I truly hope you had a great Christmas weekend and were able to enjoy quality time with family and friends as you celebrated the birthday of our Lord and Savior and His indescribable gift of eternal life.

You and I know that Jesus belongs at the center of our celebrations this time of year — and in the center of our families. Not everyone believes that though, and some are adamantly opposed to all that our faith means. That’s why Illinois Family Institute exists: to boldly bring biblical perspectives to the public square.

Right now we’re promoting our end-of-year matching challenge, believing that our subscribers will step up to partner with us as we charge ahead into the New Year. Every contribution between now and midnight on December 31st will be doubled — up to $80,000!

Please consider IFI in your year-end giving. Every donation — small, medium or large small — brings us closer to our goal. In addition, new monthly pledges will have the entire first-year amount doubled. I am hoping that you will be able to donate toward this goal by the December 31 deadline.

Your gift means IFI will hit the ground running in 2018. It’s a crucial year, and we’re “all in” to fight the Left’s agenda. Raising these important resources this month means we will be able engage in the battle of ideas and work to see Judeo-Christian principles championed in the public square. But we need your help.

You can make your tax-deductible, year-end donation here:

Please don’t miss this great opportunity to get us off to a great start in 2018!

Sincerely,

David E. Smith, Executive Director
Illinois Family Institute

P.S. Help us reach our goal of raising $80,000 to meet the challenge and raise a total of $160,000 for our work and ministry in 2018! Donate today! If you would like to become a monthly supporter, it is easy to set up a recurring contribution by credit card or electronic funds transfer by completing this mail-in form or by calling the office at (708) 781-9328.

To make a credit card donation over the phone, call the IFI office at (708) 781-9328. You can also send a gift to P.O. Box 876, Tinley Park, IL  60477.

Should a boy be able to use the girl’s restroom or locker room when he suffers from a recognized psychological medical condition called “gender dysphoria?”

For most people, the answer is a no-brainer. Twenty or even ten years ago, that question wouldn’t have merited discussion.

However, for well over a year, Illinois school districts have been debating this absurd matter. And they will likely continue to do so.

I’m convinced most Americans still have common sense and those who have “progressed” beyond common sense are still a small minority. Unfortunately, that small minority has the financial resources, and thus the ability, to dominate the culture and the airwaves until the conversation of the absurd is successfully sold as “progress.”

There is only one antidote to this confusion over what constitutes progress — and that is to provide the resources to those who are ready, willing, and able to combat the absurd with common sense.

An organization exists here in Illinois that has a team of veterans who know how to push back against the notion that a biological boy should be able to shower with biological girls in a public high school.

As someone who has worked with IFI on special projects over the years, I believe the Illinois Family Institute is that organization. IFI is well known and respected across the state. Dave Smith has served as its executive director for over a decade and has increased its influence and reach across Illinois. The work of IFI writers such as Laurie Higgins has received national attention. Media Affairs Director Monte Larrick is a media veteran, coming to IFI after many years working for Chicago-based Moody Radio. The IFI celebrates its 25^th anniversary in 2017.

The Illinois Family Institute needs your financial support today – and your continued support throughout next year. IFI is currently working on plans to improve and expand its outreach. The many millions of Illinoisans who support Judeo-Christian morality (otherwise called basic common sense) must be equipped with the tools to engage and win the cultural debates. The IFI team is up to that task – but they cannot succeed without your generous support.

Those dollars will help the Illinois Family Institute accomplish goals such as reaching more people with the basic fact that they are not alone and that common sense is alive and well. So many of our fellow Illinoisans (who are busy raising families and working one or more jobs or trying to build a business) read the headlines and despair. They fear that the Left will succeed in their attempts to ignore safety and common decency – even in places like high school locker rooms.

If you contribute before the end of this year, your gift will be doubled through a generous matching grant. All donations will be applied to a $55,000 matching grant until December 31st. If you give $25, it becomes $50; $50 becomes $100; $500 becomes $1000.

Conservatives in Illinois must take advantage of this opportunity!

While the state of Illinois budget battles dominate the news, other skirmishes just as important continue on without as much attention. With the necessary financial resources, the Illinois Family Institute can rally the voices of common sense and reach more people so that the notion of boys showering with girls can be returned to its rightful place: the absurd file.

There are many struggles currently underway in the Land of Lincoln – the battle to prevent taxpayer funded abortions, stopping the expansion of gambling, protecting our God-given rights of free speech and conscience. The Illinois Family Institute is the organization that is ready to fight and win on these battlefields.

Please donate today – and commit to continuing your support throughout the new year.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

John Biver
Aurora, Illinois

P.S. If you would like to discuss with me how your financial support can help the work of the Illinois Family Institute, please contact the IFI office at (708) 781-9328 and they will put me in touch with you.  You can also send a gift to:

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

I am pleased to announce that in an effort to help us raise $110,000 by the end of this month, a number of generous donors have offered to match donations to IFI all the way up to $55,000! So between now and the end of the year, you can double the impact of your giving!  

As we approach the end of 2016 and reflect on a year of challenges and rewards, I thank God for all his mercies and blessings. We have much to be grateful for.

Despite relentless attacks on the natural family, we know that God is at work in our lives, in our communities, and in his church. This year more than ever, I am grateful to have all of you as our partners in this fight.

Every year we face an onslaught from the Left: relentless attempts to maintain and fund the so-called “right” to destroy unborn lives; to erode conscience rights and religious liberty; to expand marijuana use and increase gambling locations; and to eliminate of gender distinctions–including drafting our daughters into military service, and sexually integrating restrooms and locker rooms.

The stakes in 2017 will remain high. The Left doesn’t give up on their godless worldview or walk away from the battle. They are already planning marches, forming coalitions, and devising strategies.  They are preparing to redouble their efforts to push their agenda in the media, through pop culture, in our government schools, and in our legislatures and courts.

If we can learn anything from the Left, it’s to be persistent, tenacious, and bold.

We should not give up! Will you stand with us in 2017 and double the impact of your donation today? Donate online today!

Please join us to make sure we can start next year strong by making a special tax-deductible gift before December 31st—every dollar up to $55,000 will be matched!

Next year, there will be tremendous opportunities for effecting positive cultural change. It is only through your support that we are able to work tirelessly to promote pro-family views. 

We must continue to stand up to the attacks on our inalienable, God-given parental rights and constitutionally protected rights of speech, religion, and freedom of assembly and association. 

The challenges facing Illinois are serious. Untangling the cultural mess created by politically correct humanists will be difficult. However, the Illinois Family Institute is committed to the mission to “boldly bring a biblical perspective to the public square.”

In 1516, lawyer, judge, and Christian martyr Thomas More wrote this in Utopia:

If you cannot pluck up bad ideas by the root…you must not therefore abandon the commonwealth. Don’t give up the ship in a storm because you cannot hold back the winds.

Four and a half centuries later in “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. echoed More’s reproach of political inaction:

More and more I feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co workers with God.

With your prayers and support, IFI will continue to speak unashamedly and unequivocally about the fundamental truths concerning life, marriage, faith, decency, and the natural family.

Illinois Family Institute is needed now more than ever.  We are your voice in the public square!  

Please DONATE ONLINE or call the IFI office
at (708) 781-9328 to support our work.

We appreciate all that you do, and ask for your continued prayers and participation. Thank you for your support! We look forward to partnering with you in 2017 to stand courageously and winsomely for the values we share.

May God bless you during this Advent and Christmas season.

Sincerely,

David E. Smith
Executive Director

P.S. Help us reach our goal of raising a total of $110,000 by the end of the month — Donate today! To make a credit card donation over the phone, call the IFI office at (708) 781-9328. You can also send a gift to:

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

“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”
~Luke 22:21-32

Things haven’t changed that much in the past 2000 years.  Jesus warned Simon Peter, and prayed for Simon Peter.  He could be saying it to me … or you.

It is very clear to me, we are being thrown into the air like grains of wheat.  As our culture’s reliance on Christianity and the Bible continues to weaken we can expect the intensity of the sifting to increase.  The cloud of lies, the chaff, will thicken.  But the grains of truth are there, settling out as the lies are blown away.

I need you to help IFI as we work to educate, warn, exhort and even chastise the body of Christ here in the great state of Illinois.  It is vital that we recognize Satan’s tactics and turn away from the lies he is trying to sell us.  We need to work together for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

As you know I’m trying to raise a total of $110,000 dollars this month for IFI.  Thankfully, a group of great supporters have issued a matching challenge of fifty-five thousand dollars to help reach our goal. But I need your help to reach our goal!

Email reminds me of chaff.  I’m throwing this message to almost twenty thousand of our subscribers, believing that there are enough “grains” to carry us to victory by the end of the month.

Will you be one of my donor “grains” right now?  It’s easy.  We’ve gone to great lengths to make our online donation functionality easy to use.  Click HERE to make a tax-deductible donation to this critical campaign right now.

We simply cannot do this without your participation!  Any amount brings us that much closer to our goal.

DONATE ONLINE or call the IFI office at (708) 781-9328.

Thank you for your support! We look forward to partnering with you in 2016 to speak and act courageously for the beliefs and values we share.

May God bless you and your family!

Sincerely,

David E. Smith
Executive Director

P.S. Help us reach our goal of raising a total of $110,000 by the end of the month – Donate today!  To make a credit card donation over the phone, call the IFI office at (708) 781-9328.  You can also send a gift to P.O. Box 88848, Carol Stream, IL  60188.