Written by Austin Scott Davies

On March 9, 2020, Governor J.B. Pritzker declared every county in Illinois a disaster area. The Illinois Emergency Management Agency Act (20 ILCS 3305/7) allows the governor to proclaim a disaster exists by which he can give himself authority under the Act to exercise certain emergency powers.

The most noteworthy of the powers he has exercised is the power to control the movement of persons within a disaster area and the power to control and restrict the use, sale, or distribution of goods and services.

The governor is constrained by the Act to exercise the emergency powers for a period that is not to exceed 30 days following the proclamation of a disaster. Under the Act, the governor’s emergency powers have expired.

The federal and Illinois’ constitutions also limit the governor’s power through their due process and equal protection clauses. The Bill of Rights, found in both constitutions, restrain the government from violating our rights. However, the government is allowed to burden our rights under certain circumstances.

If a fundamental right is burdened by the government, for example the free exercise of religion, freedom of speech, or movement, some questions asked by courts to determine whether the government’s act is constitutional are whether the act substantially burdened the fundamental right, whether the act furthered a compelling government interest, and whether the government used the least restrictive means possible to pursue that interest. This analysis is called strict scrutiny.

If a non-fundamental right is burdened, courts use the rational basis analysis. Judicial precedent deems economic and business rights to be included as non-fundamental. In determining whether a government act is constitutional here, courts determine whether an act is rationally related to a legitimate government objective. Both strict scrutiny and rational basis analysis are also used for equal protection analysis, when the government applies laws differently based on classifications it creates.

Both fundamental and non-fundamental rights have been burdened by the governor’s orders, and businesses and activities have been classified as “essential” or “non-essential.” In particular, by Order 2020-10, which chose certain businesses that had to close and certain activities that people were no longer allowed to engage in. This “stay-at-home” order shuttered thousands of businesses and restricted fundamental liberties of people in Illinois.

Is prohibiting church services and gatherings of over a certain number of people but allowing people to buy recreational cannabis and liquor–even if “social-distancing” is practiced during each activity–the least restrictive means to prevent the spread of SARS-CoV-2 (also known as the disease “COVID-19”)? Are these classifications rationally related to preventing the spread of the virus? What does shutting down schools have to do with protecting the elderly and immuno-compromised who are most at risk for hospitalization? These questions are beginning to be asked across the nation by litigants, courts, and legislatures. Some doctors believe that isolation and “social distancing” should only be practiced by those most at risk, and that “social-distancing” and isolation will in the long term lead to more death than if we built up herd immunity quicker among the healthy while giving the option to those at risk to choose to social-distance and stay home.

Courts will also be asked to decide whether the government can lawfully arrest or fine people for violating the governor’s orders. In short, no, the government cannot arrest you merely for violating the governor’s orders. Unlike some states, Illinois’ Emergency Management Act does not provide any penalties for violations, so for the executive branch to impose a penalty for a violation would be a violation of procedural due process, which prohibits enforcement of penalties that are vague or, as in this case, non-existent. Even if the governor issued an order specifying a penalty, it would still be unenforceable. In our tripartite, constitutional republic, only the legislature can make law. If the governor purported to create a penalty by order, and that is not present in the statute, that part of his order would be void.

Local municipalities have passed ordinances that provide for penalties if the governor’s order is violated. Some of these ordinances may be lawful while others may not be. For example, Chicago’s Department of Public Health issued an order that requires sick people not to leave their homes except for certain essential activities. The order references Chicago ordinance 2-112-340 for enforcement of its order, which provides that anyone violating an order by the Illinois Department of Public Health or Board of Health can be fined between $100-$500 dollars. The Chicago Department of Public Health gets its authority from the Illinois Administrative Code, which allows for the Illinois Department of Public Health to delegate its authority to to local health authorities. Therefore, the Chicago Department, like the Illinois Department of Public Health, is constrained in its actions by the Illinois Department of Health Act (20 ILCS 2305).

Section 2 of this Act allows the Illinois Department of Public Health, and local health authorities, to order quarantine, isolation, and closure of places to prevent the probable spread of a dangerous or infectious disease. However, these agencies cannot make such orders without a prior court order, or consent by the person or persons effected. The only exception to this is if, in the reasonable judgment of the agency issuing the order, exigent circumstances exist that require immediate action to protect the public, they can make such orders. The agency issuing the order is still required either obtain consent or court order within 48 hours of doing so, unless the courts are unavailable or circumstances make it impossible to obtain a court order. Then, the orders can only stay in place until the agency can obtain the court order through reasonable means.

Illinois’ courts may require video and telephonic hearings at this time, but they are not closed. There have been no reports that the Chicago Department of Health has obtained a court order authorizing the quarantine or isolation of anyone. For this reason, if Chicago law enforcement does issue any fines pursuant to the ordinance, it may be possible to have the fines dismissed. It is also possible that law enforcement would charge you with a Class A misdemeanor for violating an order of a health department agency, found in the act at 20 ILCS 2305/8.1, which may be defended on the same grounds. A Class A misdemeanor carries with it up to 364 days in jail and a fine of up to $2,500.

Threat of criminal penalty has also been made by the governor. When pressed what punishment people could face for violating his order, Gov. Pritzker stated that the police could get a court order or charge people with reckless conduct. Reckless conduct (720 ILCS 5/12-5) is conduct that is performed recklessly and that endangers the safety of another person and is a Class A misdemeanor. The government would have a hard time proving your guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. If you are not under court-ordered quarantine, if you go in public while practicing “social-distancing” and wearing a mask, even while sick, your actions may not be reckless or endangering anyone else. If you are not sick, even if you are not practicing “social-distancing” or wearing a mask, it is hard to imagine the government proving that you endangered another person. It would likely have to be proven that the government knew you were positive for the virus before they arrested you for going into public and that you were reckless by not practicing social-distancing or wearing a mask.

Illinoisans may have another right regarding the pandemic. That is the right to just compensation for a government “taking.” The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides that the government will not take anyone’s property without just compensation. This Amendment is incorporated to the states by the Fourteenth Amendment. The same clause can be found in Section 15 of Article 1 of the Illinois Constitution. U.S. Supreme Court precedent states that one method for the government to take something is to deny it all economically viable use.

Many businesses have been denied all economic viability. Such a large scale taking and compensation is unprecedented, but it does appear that there is a justifiable argument for relief.

The Illinois General Assembly may be back in session sometime next month. Whether they act to check the governor’s power remains to be seen, but it is not likely since both branches are controlled by the same political party. As more Illinoisans struggle under the governor’s orders and local ordinances, more lawsuits will be filed, and the courts may be the only arbiter of the extent of the government’s power during this pandemic.

Austin Scott Davies is an attorney, former prosecutor, and an active member of the Winnebago County Republican Party. He is also a board member for Concerned Citizens for America, a local chapter of Illinois Family Institute.

The information contained in this article is not legal advice and is for general information purposes only. Do not act or refrain from acting on the basis of this information. Readers should contact an attorney to obtain advice with respect to any legal matter.

As the Coronavirus pandemic wears on, government officials have shut down schools and businesses while stressing social distancing. The work continues to get personal protective equipment (PPE) into the hands of medical personnel with even elective surgeries canceled for the foreseeable future. However, the pandemic hasn’t slowed down the abortion industry. Several states have tried to close abortion clinics, calling the procedure an elective surgery that would take up medical resources, and Planned Parenthood has fought back in the courts to keep their doors open.

Only the state of Texas placed an outright ban on abortions as elective surgeries until the end of the pandemic. On April 7, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the ban that Texas governor Greg Abbott put in place categorizing an abortion as an elective surgery. Planned Parenthood has petitioned the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Other states that have deemed abortions to be elective surgeries are Alaska, Indiana, Iowa, Mississippi, Ohio, and Oklahoma. The Oklahoma ban was blocked in court April 6.

In an April 3 letter to supporters, Jennifer Welch, president & CEO of Planned Parenthood of Illinois (PPIL), shared, “To best serve our patients during this crisis, we have temporarily consolidated into six ‘Mission Health Centers’ to provide essential services including medical and in-clinic abortion care.” The six centers are located in Aurora, Flossmoor, Peoria, Springfield, and two in Chicago. However, eyewitnesses have noted that the Planned Parenthood in Fairview Heights has continued to receive patients.

National Planned Parenthood as well as PPIL have also continued to fund-raise heavily during the pandemic. In an apparent reference to the states that that don’t consider abortions essential medical procedures, Welch wrote, “We are also taking action against those who attempt to use the pandemic as an excuse to restrict health care for millions of people across the country.”

Abortions continue in Metro East area

In Illinois, the abortion industry is still going strong. The 18,000-square-foot Planned Parenthood abortion clinic built in secrecy in Fairview Heights and just 13 miles away from downtown St. Louis, Mo., has been a source of controversy since it opened in October 2019.

Angela Michael is a pro-life activist and head of Small Victories Pregnancy Outreach. Michael, a former obstetrical nurse, protests regularly outside the clinic in Fairview Heights and a nearby clinic in Granite City, called Hope Clinic. The latter is a privately-owned women’s health clinic that mainly provides abortions and sits across the street from the city’s only hospital.

Hope Clinic tweeted Governor JB Pritzker to complain about, and called the local police to disband, a group of protestors outside the clinic March 27. The group consisted of Michael and three others. Four police officers arrived, and Michael shared in a Facebook message that, perhaps upon seeing the body camera she was wearing, they told the pro-life advocates to “Have a nice day.”

Michael publishes eyewitness accounts from the two clinics almost daily to the Small Victories Pregnancy Outreach Facebook page. She has been noting the large groups of people entering the clinics, failing to practice social distancing, and cars traveling there from as far away as Colorado.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, there were 40 facilities providing abortions in Illinois in 2017, and 25 of those were abortion clinics.

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-and, please-

In the midst of the COVID-19 craziness, it is alarming to recognize there are many who are willing to use our current health crisis for their own gain and/or agenda. As these snollygosters and media types grandstand, I cannot help but think of Rahm Emanuel’s infamous quote, “never let a crisis go to waste.”

Ironically, Emanuel first used that phrase in 2008 during the nation’s financial crash and then again last week in response to our nation’s coronavirus emergency. Is it a repackaging of one of Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals, in which he writes “in the arena of action a threat or a crisis becomes almost a precondition to communication”? I’ll let you decide.

The truth is, the board and staff here at IFI are deeply disturbed to hear the incessant petty partisan criticisms of the Trump Administration by political leaders and media pundits who only seem interested in stoking anxiety and exacerbating division among the American people. In that regard, Illinois’ Governor JB Pritzker has made a name for himself as one of the nation’s chief nitpickers over the last several weeks.

In his first fourteen months as CEO of the state of Illinois, Gov. Pritzker hasn’t pursued policy solutions that would have helped Illinois prepare for a pandemic. Gov. Pritzker hasn’t tried to bolster Illinois’ rainy-day fund, which is now vitally needed to purchase respirators and other medical equipment. In fact, Illinois remains disadvantaged because of the billions of dollars in unpaid bills dragging us down. Instead, like a petulant child, Pritzker awaits bailouts from the federal government.

For the most part, Pritzker’s political priorities have concerned the “social issues.” Working with the “Progressive” Caucus in Springfield, he followed through on his pledge to “make Illinois the most progressive state in the nation” for killing babies through abortion. He helped pass the mandate to indoctrinate young children through teaching positively about “LGBT” history in government schools (K-12). He helped pass an expansion of gambling and increased both gasoline taxes and the cost of doing business with a hike in the minimum wage.

Pritzker’s involvement in getting recreational marijuana passed in the state cannot be over-emphasized. This foolish policy will only exacerbates our current national/international health predicament, as marijuana consumption has been proven to suppress the immune system, leaving users more vulnerable to sickness. He did a great disservice to Illinois’ families, the healthcare system and first responders. BTW, who do you suppose will be paying for these unintended consequences of legal pot? Regarding the “stay-at-home” order, which has now been extended through April 30th, why are abortuaries, liquor and pot stores considered “essential businesses”?

In all of this, Christians should not forget the centrality of prayer and worship to the only One who can heal our land of the myriad forms of suffering people are experiencing. We owe Jehovah-Rapha (i.e., the God who heals) all of our love and devotion (Psalm 41:3). It is imperative to acknowledge that “that the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind …” and to recognize that He works in miraculous ways through doctors, nurses and medicine.

Let us not be like the insolent King Nebuchadnezzar who foolishly took credit for building up Babylon the Great. Instead, it is far wiser to humbly and with great lament seek God in worship, praying fervently for His merciful hand of healing and restoration (See Daniel 4:28-37).

Take ACTION: Click HERE to send a message to Gov. Pritzker to ask him respectfully to stop using this national crisis to divide the American people. Ask him to stop grandstanding and instead focus on responsible policies that will shore up our foundation. These priorities have been neglected for far too long, and it is past time that we address them instead of focusing on petty politics.

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

Mandated Vaccines & the “LGBTQ” Agenda

A troubling trend is occurring in Illinois. It has happened mostly in the background but has become visible with the introduction of two new proposed laws concerning vaccines. If these proposed laws were to take effect, vaccines would be mandated by the state without religious exception. In addition, these bills apply to public and private schools, including Christian private schools and homeschools. Especially egregious would be the mandate for children to receive the HPV vaccine, a vaccine to protect a person from a sexually transmitted disease. Furthermore, and perhaps even more shocking, if this legislation passes, 14-year-olds will be able to receive vaccines without parental consent.

This isn’t the only erosion of parental rights in Illinois. “Progressives” in the Illinois legislature are also seeking to “teach” our children their “good news” on sex. Desiring to mandate a new curriculum on sex and sexuality through two new sex ed bills, there is a concerted push to normalize behaviors and a worldview starting in kindergarten that is anti-Christian. This includes teaching that novel “gender expressions,” pre-marital and non-marital sex, and non-monogamous heterosexual families are moral goods. If these bills become law, your kids will be indoctrinated with a new sexual ethic that is entirely different from that which has been taught for two millennia.

In Illinois, minors can receive an abortion without parental consent with only a judicial waiver. According to the ACLU, no judicial waiver has ever been denied.

If a minor enters into the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), the state will provide “gender transitioning” medical treatment, mental health “LGBTQ” advocacy, and placement in “affirming” households whether or not the parents agree. On their website, DCFS states that every child deserves these “rights,” and that these rights include children not in the DCFS system. For now, the law stops them from imposing their worldview on non-DCFS kids. Unless the state’s expansive powers are stopped, it’s not hard to imagine something that should scare all of us. We are on a trajectory where children will be removed from their parents because the parents will not embrace a child’s decisions on his sexuality or “gender identity.”

There are other examples, but these should suffice to show you what Illinois believes. In a new school guidance report that was ordered by Gov. JB Pritzker, the authors assert that schools have an obligation to act as a parent. DCFS also calls itself a parent, and the judge permitting an abortion without parental consent is acting as a parent. The state of Illinois believes it has a stronger claim to parent your child than you do, but the state of Illinois is wrong.

Biological parents are almost always better situated to parent than the state. In his essay “Of Paternal Power,” John Locke has written the strongest and most enduring Judeo-Christian argument for the preeminence of parental rights in modern society.

Parents have the freedom to raise their children as they see fit because this freedom is from nature and is not a right given by the state. Locke writes that parents have “a power over their children and have as much right to their subjection as those who are in the state of Nature.”

For Locke, Nature is the order of creation, and natural laws flow from this order. One of Nature’s laws is that the couple who births a child is a “temporary government” for that child. In other words, in the same way an adult is subject to civil authorities, a child is subject to his parents while he is a minor. The state of Illinois is usurping one of the most fundamental relationships in human society. Its intervention is about the indoctrination of children with a leftist worldview that stands diametrically opposed to a Judeo-Christian worldview. In a state that has more corruption than it does farmland, the last responsibility it should have is the right to indoctrinate our children.

According to Locke, this “temporary government” is built upon parental obligations. The parents have freedom in raising their child because at the end of the day it is their responsibility to do so. Locke writes,

The power, then, that parents have over their children arises from that duty which is incumbent on them, to take care of their offspring during the imperfect state of childhood. To inform the mind, and govern the actions of their yet ignorant nonage, till reason shall take its place and ease them of that trouble … .

This includes the healthcare and education of the child. As a parent, I do not want my children exposed to “LGBTQ” ideology that normalizes what our faith says is sin. Based on science and common sense, “gender” isn’t a personal opinion or a subjective feeling. I will raise my children as the “gender” that is expressed in their sex; this is based on my understanding of gender being a gift from God and a revelation of the image of God in humanity.

My children are vaccinated, but I find it deeply offensive that Illinois would mandate a drug to prevent a sexually transmitted disease. The mandate gives sexual license to my children that I deeply disagree with. These legal mandates are the height of hubris. We must not give away our obligation to parent to the state. If it’s not obvious, Illinois has no idea what it is doing.

In the most serious error of the Illinois parental state, the child is being given adult rights without parental oversight. In what world can a minor be expected to make informed, rational decisions on deeply complex moral and life-changing choices? Locke writes,

Commonwealths themselves take notice of, and allow that there is a time when men are to begin to act like free men, and therefore, till that time, require not oaths of fealty or allegiance, or other public owning of, or submission to, the government of their countries.

Children are not required to act as adults because they are not adults. Children need parents. This is because, according to Locke, they are in the period of “ignorant nonage.” Parents make the decisions “till reason shall take its place and ease them of that trouble.”

The idea that the state would empower kids to decide on invasive medical procedures or embrace novel sexual expressions reveals a society collectively jumping off a cliff. By the very fact of being a child, they lack mature rationality and the ability to understand the effects of decisions, and they have an underdeveloped moral system. When the state intervenes, it interjects its opinions on life, sexuality, and marriage that are radically contradictory to a Christian view of the world. Such interventions are outrageous.

Dear parents in Illinois, please take notice of what is happening. Call your state lawmakers and Governor Pritzker to stop the two pieces of legislation concerning vaccines and the sex education legislation. Then, it’s time to take back parental rights. Our children are our responsibility. Their future, their faith and their well-being are dependent on us pushing back the intrusions of the state. It’s time for parents to fight for our children. Right now, the state is fighting harder for them.

Take ACTION: Click HERE to send a message to your state senator and state representative to ask them to vote against these bills: SB 3788, HB 4870 and HB 5012. Impressionable students in public schools should not be exposed to body- and soul-destroying messages that promote leftist beliefs about sexuality.

THIS SATURDAY! IFI is hosting our annual Worldview Conference on March 7th at the Village Church of Barrington. This year’s conference is titled “Thinking Biblically About Our Corrosive Culture” and features Dr. Michael Brown and Dr. Rob Gagnon. For more information, please click HERE for a flyer or click the button below to register for the conference.

The 2020 session of the Illinois General Assembly is now underway in Springfield. Our state lawmakers are introducing new proposals, adding to the 6,000+ bills that were introduced in the first half of the session (2019). IFI’s top concern is stopping the effort to repeal the Parental Notice of Abortion Act. In a recent email, the anti-life Personal PAC told their supporters that their

key goals in 2020 will be repealing dangerous anti-choice legislation and safeguarding reproductive rights for future generations. With that in mind, in the next few months, Personal PAC will be focused on:

• Repealing the Parental Notice Act of Abortion (PNA) and
• Expanding the Illinois General Assembly’s pro-choice majority

Opposing this horrific agenda must be a prayer priority for all pro-life Christians in the state. It must also become a tier one call-to-action for us all. Our local state representatives, state senators and Governor J.B. Pritzker must hear from us loud and clear. They must come to understand that we will not remain silent as they work to usurp our God-given parental rights so they can pursue an agenda of death.

In addition to that, ethics reform is once again making headlines in the wake of multiple FBI corruption investigations and numerous indictments. Chicago’s ABC7 I-Team recently aired a report identifying Illinois “as the most corrupt state in America.” Political pundits speculate that there will be more indictments coming in the weeks and months ahead. As if that weren’t enough, Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan is at the center of a rape cover-up scandal that may have far reaching consequences.

We also have critically important primary campaigns going on now through election day, March 17th.

To say we have much to pray about is an understatement. Our state government is immersed in chaos and corruption. This is a reflection of the character of the men and women serving in Springfield over the past several decades. We are to pray for  all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness, (1 Timothy 2:1-2).

Please Pray:

• That God will open the eyes of policy-makers and candidates for office to the sanctity of life. Pray that they will become defenders of innocent human life and not enablers of sexual immorality and death.

• That state lawmakers will uphold parental rights and reject attempts to repeal the basic protection young women have in the Parental Notice of Abortion Act.

• That federal and state investigators will root out all corruption at the Capitol and among our legislators and that self-serving lawmakers will be replaced by honest and wise public servants.

• That in the 2020 election season, pro-life candidates will have the time, energy and funding needed to saturate their districts with their campaign messages and materials.

• That God will give wisdom and discernment to the honest public servants in Springfield who must work in the swamp of corruption and that they have courage to serve the Lord with fear and trembling and not shrink back from calling out every form of wickedness. (Psalms 2:10-11)

• That many godly counselors and advisers will surround our elected officials and that local pastors and Christian leaders will intentionally seek opportunities to visit and minister to these men and women. (Proverbs 11:14)

• That God will work in the hearts and minds of our state lawmakers and governor and that He will draw them to Him and His truth. (Proverbs 21:1-8)

• That God will work in the hearts of key federal officials, including President Donald Trump, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, U.S. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and U.S. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

• That efforts to indoctrinate children in government schools–especially the new law that mandates teaching about homosexuality and the “trans” ideology positively in government schools–will fail and that local school boards will reject this agenda for their students in kindergarten through 12th grade.

• That God will use the upcoming IFI Worldview Conference and April 25th Education Forum to help equip and challenge parents, grandparents and pastors.

Personal Prayer Request:

Last week, my wife and I were blessed with the birth of our son, Owen. He was born with Down Syndrome and has significant medical challenges. We learned that Owen had an imperforate anus and an AV canal defect in his heart. Owen had surgery on his second day of life and spent the next six days in the PICU. He is facing three additional surgeries in the next several months.

Owen has also been diagnosed with transient abnormal myelopoiesis (TAM). We were told that twenty percent of Downs Syndrome kids develop Leukemia but 80 percent outgrow it. Further blood tests will indicate more.

We would greatly appreciate if you would keep baby Owen in your prayers over the next several months. We praise God for the technology and science and the amazing medical team that has worked to save Owen’s life and help him overcome these health hurdles.

God is stretching the Smith family in new and exciting ways. We are walking in faith, trusting in God’s plan for Owen while trying not to rely not on our own (finite) understanding. I can honestly say that we cannot wait to see how God is going to use this boy in our family and beyond.

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According to a recent article in Forbes magazine, Illinois has the disconcerting distinction of being the top state for out-migration. That is, Illinoisans are leaving the state in record numbers. This is not a new trend. For 6 years in a row, Illinois has had a net population loss.

Is there a connection between the exit from Illinois and our high taxes, political corruption, pension debt, radical abortion expansion, “LGBT” indoctrination and many other foolish policies? We believe there is, and the 2017 taxpayer funding of abortion bill signed by Bruce Rauner is a component in the overall disgust people have with Illinois politics and its moral drift.

Last year, state lawmakers passed abortion expansion legislation (SB 25), and Governor JB Pritzker signed it into law. With this expansion, they opened the door to ending what little protection there is for young girls, a protection we fought long and hard for: Parental Notification of Abortion. This Illinois law requires abortion mills in Illinois to notify a parent or adult family member if a minor female (17 or younger) seeks an abortion, unless a judge gives a waiver. The family member does not have to give permission for the abortion, they simply must be notified 48 hours in advance of this dangerous medical or surgical procedure.

Please understand that the law does not require consent from the parents (or guardians) of these girls whose mental, physical, and spiritual well-being they deeply care about. Parents need only be notified. Now abortion cheerleaders want to repeal even that.

Repealing Parental Notice is a high priority for some left-wing groups. The Chicago Sun-Times published an op/ed in favor of repeal last year. The ACLU, Planned Parenthood, NARAL and even Equality Illinois are working to repeal this protection. Well-known political activist Terry Cosgrove, president of Personal PAC, told Illinois Playbook that the repeal is “the most important bill coming up.”

Personal PAC believes that “every woman has the absolute right to make her own decisions about her body, without government, spousal, parental or religious interference and without regard to her financial circumstances.” Personal PAC cares not at all about the bodies of humans in the womb.

Repealing the Parental Notice of Abortion law does nothing to protect the vulnerable young girls who fall prey to older men but will instead protect their abusers. This cannot be allowed to happen.

State Representative Brad Halbrook (R-Shelbyville) also believes that during this upcoming session, which begins on January 28th, lawmakers will push to repeal Parental Notification, while John Ryan, a pro-life advocate from the Illinois Federation for Right to Life suggests that pro-aborts may just amend the law instead of repealing it:

There have been suggestions that the pro-abortion legislators might not repeal parental notice but, rather, amend it to include a way around the parents that would completely gut the law.  One example of a bypass that has been proposed in Illinois and elsewhere would have the notice go to a clergy person.  However, if the abortion clinic had a pro-abortion minister who was a de facto chaplain for the clinic all that would be necessary would be that that minister keep a minimal record of each minor who advised him that they were going to have an abortion and provide some kind of statement or form to the minor or directly to the clinic.  If a legislator tries to suggest to you that any clergy bypass provision would stipulate that the clergy person would be known to the family or have existing organizational ties to either the young woman or to her family, ask them just how they would draft that language to effectively exclude clergy people who were not previously known to the family . . . . and the same for the young woman.

Abortion involves not merely serious health risks but the voluntary destruction of the life of another human being. Minor girls (and would-be mothers) need and deserve the input of those who love them most. Repealing Parental Notification isn’t about minors’ health and parental rights but about extremists’ obsession with an absolute, unfettered, and warped view of sexual freedom–at any age.

Whether the law is amended to notify clergy instead of parents or repealed entirely, these changes in legislation will harm young girls in the state. We must do what we can to preserve what little protection we currently have for minor girls and their parents or guardians.

Take ACTION: Click HERE to contact your state lawmakers. Let them know that gutting or repealing the Parental Notice of Abortion Act is unacceptable. Ask them to oppose any and all efforts to repeal or amend the law and instead uphold parental rights.

Please also make a couple of calls to reinforce your emails. The Capitol switchboard number is (217) 782-2000. Additionally, if you are able, please make an appointment to see your state representative and state senator in their district offices. Visiting them is the most effective approach.

A bold voice for pro-family values in Illinois!

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Written by Julia Reinthaler

On Monday, August 12, the Public Safety Committee and the Conservation, Planning and Zoning Committee of the Woodford County Board will debate the future of marijuana sales in Woodford County. Both committees will discuss the possibility of passing a county ordinance that would prohibit marijuana dispensaries and marijuana businesses throughout Woodford County. Although the licensed growth, sale, possession and use of marijuana will be legal in Illinois effective January 1, 2020, the legislation signed into law by Governor JB Pritzker allows villages, cities and counties to opt out of marijuana retail sales. This gives communities the opportunity to say “no” to the retail presence of a federally classified Schedule 1 Drug, which is a dangerous intoxicant that the DEA deems has “a high potential for abuse.”

Far from being an innocuous drug that the marijuana lobby portrays as safe and medicinal, marijuana has serious health risks that should alarm any parent and community.

According to a 2017 review from the National Academy of Medicine, cannabis use is likely to increase the risk of developing schizophrenia and other psychoses, and among regular users it is likely to increase the risk for developing social anxiety disorder.

According to a 2018 paper published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, people who used cannabis in 2001 were almost three times as likely to use opiates three years later. Another study, released in Australia, cited that patients with chronic pain who used cannabis experienced even greater pain over time, dispelling the myth that pot relieves pain better than other available medicines.

To understand the effects that marijuana legalization will ultimately have in Illinois, we need look no further than Colorado to see a cautionary tale of the unintended consequences of marijuana legalization. In the few years since marijuana was legalized in Colorado, the number of drivers involved in fatal crashes who tested positive for marijuana has doubled. There have been increased rates in marijuana-related emergency room visits, increased traffic deaths, and higher rates of violent crime. Devastatingly, more than a fourth of Colorado’s middle and high school students use pot more than once daily.

Knowing what we know about the tragic and often irreversible effects of marijuana, we cannot in good conscience permit a retailer to peddle a drug that robs so many youth of their future and compromises the safety of our citizenry. Instead of making Woodford County a haven for those seeking to purchase drugs, let’s make it a refuge for families seeking to shield their loved ones from this drug’s destructive path.

Monday’s committee meetings might lead to a vote that will shape the future of this debate.

Take ACTION: If possible, please attend these meetings and raise your voice in opposition to the sale of marijuana in Woodford County. The meeting details are as follows:

Public Safety Committee

Date: August 12, 2019
Time: 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Location: County Board Room
Address: 115 N Main Street, Eureka, IL 61530

Conservation, Planning, and Zoning Committee

Date: August 12, 2019
Time: 6:00 PM
Location: County Board Room
Address: 115 N Main Street, Eureka, IL 61530

More ACTION: Click HERE to send an email to all 15 Woodford County Board members asking them to protect the families of the county by passing a ban on the retail sales of marijuana.

Learn more about marijuana’s consequences at NoWeedIllinois.com.

A bold voice for pro-family values in Illinois!

Click HERE to learn about supporting IFI on a monthly basis.

Last month, on June 25th, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed legislation to approve so-called “recreational” marijuana for persons 21 years old and older. When this law (HB 1438 Senate Amendment 2) takes effect on January 1, 2020, it will allow the licensed growth, sales, possession and use of marijuana. The Land of Lincoln becomes the 11th state to legalize this dangerous intoxicant for recreational purposes.

The federal government still classifies marijuana as a schedule 1 drug, which means it remains illegal. According to the DEA website, “Schedule I drugs, substances, or chemicals are defined as drugs with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.”

There is, however, a way to mitigate the consequences of this destructive policy. The bill that was passed by the General Assembly and hastily signed into law by our governor allows villages, cities and counties to opt out of marijuana retail sales. If you do not want marijuana addicts and recreational users driving in and out of your community regularly to purchase drugs, this important option must be considered.

Take ACTION: Ask your local mayor, village trustees, aldermen and county board members to pass an ordinance prohibiting marijuana dispensaries and marijuana businesses in your community. The Village of Morton in central Illinois is the first municipality to pass such an ordinance. Their ordinance can serve as a template for other communities: Click HERE for this sample ordinance.

Once it is introduced, ask local pastors, local law enforcement officials, doctors, counselors, fire chief and emergency personnel, teachers, school administrators, activists and others in the community to write letters and speak at public hearings in support of a ban on marijuana sales. Cover this entire process in your prayers. Pray especially for the wisdom of local officials who must vote on this proposal.

Background

Today’s high potency marijuana is linked to increases in addiction, psychosis, schizophrenia and violence. States that have legalized it have seen an increase in emergency room visits, hospitalizations, poison control center calls and an increase in use in every age category, including youth. There has also been a dramatic increase in a condition called Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome.

As perceived risks are blunted by this law, we fully expect an increase in users, addicts, unqualified employee candidates, intoxicated drivers, work place accidents, disabilities, homelessness, mental illness and social welfare dependency. We expect to see marijuana use among people 25 and under—those whose brains are still developing and whose brains are most susceptible to the harms of marijuana use—dramatically increase.

Please take action to diminish the consequences of recreational marijuana in your community.

It is important to note that Gov. Pritzker worked diligently for this legislation, working with the Illinois Senate and Illinois House sponsors of this bill to secure it’s passage. NPR Illinois even highlighted the “Marijuana Moms” who led the charge: Illinois State Senators Heather Steans (D-Chicago) and Toi Hutchinson (D-Olympia Fields), and State Representatives Kelly Cassidy (D-Chicago) and Jehan Gordon-Booth (D-Peoria). How mothers of any political persuasion could promote this dangerous policy is baffling.

Furthermore, it is important to point out that six Republicans also supported this regressive policy to make our highways less safe and to enslave our neighbors to addiction and mental illness: Illinois State Senators Jason Barickman (Bloomington), Neil Anderson (Moline), Steve McClure (Jacksonville), and Illinois State Representatives Allen Skillicorn (Crystal Lake), Lindsay Parkhurst (Kankakee), and David Welter (Morris) voted in favor of this anti-family policy.

In their desperation to find a new revenue source to fix the financial mess they created (and/or to promote a so-called “social justice” antidote), these lawmakers failed sorely in their job to protect Illinois citizens.

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.

Euphemistic language is an essential tool of all efforts to promote evil as good. Watch anti-life, anti-woman, anti-human-rights “feminist” Sophie Lewis defend human slaughter through such absurd language-torturing that it would be comical if it weren’t serving such an evil end:

Lewis:

In the past the strategies that our side has tended to use have included a kind of ceding of ground to our enemies. We tend to say that abortion is, indeed, very bad, but we say, “Luckily it’s not killing, luckily it’s just a healthcare right.”

We have very little to lose at the moment when it comes to abortion, and I’m interested in winning radically. And I wonder if we could think about defending abortion as a right to stop doing gestational work.

Abortion is, in my opinion—and I recognize how controversial this is—a form of killing. It’ s a form of killing that we need to be able to defend. I am not interested in where a human life starts to exist…. The other end of the spectrum is learning to die well… and let each other go at the end of our lives as well as the beginning.

But looking at the biology of this kind of hemochorial placentation helps me think about the violence, that, innocently, a fetus metes out vis-a-vis a gestator. And that violence is an unacceptable violence for someone who does not want to do gestational work. The violence that the gestator metes out to essentially go on strike, or exit that workplace, is an acceptable violence.

Now that panicked, anti-life dogmatists can no longer deny that the product of conception between two humans is a human, they’ve shifted into rhetorical overdrive, saying, “Well, of course, it’s human, but it’s not a person,” the womb is a “work place,” pregnancy is “gestational work,” and  human gestation is “violence.” At least she admitted abortion kills.

But after acknowledging that abortion “is a form of killing,” Lewis shockingly admits to being completely uninterested in figuring out if the living thing being killed is a human life. In admitting such extraordinary incuriosity (especially for a scholar), she implicitly concedes that abortion may kill a human being. Only sociopaths have no qualms about killing innocent humans.

In addition to being morally flawed, her statement is nonsensical. It’s inarguable that the object growing in a woman’s womb is living because you can’t kill something that is non-living, and Lewis admitted abortion is killing.  And it’s inarguable that the product of conception between two humans is a human. Lewis knows that abortion kills, she knows that the thing abortion kills is alive, and she knows that the living thing abortion kills is a human.

“What the heck is ‘hemochorial placentation,’ you may be asking yourself, and how does it do “violence” to “gestators”? Defining it is easy-peasy. “Hemachorial placentation” is a $10 technical term that refers to the natural process by which a mother’s body sustains her developing offspring by bathing his or her chorion (outer layer of tissue enveloping the baby) in nutrient-rich blood (hemo) via the placenta (placentation).

Hemachorial placentation doesn’t mete out violence—innocently or otherwise—unless, of course, “violence” is redefined to include non-violent, natural processes. Lewis needs to redefine this natural process as violence in order to justify the actual violence mothers and their hired killers mete out to humans in the womb—humans that have no part in nor cause the alleged “violence” of “hemochorial placentation.”

Lewis, author of the book Full Surrogacy Now: Feminism Against Family, should be able to notice the difference between letting “each other go at the end of our lives” and voluntarily snuffing out others at the beginning of their lives.

As demonstrated by both the anti-woman Lewis and the moral empty shells at Governor JB Pritzker’s Kill-Babies-Bill celebration—shells held upright by a constant refilling of hot air and puffed-up pride—euphemisms are the stock-in-trade of every Leftist.

Recently, New York Times writer Alan Blinder (I kid you not) said this (I kid you not):

Louisiana lawmakers voted on Wednesday to ban [abortion] after the pulsing of what becomes the fetus’s heart can be detected…. The measure would require an ultrasound test for any woman seeking to terminate a pregnancy, and forbid abortion if the test detects embryonic pulsing.

Someone should drive a stake through the New York Times’ organ of pulsing and then through their embryonic organ of moral reasoning.

One mother’s embryonic moral reasoning is evident in a PBS documentary on abortion in which she is seen starting the chemical abortion of her twins. But first some euphemistic language from the abortionist who says, “This is the mifepristone that will stop the pregnancy from growing…”

A pregnancy (also known as gestation) doesn’t grow. Humans grow.

The doctor then explains that the second medication will help the mother’s body “push the pregnancy tissue out of her uterus.” She won’t even say fetus—let alone baby. I wonder, when she enters delivery rooms at the moment of delivery, does she say, “Okay, mom, push that pregnancy tissue out of your uterus.”

Finally, hear the empty and chilling words of the mother, spoken about and to the twins she’s  aborting:

What I hope I feel is a sense of peace, not only with myself and the decision that I’ve made but also of a sense of peace with these two beings that I’ve chosen not to bring into the world.

Thank you for choosing me. And I’m honored to be given this gift of life. And also, I can’t do it right now.

Can’t? Or Won’t?

Soul-sickening, dishonest rhetoric.

Listen to this article read by Laurie:

https://staging.illinoisfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Torturing-Language-to-Kill-Humans.mp3

A bold voice for pro-family values in Illinois!

Click HERE to learn about supporting IFI on a monthly basis.

It’s official. Illinois is the now the most pernicious state in the country. Governor Jay “Baby Butchery Booster” Pritzker signed into law the Kill-Babies-Bill—euphemistically named the Reproductive Health Act—which has nothing to do with reproducing and nothing to do with health. Instead it enshrines in law that the smallest, weakest, most vulnerable humans have no legal rights and that larger, stronger, arrogant people have an absolute right to kill them. Illinois is now the nation’s bloody altar on which babies are sacrificed to the god of Autonomy that America worships.

At an obscene press conference/celebration of his signing into law the Kill-Babies-Bill, Pritzker thanked Illinois’ most morally repugnant lawmakers (which is saying a LOT), State Rep. Kelly Cassidy (D-Chicago) and State Sen. Melinda Bush (D-Grayslake), along with Planned Parenthood, Personal PAC, and the ACLU of Illinois as “true champions” for “women’s reproductive health.” Oddly, Pritzker didn’t mention the female humans (aka girls) who will never grow into women because Cassidy, Pritzker, Bush, and their accomplices signed their death warrants.

Equally repugnant were the cheers and applause from the sycophantic crowd standing behind Butchery-Booster Pritzker. Lest anyone think the term “butchery” is hyperbolic, remember that he, Cassidy, and Bush are rejoicing over the legal right of women to off their full-term babies, which means injecting their hearts with digoxin to induce heart failure, or sucking out their brains and crushing their skulls, or dismembering them. Butchery is perhaps too genteel a term.

Pritzker, Cassidy, and Bush prefer calling butchery “health care.” But neither their deceitful use of euphemistic language nor, to quote Shakespeare, “all the water in the ocean” can wash the blood from their hands. Instead, their “hands will stain the seas scarlet, turning the green waters red.”

One of Pritzker’s many applause lines was “Abortion bans don’t ban abortion. They just endanger women.” Surely, he’s not that stupid. Abortion bans do, indeed, ban abortion. They don’t end it. And murder, theft, and sexual assault bans don’t end murder, theft, or sexual assaults. But legal bans on abortion would deter abortion and reduce the number of humans slaughtered in the womb.

In an embarrassing attempt to channel John F. Kennedy who in his famous inaugural address said “Let the word go forth from this time and place,” a prideful, presumptuous Pritzker proclaimed:

Let the word go forth today from this place, if you believe in standing up for women’s fundamental rights, Illinois is a beacon of hope in the heart of this nation.

Illinois has not for many decades been a beacon of hope for the heart of the nation. Whatever flickering light remained in Illinois has now been snuffed out by Pritzker, Cassidy, Bush et al just like the babies who will be. Illinois is now a human slaughterhouse at the heart of the nation. Illinois “progressives” have turned the Land of Lincoln into a fiscal and moral mess that Pritzker’s soaring plagiarized rhetoric only illuminates. (BTW, don’t pink-hatted, “nasty,” shouting women say men aren’t permitted to opine on abortion?)

Following Pritzker came the nemesis of decency and truth, Kelly Cassidy, who with no sense of irony but lots of fake-almost-tears, declared,

There is a war against women, a war on bodily autonomy, and our opponents are using hateful, untrue, and outright misogynist rhetoric which escalates daily and endangers women everywhere.

For the umpteenth time to a party increasingly at odds with both morality and science, when women become pregnant there are two bodies—not one. If the “right to bodily autonomy” (whatever that means) comes into direct conflict with another human’s right to live, it should be obvious to all that the right to live is a right of a higher moral order than the “right to bodily autonomy.” All other rights derive from and depend on the most basic right, the right to live.

It is Pritzker, Cassidy, and Bush who endanger the greatest number of humans—including female humans. By “1965, the number of deaths due to illegal abortion had fallen to just under 200,” and in “1972 (the year before abortion was federally legalized), a total of 24 women died from causes known to be associated with legal abortions, and 39 died as a result of known illegal abortions.” Compare those numbers of tragic accidental deaths to the intentional slaughter of 61,000,000 humans in the womb in the United States since 1973 or the 426, 492 humans killed in the womb so far in 2019—including 5,544 killings after 21 weeks gestation.

The Senate sponsor of the Kill-Babies-Bill, Melinda Bush, proved herself as foolish as Cassidy and Pritzker saying,

We believe that women should have the same autonomy over their bodies that men do.

Bush paused waiting for a beat for adulatory applause for that curious notion. No worries, her henchwomen/handmaidens picked up her cue and dutifully obliged, tepidly clapping for, I guess, men’s right to abortion.

I will close with these words from JKF’s inaugural address—words that Pritzker chose not to plagiarize:

[T]he same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe–the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God…. Let both sides join in creating a new endeavor, not a new balance of power, but a new world of law, where the strong are just and the weak secure…. ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice…. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God’s work must truly be our own.

Listen to this article read by Laurie:

https://staging.illinoisfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/AbortionCheers.mp3

IFI Banquet Speaker Announced!
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.

You must watch 8 gut-busting minutes of one floor “debate” that took place recently in the Springfield swamp. Then when you’ve caught your breath and dried those tears of laughter, take a moment to dash off a thank you to State Senator Dale Righter (R-Mattoon) for his exasperated and exquisite exposure of yet another exasperating and chuckleheaded bill sponsored and unfortunately passed by Springfield clowns.

The bill (HB 3394) amends the Business Corporation Act of 1983 in such a way as to try to force corporations to judge people by the color of their skin—or rather by the color of skin they wish they had—rather than the content of their character or their skills. HB 3394 blathers on about requiring publicly held domestic or foreign corporations with their principle executive offices located in Illinois to submit annual reports to the secretary of state identifying, among other things, the “self-identified” race, ethnicity, and “gender” of their board members.

The bill passed in the Illinois Senate by a vote of 38-16 and in the Illinois House by a vote of 105-0 (Say whaaat?).

Don’t look now, you pesky and peevish “trans”-cultists, but your incoherence is showing.

You see, in trying to slavishly suck up to the identity politics of science-denying “trans”-cultists, Springfield swampsters are undermining the identity politics of racialists and second wave feminists.

So, let’s look at what could happen if Governor JB Pritzker signs into law this silly, anti-business bill that seeks to force corporations to diversify their boards by using the self-identification of board members as black or female, rather than their objective race or sex: A 12-member racially colorless board that includes three white men who identify as black and Rachel Dolezal would be considered racially diverse, and a 12-member board of all biological males, six of whom “identify” as women, would be deemed sexually diverse.

So as not to spoil your fun, I’ll provide just a teaser from the video in which Senator Righter makes intellectual mincemeat of the legislative nonsense poor State Senator Christopher Belt (D-East St. Louis) was forced to defend:

Senator Righter: “[Amendment] subsection 4 regards members of the board who self-identify as a racial minority or ethnic minority. Now, I’m going to be completely honest with you. I didn’t know that you could self-identify as a member of a different ethnicity or race. So, my question for you is, in the instance where there is a corporate board that is all Caucasian, could half of them self-identify as minority and, therefore, receive a score as being diverse?”

Lol!

You’re going to have to watch the remaining 6 minutes to find out how this debate played out. Grab some popcorn and enjoy the show.

Cultural regressives in Springfield better get with the “LGBTQQAP” agitprop. “Gender” no longer refers to biological sex—or so, we’re told. Gender now refers to the arbitrary, socially constructed and imposed norms, roles, behaviors, and conventions associated with maleness and femaleness. So, demanding diverse “gender” representation means exactly what?

Maybe Humpty Dumpty can help answer that question:

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.” “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master—that’s all.”

Listen to this article read by Laurie:

https://staging.illinoisfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Dale_Righter.mp3

A bold voice for pro-family values in Illinois!

If you follow politics and public policy at all, you know well the saying, “elections have consequences.” Well, during this most recent General Assembly session (January-May), and especially the last two weeks, we have seen those consequences in spades, as super majorities in both the Illinois Senate and Illinois House passed far-reaching agenda items that can only be described extreme, duplicitous, and destructive.

The most wicked of these legislative proposals this session was the Reproductive Health Act (SB 25), the “Kill-Babies-Bill” proposal as Laurie Higgins termed it in a recent article. This bill, which, among other pernicious things, creates a fundamental “right” to abortion, redefines fetal viability, and expands the definition of “health of the patient.” It passed the Illinois House by a vote of 64-50 and the Illinois Senate by a vote of 34-20. Governor JB Pritzker is expected to sign it into law this summer.

The exploitation of children doesn’t stop with the push to eliminate them in utero. Those who survive regressives’ blood-lust agenda must now navigate the LGBTQIA+ minefield thanks to the LGBT History Mandate (HB 246). This proposal will mandate that all students in K-12 public schools be taught about the “roles and contributions” of homosexuals and opposite-sex impersonators and that textbooks purchased include discussions of the roles and contributions of homosexuals and opposite-sex impersonators. This legislation was passed in the Illinois Senate by a vote of 37-17 and in the Illinois House by a vote of 60-42. Governor JB Pritzker is expected to sign it into law this summer.

Then we have the push to legalize “recreational” marijuana (HB 1438), a policy against which left-leaning publications opined, include the Chicago Tribune, New York Times and New Yorker. For two years now, IFI has worked tenaciously to educate Illinois residents in every part of the state, with special forums, articles, videos, web conferences, radio interviews and through a variety of other social media postings. With the help of a few Republican lawmakers in each chamber, this legislation was passed in the Illinois Senate by a vote of 38-17 and in the Illinois House by a vote of 66-47. Governor JB Pritzker is expected to sign it into law this summer.

I would be remiss not to mention the anti-IFI resolution (HJR 55) that is still pending in Springfield. The sponsors have not withdrawn this indefensible motion that Springfield regressives would exploit to use the power of the government to quash our work, speech, and presence in Springfield. Their call to curtail our right to lobby at the Capitol and for the Illinois State Police to investigate us for “hate speech” is still hanging over our head and could be called for a vote anytime through January 2020 when the 101st General Assembly ends.

To say that this session has been frustrating is an understatement. The floor debates have been both laughable and discouraging. For example, State Representative Maurice West (D-Rockford) spoke on the House floor during debate on SB 25, self-identifying as a Christian minister to justify and advocate for baby slaughter.

There is a dearth of wisdom, common sense, courage, integrity, and compassion in the Illinois General Assembly. Hosea 4:6 laments, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge,” and 2 Timothy 4:3 warns that “the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires.” This toxic combination was on full display this month. There aren’t many serving in Springfield who are resolutely pro-family conservative in their political ideology and even fewer who hold to a biblical worldview.

After a season of a lot of hard work and prayer, it is easy to be discouraged by the outrageous politics of Illinois. We are well down the slippery slope. Where it will bottom out, no one knows. It appears that God has turned Illinois over to debased (depraved) thinking as Romans 1:28-32 predicts. In short, our state’s political leaders have not just forgotten God but are also arrogantly shaking their collective fists at Him. At the same time, far too many church leaders sit on the sidelines doing their very best to stay lukewarm. As a result, Illinois is under judgment.

At this point it is wise for us to take a deep breath, take a step back, and gain some perspective.

The Lord doesn’t call His servants to victory, but rather to faithfulness (1 Corinthians 4:2; Luke 16:10-12). We are called to do good works (Matthew 5:16; Ephesians 2:10). We are called to observe all of God’s commandments (John 14:15; 1 John 2:3) and to teach them to our children (Deuteronomy 6:7; Proverbs 22:6; Psalm 78:2-4) and to the nations (Matthew 28:19-20). And Jesus tells us that all of these things and more hang on the second great commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 22:36-40).

In the end, we must be mindful that many of our neighbors are oblivious to what Scripture teaches. They are captives of false ideologies (Luke 4:18; 2 Corinthians 10:5) and distracted by vain worldly pursuits (James 4:4). More importantly, we are called to keep our eyes on the prize (Philippians 3:14), not the storm around us. And we are instructed not to grow weary of doing good (Galatians 6:9) — even in the People’s Republic of Illinois.

We have a lot of work ahead of us. Establishing and reinforcing a biblical worldview in our families and in our churches is vital if we hope to help our own family members, let alone our neighbors, to navigate the culture in Illinois. The snares have been set out for us, our children, our grandchildren, and our neighbors. And with every legislative session, those snares are multiplying.

We remain resolved to work hard to educate and influence the hearts and minds of anyone who has ears to hear and eyes to see, for the sake of the King and His Kingdom. May His will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven.

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“There’s other ways to generate revenue, not on the backs of our kids and young adults who are going to be addicted and sucked into this.” So said State Representative Marty Moylan (D-Des Plaines), at a news conference that was held outside the Thompson Center earlier this month. Rep. Moylan is leading a bipartisan effort that opposes Illinois Governor JB Pritzker’s precipitous push to legalize recreational marijuana.

Please watch as Rep. Moylan voices concerns regarding aggressive commercialization, increased addiction, impact on neighborhoods, and compliance and oversight challenges. Parents and grandparents especially need to be aware of the negative effects legalized, high potency marijuana will impose on the children and youth of Illinois.

Take ACTION: Please click HERE to send a message to your state senator and state representative to urge them to reject the push for legal marijuana.

Additionally, PLEASE CALL your lawmakers to make sure they know that many people oppose this disastrous policy. Click HERE for their names and phone numbers, which you will find at the end of the state list. Please make the calls!

Watch more:

Please visit IFI YouTube channel and this video playlist dedicated to the opposition of marijuana legalization.

Read more:

Thinking Biblically About Recreational Marijuana

Medical Doctor from Peoria Opposes Legal Pot

ER Doc Says “Recreational” Pot Has Ruined My Town

IFI Resource Page on Marijuana

Former State Rep. Jeanne Ives Address Marijuana & Illinois’ Economic Crisis (podcast)

More info:

NoWeedIllinois.com

A bold voice for pro-family values in Illinois!

Click HERE to learn about supporting IFI on a monthly basis.

Pastor Gregory Livingston, interim pastor of New Hope Baptist Church on the west side of Chicago, is bold enough to speak the blunt truth (pun intended) about the “hopped-up super weed” that Governor JB Pritzker and the Democrats in Springfield are eager to legalize – or as Livingston states, “weaponized” against disadvantaged communities.

Please watch and listen as Pastor Livingston shines a light on the Pritzker family’s vested interest in the financial success of high potency pot in Illinois. He also dispels the popular myth that the marijuana industry will provide a means for minorities to become successful marijuana distributors and weed shop owners. As is so often the case, it’s really all about the money, and in this case, BIG money – not in tax revenue, but profits for the oligarchs who already have a seat at the high rollers’ table.

Take ACTION: Please click HERE to send a message to your state senator and state representative to urge them to reject the push for legal marijuana.

Additionally, PLEASE CALL your lawmakers to make sure they know that many people oppose this disastrous policy. Click HERE for their names and phone numbers, which you will find at the end of the state list. Please make the calls!

Watch more:

Please visit IFI YouTube channel and this playlist of 16 videos (and growing) dedicated to the opposition of marijuana legalization.

Read more:

Thinking Biblically About Recreational Marijuana

Medical Doctor from Peoria Opposes Legal Pot

ER Doc Says “Recreational” Pot Has Ruined My Town

IFI Resource Page on Marijuana

Former State Rep. Jeanne Ives Address Marijuana & Illinois’ Economic Crisis (podcast)

More info:

NoWeedIllinois.com

A bold voice for pro-family values in Illinois!

Click HERE to learn about supporting IFI on a monthly basis.

Illinois State lawmakers are entering into the last month of the 2019 Spring Session. They have much on their legislative agenda, including approving a budget for the next fiscal year, which begins on July 1st. The Illinois State Constitution requires that the regular legislative session end on May 31^st.

As you know, Illinois needs strong, honest and wise leadership now more than ever. Christians in the state of Illinois must commit to praying for our state leaders, their staff, and their family as they wrestle with the tough issues of the day. So, that is our call to you today.

Illinois is not only facing a $3.2 billion budget deficit but also a staggering $134 billion pension liability. To solve these problems, many of our political leaders are looking for additional streams of revenue instead of working to cut the incredible waste, bloat and unnecessary (or immoral) government programs like the millions of dollars going to pay for Medicaid abortions, expanded and approved by the previous governor and General Assembly.

To make matters worse, our state lawmakers are considering a number of proposals that would only exacerbate the anti-family environment in our state. Please pray through the following proposals, asking God to change the hearts and minds of our state lawmakers. We do this because we are fully convinced that “with God, all things are possible.” (Matt. 19:26, Mark 10:27) Please pray that all these bills fail:

• Abortion Expansion: the two extreme abortion bills that we alerted you to back in February have stalled. Praise God! However, Planned Parenthood and their allies are working overtime to jump start them.

• Legalized Marijuana: During his campaign, Gov. JB Pritzker promised to legalize recreational pot. Political pundits claim that Illinois’ FY 2020 budget desperately needs the millions of dollars in tax revenue from marijuana. However, reports from Colorado indicate that the costs far outweigh the new revenue source.

• LGBT History Mandate: HB 246 has already passed the Illinois House and is pending a vote in the Illinois Senate. This legislation will require that all students in K-12 public schools be taught about the “roles and contributions” of homosexuals and opposite-sex impersonators and that textbooks purchased include discussions of the roles and contributions of homosexuals and opposite-sex impersonators.

• Mandatory Kindergarten: SB 2075 has already passed the Illinois Senate and is pending in the Illinois House. This bill would lower the compulsory school age from 6 to 5 years of age, usurping parental rights on when to start formal education for their young children.

• Gambling Expansion: State lawmakers are betting on $200 million in revenue from licensing fees from legalized sports betting licenses. There is also a move to create more casinos in Illinois (e.g., Chicago and Rockford), to expand gambling to the Internet and on smart phones. Too many lawmakers think that this is a harmless way to supplement revenues. They don’t seem to understand how addictive gambling can be or that it has costs that could be as high as $3 to $7 for every $1 of revenue.

• More Taxes: According to the Chicago Tribune, Springfield lawmakers may consider other tax schemes to increase revenue to the state coffers: “The governor’s office wants at least $19 million from a statewide tax on plastic shopping bags, $55 million from an increase in the cigarette tax, $10 million from a new tax on e-cigarettes and $89 million from a higher tax on successful video gambling terminals.” They are also considering an increase in gasoline taxes by 19 to 25 cents per gallon. These taxes create an additional burden on working families.

• Please Pray for Springfield Leaders: Gov. JB Pritzker, Senate President John Cullerton (D-Chicago), Senate Minority Leader Bill Brady (R-Bloomington), House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) and House Minority Leader Jim Durkin (R-Burr Ridge).

Pray that the Lord would grant them wisdom and knowledge about the issues they must vote on this month. Pray that they would be bold to do what is right according to the Word of God. Pray that the good Lord would direct their hearts to do His will on earth, as it is in heaven.

By me kings reign,
And rulers decree justice.
~Proverbs 8:15~