is best for boys.  The only good to come out of this will be a further exodus toward Trail Life USA, the genuine heirs to the Boy Scout legacy.”

This article was originally posted at LifeSiteNews.com

Written by Pastor Calvin Lindstrom

To any discerning Christian it should be obvious that we have serious problems in our nation – morally, culturally, politically, and financially.

There are no simple or quick solutions.

While it is wonderful to see Franklin Graham and others call for gatherings of prayer, our problems are not going to be resolved by going to a massive prayer meeting or revival meeting.

We are under heavy judgment. Many in our land struggle to see it, because they don’t feel it directly. This may also be true in part because God still has been very gracious to the United States. We have not experienced the judgment that other nations in the 20th century have experienced. I am very thankful for this. However, in part because we have not tasted incredible suffering, we are still very soft. There are some Christians in our nation who have come from other countries where there is great suffering for the faith, and increasingly there are Christians who are learning this in our own nation; but for the most part we have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin (Heb. 12:4).

When the prophet Habakkuk realized the judgment that Judah was going to receive, he was initially not able to understand how God was going to punish his wicked people with an even more wicked nation.

You are of purer eyes than to behold evil,
And cannot look on wickedness.
Why do You look on those who deal treacherously,
And hold Your tongue when the wicked devours
A person more righteous than he?  ~Habakkuk 1:13

One of the answers that the LORD gave to Habakkuk who wrestled with these difficult issues is found in the next chapter.

Behold the proud,
His soul is not upright in him;
But the just shall live by his faith. ~Habakkuk 2:4

This is not an easy, quick solution to all of our problems. It is something much greater – it is the way of life that must be embraced in the face of judgment.

Friends, there are no easy solutions, and our trials may well deepen in the days ahead, but this does not mean that we do nothing or that we just roll over and pretend that we are dead. As we have already noted from Habakkuk 2, the just shall live by faith. The just shall continue to devote themselves to prayer (Rom. 12:12). The just must look for ways to speak and share God’s truth. The just will continue to commit themselves unto God unto whom vengeance belongs, seeking to overcome evil with good (Romans 12:19, 21).

As I stated earlier, a prayer meeting or 40 days of prayer are not the silver-bullet solutions that will remedy all our ills. But I would encourage you to at least set apart the first Tuesday of every month to devote as much time as possible to prayer and even fasting as the Lord would lead and allow. Seek God’s face, not merely out of obligation, but as a testimony that we live by faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Will you join with me and others in the great work of intercessory prayer?

And since, if we are honest, we know how weak we can be in prayer, will you not join me in renewing your dedication to the reading and studying of the Word of God? We desperately need to often be renewed or revived in God’s truth if we are going to live a life of faith. (Psalm 119:25, 107, 154)

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all
that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,
to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations,
forever and ever.  Amen. ~Ephesians 3:20-21

Rev. Lindstrom is Pastor of the Church of Christian Liberty of Arlington Heights, and the executive director of the Christian Emergency League. He and his wife are currently homeschooling their four children. He has a great passion for Christian education at home and in Christian schools.  

Written by Stoyan Zaimov

The Rev. Franklin Graham has warned that the “blood of children” will be on President Barack Obama‘s hands if he does indeed decide to veto the defund Planned Parenthood bill that was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday.

“President Obama has said he will veto the bill — if he does, it will be at his own peril and the blood of those children who are butchered at Planned Parenthood will be on his hands,” Graham warned in a Facebook post on Sunday.

The evangelical preacher said that the passing of HR 3134, which would strip Planned Parenthood of $500 million in taxpayer dollars for a period of at least one year, is a “great step.”

“I’m thankful that those supporting this bill stood firm. It still has to pass the Senate, so we need to continue to pray,” Graham added.

Public anger toward Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion business, has been growing over the summer after the release of several undercover videos by the pro-life group the Center for Medical Progress. The videos purport to show that Planned Parenthood employees have been involved in illegal and unethical practices surrounding the sale of aborted baby parts.

Protests were held at hundreds of Planned Parenthood clinics in August, with pro-life supporters demanding the organization be stripped of public funding.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest affirmed last week, however, that Obama would seek to veto any effort to defund the group, which is among his largest supporters.

“We’ve been quite forthright about the president’s opposition to any effort to wholesale defund Planned Parenthood,” Earnest told reporters Wednesday.

Earnest further argued that it would be “cynical” to use the videos as a reason to defund Planned Parenthood.

“What has injected this issue into the political dialogue of late, the graphic videos that emerged on the Internet the last couple of months, Planned Parenthood has apologized for the content of those videos and they should. They were shocking,” the White House spokesman added.

Graham, an outspoken critic of abortion, has been highly critical of the abortion-providing organization.

Back in August he slammed Democratic U.S. Senator Harry Reid of Nevada for suggesting that Republicans attempting to bring the bill to defund Planned Parenthood up for a vote have lost “their moral compass.”

“You’ve got it backwards Senator Reid. You lost your moral compass years ago! You openly support abortion — the murder of babies in their mothers’ wombs — and now by backing Planned Parenthood you obviously support the dismemberment and sale of baby body parts,” the evangelical said.

This article was originally posted at the ChristianPost.com.