Pastor Derek Buikema of Orland Park Christian Reformed Church recently interviewed Rod Dreher about his latest book, Live Not By Lies. Even though sales of this book have been excellent, Pastor Buikema notes that little attention has been given to the book by the mainstream press.

The heart of this excellent interview is a phenomenon we are seeing but don’t always want to acknowledge: we are living in a time of soft totalitarianism. Those who have been blessed to live in the USA all their lives are often not as quick to recognize this as those who have come from communist nations.

Dreher is not overexaggerating what we are facing but rather highlights the confluence of force displayed in media, education, government, and many businesses in our nation. In the Soviet Union, you dared not speak out against the government. In the USA today, businesses monitor employees to see if they are straying from the party line. College students who post flyers for conservative groups are called before Diversity Deans and asked to sign pre-written apologies. Is this the equivalent of the Gulag Archipelago? Of course not, but let’s not minimize or ignore what is taking place just because we don’t feel the pressure as acutely.

The great challenge is to not live by lies. We are called to faithfulness, truth, and love. Many Christians think this is simply niceness. But neither the prophets nor Jesus was nice, but rather loving in the true, biblical sense, speaking the truth even when it wasn’t popular. We must live according to objective truth. It is essential to do this in both words and actions.

We do best to consider the lives of those who have gone before us. Rev. 12:11 declares, “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.”

Many are willing to exchange liberty for comfort. Will we be guilty of doing the same or will we live with courage and hope despite what we may face?

Please watch this 35 minute video and please consider sharing it on your social media platforms:

Editor’s Note: The views and opinions expressed are those of Rod Dreher
and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Illinois Family Institute.

IFI was blessed to be able to interview Grove City College professor of biblical and religious studies and author of The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution Dr. Carl Trueman last fall when he was the keynote speaker at the annual Touchstone Conference held at Trinity International University in Deerfield, Illinois. His landmark book has been lauded by cultural critics from Rod Dreher to Ben Shapiro to Al Mohler.

IFI was blessed too by Derek Buikema, lead pastor at Orland Park Christian Reformed Church in Orland Park, Illinois who conducted the interview for us.

In this first four-minute segment, Pastor Buikema asks Prof. Trueman how America got to this place of cultural confusion and disorder. Trueman begins by examining the statement, “I’m a woman trapped in a man’s body,” which Prof. Trueman argues reveals how “feelings have been granted authority. … even over the evidence of our own bodies.” Prof. Trueman argues that both philosophical trends from 18th Century as well as contemporary sitcoms reinforce and propagate the belief that feelings define who we are.

In addition to intellectual trends, Prof. Trueman discusses “material” trends that have contributed to the ascendancy of instability, confusion, and chaos, over stability and order. Those trends include mobility and the manipulation of the human body.

IFI strongly recommends watching the interview with Prof. Trueman and forming small groups to study either The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self or its more concise and companion book Strange New World: How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution.

Illinois Family Institute (IFI) was blessed to be able to interview three Christian luminaries and astute cultural critics when they were in the Chicago area for the annual Touchstone Conference: Peter Leithart, Carl Trueman, and Rod Dreher.

Sincere thanks to Dr. Leithart, Dr. Trueman, and Mr. Dreher for generously sharing their time and wisdom. Thanks too to James M. Kushiner, writer and editor of Touchstone Magazine and Salvo Magazine, for making these interviews possible, and to Orland Park Christian Reformed Church Pastor Derek Buikema for conducting the interviews.

IFI is pleased to offer these interviews in short savory segments for your edification beginning with Peter Leithart, president of Theopolis Institute and teacher at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Dr. Leithart is a prolific writer who has authored many books and writes a regular column for First Things Magazine. He received an A.B. in English and History from Hillsdale College in 1981, and a Master of Arts in Religion and a Master of Theology from Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia in 1986 and 1987. In 1998 he received his Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge in England. He and his wife, Noel, have ten children and twelve grandchildren.

The first segment of the interview with Dr. Leithart is titled “How Are We Living in Apocalyptic Times?” Pastor Buikema begins by asking what Dr. Leithart means when he refers to “apocalyptic times.” Dr. Leithart explains how he uses that term and shows what “end times have looked like throughout the history of the church. He points to the “fraying of Christian civilization” in America and Europe as evidence that the world system in which we’ve been living is experiencing a “massive upheaval” that signals the end—an apocalypse—of one system, with another one soon to emerge.

For over half a century, theologically orthodox Christians in America have been woefully late and buckets of ducats short when it comes to cultural degradation. Most seem to have no ability to read portents, and they stubbornly refuse to heed the warning of those who do. And so, the suffering that inevitably results when societies deny truth increases.

The church in America is blessed both with cultural prophets to whom God has given the gift of understanding the implications of ideas and with the freedom to speak. Let’s hope and pray that the church heeds the warnings of one of our finest cultural critics, the prescient Rod Dreher, author of the book Live Not by Lies.

In a recent post titled, “Secret Activists Queering Evangelical Churches?” Dreher blogged about the “diabolical” scheme of “trans” activists to destroy the church from within and without simultaneously, using deception and abusing the law to do it.

He described “an extraordinary telephone conversation with a friend who is a senior state leader in a nationally prominent Evangelical denomination, one that skews conservative on LGBT issues” who told Dreher, “you need to know what the next front in the culture war is.” Dreher recounts the conversation:

My friend told me that pastors in five different churches in the southern region of his state reported at the conference the same phenomenon. They have had strangers come and join their congregations, and six months or so later, come out as transgender, and demand their rights as official members of the congregation. It has happened to so many of these churches, in the same period of time, that they believe it is part of a concerted effort to undermine those churches. … [T]here is serious concern among the denomination’s lawyers that these undercover trans activists have found a legal way to force these congregations to capitulate on trans issues, or face ruinous lawsuits.

After posting his article, Dreher received emails that he appended to his original piece, one of which was from an academic who explained “how their former research center actively recruited interns to go into churches posing as parishioners to spread gender ideology.” (Dreher used the pronoun “their” to conceal the sex of the academic–not to capitulate to “trans”-cultism.)

Another email emphasized the nature and scope of the persecution to which “trans” cultists and their “progressive” allies hope to subject conservative Christians:

Lengthy legal procedures can be financially ruinous and just sap people’s strength. How many times was the Colorado baker sued? Maybe a Bush/Trump appointee will throw such cases out, but an Obama/Biden judge? May very well allow the procedure to continue–that’s the persecution. How much money and resources do these churches and denominations have?

The case doesn’t have to win to put churches out of business, it just has to drag and take up resources. Secularists have thousands and thousands of lawyers on standby chomping at the bit for causes like this and there are millions if not billions in funds from wealthy liberals for such purposes. There are tons of secular attorneys, think tanks, and professors in various academic fields willing to throw everything including the kitchen sink at coming up with new BS arguments. But even if the arguments are BS, some attorney has to argue they are BS. And the time, money, and resources are on the side of the enemy even if the law is not.

Finally, I doubt winning the case would even be the primary objective. Closing the churches is. Making Christians live in fear. Chasing the members away. Making people afraid to identify with their churches or as Christians. You can bet MSNBC and their ilk will widely publicize any such cases. Will Chase Bank continue to let such a church put their money in? Or give them a loan?

https://www.jpmorganchase.com/news-stories/lgbt-2017

https://thehill.com/changing-america/respect/diversity-inclusion/534298-jpmorgan-chase-is-donating-5-million-to-these

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-plot-to-politicize-banking-11579046350

Hard to keep a church building going if you can’t have a bank account. Haven’t we already seen banks purge political undesirables already?

Then there are the members. The activists will no doubt identify and expose the members. To the public and probably their employers. Joe the auto mechanic might be fine, but the medical doctors? Attorneys? Engineers? The people who carry the financial burden of your church? What do you think their employers will do? These people will be subjected to public struggle sessions by the activists/media. If they say the wrong thing, they could find themselves unemployed. How many members will even need that to run away and hide? Just being known to the public as a bigot might be enough for many members to disassociate.

The members themselves need to be prepared for persecution.

In addition to being spiritually, emotionally, and intellectually prepared for persecution, Dreher urges churches to follow the recommendation of attorneys his friend has consulted:

[O]n the advice of lawyers, the congregations are rewriting their bylaws to protect themselves from this kind of sneak attack.

A religious liberty attorney who responded to Dreher’s post emphasized the urgent need of churches to make changes:

[E]very church absolutely must have updated their Statement of Faith and related bylaws for the post-Obergefell era. If churches do not have detailed, clear “theologies of the body” that are written down, they will be vulnerable. You cannot wait until you get sued or challenged to address the issue. Do it now.

Dreher too implores churches to make changes immediately:

If you are a leader in a traditional/conservative congregation, denomination, or Christian school, I strongly urge you to contact Alliance Defending Freedom and get information on how you can protect yourselves legally.

But Dreher doubts whether American evangelical churches will accept the new reality given their recent history of mistaken credulity, and so they will remain unprepared for the kind of persecution the church has experienced elsewhere:

[I]t seems that most American churches, and American Christians, prefer to console themselves with the idea that everything is going to be just fine if we keep doing what we have been doing, only with more heart. This … is dangerously naive.

Dreher’s friend similarly laments the failure of the evangelical church to respond properly to the “peril” it faces, telling Dreher,

that he is deeply discouraged about the future of traditional Christianity in his denomination and in his state, saying that the leadership in so many churches prefer to keep their heads buried in the ground, because they can’t emotionally accept the reality of what is happening.

Either out of ignorance or infernal political “strategery,” leftists, including leftists who identify as Christians, will mock Dreher’s spot-on post as absurd paranoia. Ignore their forked-tongue noise. Dreher is right.

Listen to this article read by Laurie:

https://staging.illinoisfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Rod-Dreher-Warns-Christians-About-LGBTQ-Assaults-on-Religious-Liberty.mp3

As Leftists unravel and incinerate the fabric of America, it’s helpful—unpleasant but helpful—to recall some of their now legendary acts of hypocrisy and deceit, including the widespread use of Newspeak. So, let’s start with that.

While claiming to have a corner on compassion and love, Leftists now refer to human beings by the soulless, utilitarian term “human infrastructure”—something to be used, manipulated, repaired, or destroyed and rebuilt in ways that better serve the omniscient and omnipotent among us. I guess we should count ourselves lucky that they are including the word “human’’—for now.

Leftists cheer for the acts alleged by Bob Woodward and Robert Costas in their book Peril to have been committed by General Mark Milley—acts that if true would be seditious and/or treasonous. Meanwhile, Democrats spent millions of taxpayer dollars to “investigate” alleged collusion with Russians by former President Trump even after they knew the story was false.

Leftists want hard-working Americans to pay for the food, housing, education, job-training, and medical expenses of 95,000 Afghan refugees. Meanwhile, the U.S. homeless population is over 580,000, of which 171,000 are in families and 37,000 are military veterans.

Leftists support falsified birth certificates and drivers’ licenses but oppose falsified vaccine passports.

Leftists shriek “our bodies, our choice” when it comes to destroying tiny bodies that are not theirs, while out of the other side of their mouths they hiss, “your body, our choice” when it comes to vaccines that have not been proven risk-free.

The ruling elite—including Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, San Francisco Mayor London Breed, and sexually profligate California Governor Gavin Newsom—infamously imposed restrictions on the deplorables that they themselves had no intention of submitting to.

Leftists said nothing when Kamala Harris proclaimed she would not get the vaccine if Trump said to get one, but they are howling indignantly because rapper Nicki Minaj suggested people should do their own research before getting a COVID-19 vaccination.

Leftists want to force Americans to be vaccinated or regularly tested for COVID-19, and the Biden administration is requiring all foreign nationals who come to the U.S. legally to provide proof of vaccination and a negative COVID-19 test within three days of leaving their country for the U.S. Meanwhile, the Biden administration has been allowing thousands of illegal immigrants to flood the country without proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test.

Leftists support the lawlessness of border criminals who flagrantly violate our immigration laws, and at the same time, they object to the efforts of ICE, the U.S. Border Patrol, and police to enforce laws that protect citizens.

Leftists shrieked about “kids in cages”—cages that the Obama administration built—and said nothing about plastic pods with children of color packed in like sardines.

Leftists claim to love multiculturalism and hate the imposition of “white” ideas on other cultures, but then they spend buckets of taxpayer ducats to impose controversial leftist sexuality dogma that was socially constructed by privileged whites in off-white towers on Middle Eastern and African cultures.

Leftists claim to be the party that cares about women, but then they sexually integrate women’s locker rooms, restrooms, shelters, prisons, and sports, and they support the slaughter of approximately 430,000 girls in the womb.

Leftists call conservatives “fascists,” while they—leftists—eagerly support the efforts of Big Tech, Big Business, and Big Government to ban books, censor speech, compel speech, bury news stories, and prevent journalists from fully informing the public of Biden’s corruption and humanitarian disasters.

Leftists claim to value diversity, tolerance, free speech, and critical thinking and then silence ideas they hate from being studied and discussed in publicly subsidized schools.

Leftists claim to care about persons of color and yet steadfastly deny them the right to choose where their children are educated.

Leftists claim to care about persons of color but continually pass policies and laws that incentivize the destruction of the nuclear family which has resulted in a plague of criminal activity, dysfunctional schools, dangerous neighborhoods, and government dependence among those communities where many persons of color live.

When pressed a few leftists muttered an anemic tut tut about the 630 violent insurrections by BLM and Antifa that caused over a billion dollars of damage to private property, resulted in 2,000 police injuries, and included the destruction of government property, and yet all leftists fake-fume endlessly about the Jan. 6 riot.

Leftists paid to have criminals who were arrested in the 2020 BLM/Antifa insurrections sprung from jail and yet say nothing when those arrested for participating in the Jan. 6 riot languish in jail for months on end.

Leftists couldn’t care less about Hunter Biden’s influence-peddling, his corrupt father’s lies about not knowing a thing about Hunter’s influence-peddling business, or about Eric Swalwell’s sexual dalliance with a Chinese spy, but they fake-fumed tirelessly about a “pee tape.”

Leftists pontificate on the importance of “transparency” while saying nothing when cellar-dweller Biden stayed barricaded in his fortress rather than campaigning and saying nothing when the few press conferences he holds are micro-crafted with precision to conceal his cognitive decline.

Leftists couldn’t care less about Biden’s memory failures and verbal gaffes, but boy, oh, boy did they object to Trump’s inartful rhetoric.

In 2006, just before she became the first female U.S. Speaker of the House of liars, Nancy Pelosi  said,

We’ll turn the most closed and corrupt Congress into the most open and honest Congress. … The only way you can make the change that needs to be made for our country—a new direction where we’re there for the many and not the few—is to drain the swamp.

Pelosi meant none of it.

Throughout Trump’s tenure, America learned just how thick, deep, and fetid the swamp has become. The sewage has leached out into all power centers: all departments of the vast governmental bureaucracy, legacy news media, social media behemoths, academia, and corporate America.

And now, you can’t work in America if you say you oppose the slaughter of humans in the womb. You can’t work in America if you refuse to use transpeak pronouns. You can’t work in America if you say homoerotic acts are immoral and the union of two people of the same sex is not—in reality—a marriage. You can’t work in America if you won’t get a COVID vaccine.

This is no longer America.

To borrow the title of Rod Dreher’s book: Live not by lies.

Listen to this article read by Laurie:

https://staging.illinoisfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Legendary-Hypocrisy-and-Deceit-of-Democrats.mp3

Previously we have featured a series of video excerpts, but, as promised, we are now pleased to present the entirety of Pastor Derek Buikema’s recent interview with Rod Dreher, senior editor at the American Conservative and author of The Benedict Option.

Mr. Dreher begins by stating that one purpose of a Christian is to transform the world with the truth of the gospel – but how can that be accomplished when so many people don’t know what the faith teaches and lack spiritual discipline?

Pastor Derek and Rod engage in an in-depth discussion of the Benedict Option, detailing what it is and what it is not. Rod promotes the need for a “strategic” (not cowardly) retreat from anti-Christian culture in order to prepare and be strengthened to endure the persecution we know we will face.

The conversation continues with encouragement for Christians and the Church to be politically engaged and willing to fight for religious liberty, and Rod and Pastor Derek examine the value of distinctly Christian communities and institutions, especially institutions of higher learning. Rod concludes the interview with a personal example concerning the appropriate expression of righteous anger.

Please watch and share on social media:

Written by John Stonestreet and Roberto Rivera

Many Christians, especially when it comes to LGBT-related issues, have bought into what might be called “the inevitability thesis.” Nearly everything in our culture has convinced them to assume that it is futile for anyone to resist their same-sex attractions. And, any attempt to help someone, especially young people, reduce their behaviors and attractions is just as futile, and probably even illegal. 

After all, many believe, legislatures have adopted and courts have upheld bans on such things. Pastors, youth pastors, Christian-school teachers, entire counseling degree programs at Christian colleges and seminaries, and plenty of parents have embraced the “inevitability thesis” when it comes to LGBT issues, and now refuse either to address these questions at all, or, if they do, they still refuse to counter the cultural consensus they assume has been settled.

A ruling last month from the 11^th Circuit court challenges the inevitability thesis. 

In 2017, the city of Boca Raton and the county of Palm Beach in Florida joined a growing list of jurisdictions that have adopted bans on “Sexual Orientation Change Efforts.” By ordinance, licensed professional counselors are prohibited from treating minors with the goal of “changing [their] sexual orientation or gender identity.” When Robert Otto and Julie Hamilton, two licensed counselors, challenged the ordinances in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, their chances of success seemed slim to none. After all, similar bans had already been challenged and upheld in the 9th and 3rd Circuit Courts. 

Judge Britt Grant of the 11th Circuit, however, sided with Otto and Hamilton. The counselors told the court that the ordinances “infringe on their constitutional right to speak freely with clients,” including those who have sought counseling because of “sincerely held religious beliefs conflicting with homosexuality.” Judge Grant found these free-speech restrictions of the ordinances to be “presumptively unconstitutional.” 

While Judge Grant acknowledged that the kind of therapy Otto and Hamilton practice to be “highly controversial,” which is why dozens of states and municipalities have banned it, the ordinances applied only “to particular speech because of the topic discussed or the idea or message expressed.” The First Amendment, Judge Grant clarified, “has no carveout for controversial speech.” Despite the government’s “legitimate authority to protect children,” speech, no matter how controversial, “cannot be suppressed solely to protect the young from ideas or images that a legislative body thinks unsuitable for them.”

 “If the [therapists’] perspective is not allowed here,” Grant concluded, “then the [government’s] perspective can be banned elsewhere.” In other words, what’s sauce for the goose could easily become sauce for the gander. Thus, speech should not be restricted merely because some people object to what is being said. 

Not only does Grant’s decision create what’s called “a conflict in the circuits,” making it all the more probable that the U.S. Supreme Court will have to consider the issue, there is an implicit lesson for anyone tempted by the inevitability thesis. After California and other jurisdictions passed laws restricting what counselors could discuss with their clients, many Christians and Christian institutions chose to conform to ideas and practices they knew to be wrong, so as not to put their licensure, accreditation, or some form of the state’s blessing, at risk. The pressure they felt was, of course, real, but they were mistaken to think there was no further legal recourse available. A similar mistake was made a couple years ago by a Christian adoption agency who had been told they had to place children with same-sex couples. A judge decided against the state in that case as well.

Of course, it’s not clear what decision a newly remade U.S. Supreme Court may return on any of these issues. That’s why the best advice in times like ours remains that given by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, advice we were all reminded of by Rod Dreher: We must not live by lies. While there may be no call for us to stand on every street corner or counter-protest every pride march, the greater challenge for every mom, dad, pastor, professor, youth pastor, or professional counselor, is never, ever to allow ourselves to say or go along with what is not true. Especially when it comes to what it means to be human.

This article was originally published at Breakpoint.org.

Written by Rod Dreher

Last year, I spoke to a Soviet-born scholar who teaches in an American public university. I’m using a quote from our discussion in my forthcoming (September) book, Live Not By Lies. This morning, she sent me this e-mail, which I reproduce here with her permission:

I know from your blog that the work on your new book is going well and I’m glad because, boy, it’s so needed. I’m observing some disturbing developments on my campus, and we are really not one of those wokester schools for spoiled brats one normally associates with this kind of thing.

This academic year I’ve had an opportunity to work with some early-career academics. These are newly-minted PhDs that are in their first year on the tenure-track. What’s really scary is that they sincerely believe all the woke dogma. Older people – those in their forties, fifties or sixties – might parrot the woke mantras because it’s what everybody in academia does and you have to survive. But the younger generation actually believes it all. Transwomen are women, black students fail calculus because there are no calc profs who “look like them,” ‘whiteness’ is the most oppressive thing in the world, the US is the most evil country in history, anybody who votes Republican is a racist, everybody who goes to church is a bigot but the hijab is deeply liberating. I gently mocked some of this stuff (like we normally do among older academics), and two of the younger academics in the group I supervise actually cried. Because they believe all this so deeply, and I’d even say fanatically, that they couldn’t comprehend why I wasn’t taking it seriously.

The fanatical glimmer in their eyes really scared me.

Back in the USSR in the 1970s and the 1980s nobody believed the dogma. People repeated the ideological mantras for cynical reasons, to get advanced in their careers or get food packages. Many did it to protect their kids. But nobody sincerely believed. That is what ultimately saved us. As soon as the regime weakened a bit, it was doomed because there were no sincere believers any more. Everybody who did take the dogma seriously belonged to the generation of my great-grandparents.

In the US, though, the generation of the fanatical believers is only now growing up and coming into its prime. We’ll have to wait until their grandkids grow up to see a generation that will be so fed up with the dogma that it will embrace freedom of thought and expression. But that’s a long way away in the future.

I’m mentoring a group of young scholars in the Humanities to help them do research, and I’m starting to hate this task. Young scholars almost without exception think that scholarship is entirely about repeating woke slogans completely uncritically. Again, this is different from the USSR where scholars peppered their writing with the slogans but always took great pride in trying to sneak in some real thinking and real analysis behind the required ideological drivel. Every Soviet scholar starting from the 1970s was a dissident at heart because everybody knew that the ideology was rotten.

All of this is sad and very scary. I never thought I’d experience anything worse, anything more intellectually stifling than the USSR of its last two decades of existence. But now I do see something worse.

The book you are writing is very important, and I hope that many people hear your message.

In Part V of Pastor Derek Buikema’s interview with Benedict Option author Rod Dreher, Pastor Derek asks what communities that seek to cultivate a deep and abiding faith within our increasingly anti-Christian culture will or should look like. Rod explains that there is no formula and that different cultural milieus will produce different kinds of communities. He shares what one such community looks like and looks forward to seeing what kinds of diverse communities will develop.

Watch: part 1, part 2, part 3 and/or part 4.

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.

In Part 4 of Pastor Derek Buikema’s interview with author Rod Dreher, they discuss the critical importance of Christians being involved in politics with Rod warning that while Christians may not be interested in politics, “Politics is interested in” Christians. He further warns that the growth of “LGBT rights can only come at the expense of religious liberty.”

Rod makes clear that enabling “the church to have the freedom to be the church is going to require us to engage in politics.” He emphasizes that as the “country is de-Christianized, we have to be prepared to fight for religious liberty.” Please take five minutes to watch this important video and share with others directly and via social media.

Watch: part 1, part 2, or part 3.

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.

In Part 3 of Pastor Derek Buikema’s compelling interview with author Rod Dreher, they discuss the difference between a cowardly retreat from culture and a “strategic retreat” intended to strengthen the faithful for the persecution that is coming to an increasingly anti-Christian world, including America.

Rod argues that Americans, who are “creatures of comfort, peace, and ease,” are not prepared for the suffering Christ has promised his followers will come. Pastor Derek and Rod discuss some of the reasons for the church’s ill-preparedness and what is necessary to instill in believers a willingness even to die for Christ.

Please watch and share on your social media platforms!

Watch: part 1 and part 2.

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 story of an innocent birthday cake that wasn’t and the expulsion of 15-year-old Kayla Kenney from Whitefield Academy, a private Christian school in Louisville, Kentucky, has been covered in multiple news outlets. Kenney’s mother, Kimberly Alford, took a photo of her daughter sitting in front of a specially designed rainbow-colored birthday cake, wearing a sweater adorned with rainbow stripes, and then posted it on Facebook. Shortly after the Facebook posting, the theologically orthodox Christian school notified the family that Kayla was expelled.

Here’s an excerpt from the Washington Post story:

Alford instructed a bakery to decorate a cake with colors that “pop,” [Alford] recalled. It just so happened that the cake’s rainbow motif mirrored the design on her daughter’s sweater. … Alford said she is aware that the rainbow-striped flag is a symbol of the LGBTQ community, but emphasized that her daughter’s matching rainbow cake and sweater were simply a coincidental aesthetic and not intended to mean anything more. … “Rainbows don’t mean you’re a certain gender or certain sex or sexuality,” Alford told The Washington Post, adding that she provided the school a receipt from the bakery listing the cake’s design as “assorted colors.”

“It just so happened” that the rainbow cake mirrored her daughter’s rainbow sweater as well as the symbol of the “LGBTQ” community? The rainbow cake and sweater “were simply a coincidental aesthetic and not intended to mean anything more”? A receipt from a bakery that identifies only what the cake decorator needed to know about decorating the cake provides proof of the motives of Kayla?

Someone really thinks Christians just fell off their proverbial turnip trucks while clinging with white knuckles to their guns and religion.

Louisville Courier Journal writer, Billy Kobin, who broke the incredible news story of a Christian school implementing its code of conduct policy, reported that Kenney’s mother “said her daughter is not gay and the cake was simply a fun treat.”

Well, that’s strange because, as author Rod Dreher reports on The American Conservative website, Kayla’s father Mark Kenney wrote this on his Facebook page, “My daughter got expelled from her church for being gay.”

The school responded to the secular press’ incomplete accounts:

Inaccurate media reports are circling stating that the student in question was expelled …  solely for a social media post. In fact, she has unfortunately violated our student code of conduct numerous times over the past two years. In the fall, we met with the student to give her a final chance to begin to adhere to our code of conduct. Unfortunately, she did not live up to the agreement, and therefore, has been expelled.

… All parents who enroll their children in our private school know up front that we ask the students to adhere to a lifestyle informed by our Christian beliefs.

The beliefs on which Whitefield’s code of conduct is based include explicit affirmation of theologically orthodox views of sexuality. Kayla and her parents knew the beliefs of the school and signed the code of conduct.

Dreher also reposted photos from Kayla’s Instagram account of Kayla dressed as a boy, taking a girl to a dance; a post from Oct. 16, 2019 in which Kayla announces, “Me coming out”; a post from months before her expulsion in which Kayla announces, “Me finally getting a GF [girlfriend]”; a photo of Kayla and a girl with the words, “But I was the one in her bed….”; and another photo of Kayla throwing her Bible in the clothes dryer.

While Kayla’s mom acknowledges that Kayla has had disciplinary issues, she misrepresented the nature and extent of those issues, and the mainstream press has been (not surprisingly) incurious about those issues. But Dreher reports the following:

When Alford says her daughter “is no angel,” and confirms that she has had “disciplinary issues,” she’s understating matters. My understanding is that Kayla Kenney had a long, specific list of repeated infractions — bullying, disrespecting teachers, vaping in school (as Alford acknowledges), and so forth. Part of what she has allegedly done is promoting LGBT consciousness in the school, including aggression on that front. I’m trying to be delicate here, but I can tell you that she has transgressed against other students on this front, to promote bisexuality. For example, she allegedly drew rainbows and wrote slogans like “bi pride” on other kids’ papers, and gave at least two different girls the impression that she was sexually harassing them.

The Chicago Tribune’s lifestyle expert and armchair theologian Heidi Stevens assures America “loudly and clearly,” that

If you identify as a Christian and you identify as gay, you don’t have to cleave off one part of yourself to remain true to the other.

How does she know this? She knows it because she consulted heretic John Pavlovitz whom she has long admired (not surprising) and about whom Stevens claims there is no one “better” to explain this heresy. Here’s Pavlovitz’s superior defense of heresy as cited by Stevens:

It’s ironic that someone would see the rainbow, which in the story of Noah was a symbol of God’s expansive love, and have that symbol become something they would weaponize. It just shows our complete lack of understanding of the heart of Jesus and what his teachings and what his life were trying to create in the world. A move like that gets cheap applause from others who want that same kind of vengeful religion. It’s the sort of easy win that people get when they exclude people, when they can try to claim some sort of moral high ground. It’s intoxicating. It makes people feel more spiritual. It’s short-hand religion without a deeper theology. If you don’t have a theology of empathy, there is not Jesus there. Even if you look at someone who is gay and you believe that’s not what God wants for people, Jesus encountered people throughout his ministry that would be doing things God wouldn’t want for them. And he always leaves them with more dignity than he found them.”

So many errors, so little time.

God’s rainbow has not been weaponized—well, at least not by Christians. Homosexuals have appropriated it, perverted it, and weaponized it against Christians.

The rainbow symbolized God’s promise not to again destroy the earth by a flood, which he had just done because of the sinfulness of man. It’s a reminder of God’s covenant with man and of his grace and mercy. God loves his creation and at the same time detests much that fallen humans feel, desire, believe, think, and do. God is loving, merciful, holy, and just. And Judgment Day is coming. He has told us in his Word that he will one day judge the world—not by water but by fire—and those whose names are not written in the Book of Life, will be cast into the “lake of fire” for eternity.

Those aren’t my words. They’re the words of the loving, empathetic, holy, and just God who Pavlovitz falsely claims to serve. (Stevens made clear that Pavlovitz doesn’t serve God: “Pavlovitz doesn’t believe being gay is a sin. He believes in and preaches radical inclusivity and believes Jesus did the same.”) God’s Word tells us what acts we must turn from or risk eternal separation from him. Homosexuality is one of those, so, no, you can’t be a Christ-follower and affirm homosexuality.

If Pavlovitz believes that theologically orthodox Christians applaud the expulsion of a troubled teen from a Christian school, desire vengeance against her, or feel “intoxicated” by such an expulsion, then he doesn’t know any theologically orthodox Christians. It appears the Whitefield Academy Administration tried for two years to avoid expulsion.

Why, when theologically orthodox Christians affirm the clear words of Scripture on homosexuality or marriage, are they guilty of “claiming the moral high ground,” but when Pavlovitz cites Scripture to condemn them, he’s not guilty of “claiming the moral high ground”?

I wonder if Pavlovitz believes those who affirm biblical prohibitions of consensual adult incest, polygamy, or bestiality are guilty of “claiming the moral high ground” and of “completely lacking understanding of the empathetic heart of Jesus”?

I wonder too what radical inclusivist Pavlovitz makes of this command from Jesus pertaining to exclusion:

If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. (Matthew 18:15-17)

Or this:

Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. (Matthew 7:13-14)

Or this:

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. (Matthew 7:21-23)

Or this:

 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6)

Or this from Paul:

But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. (1 Corinthians 5:11)

The biblical goal of excluding unrepentant sinners from the body of Christ is not to be mean but, rather, to prevent the intentional embrace of sin from infecting the body of Christ (“Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?  Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened.”) and to have this separation result ultimately in repentance and restoration of fellowship. It’s ironic that Pavlovitz would accuse others of lacking a “deeper theology” in that he rips Scripture out of context and ignores inconvenient passages.

Of course, Jesus encountered people throughout his ministry who “were doing things God didn’t want for them.” Those are the only kind of people who exist. I’m not sure what Pavlovitz means when he claims Jesus always left those people “with more dignity than he found them.” Jesus called sinners to repent and follow him. He told the woman caught in adultery “go, and from now on sin no more.” Jesus told the rich, young ruler that in order to follow him, the young ruler would have to give up all his riches and give them to the poor. Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” It appears that leaving sinners with “more dignity” entailed their repentance from sin. They couldn’t identify as Christians and identify with sin. Leaving people to wallow in or celebrate sin is not what Jesus did.

Kimberly Alford complained to ABC News that she “feels judged” and her daughter “feels judged.” Alford continued:

We teach our kids, “what would Jesus do?” What would he do here?

Christians should know the answer to that question. Christians are called to judge with righteous judgment. We are not permitted to judge the eternal status of others or to judge hypocritically. But we are to judge between right and wrong action and to express those judgments. Scripture commands Christians to “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.” How can we avoid participating in unfruitful works of darkness if we aren’t told what those are?

I doubt Alford really means Christians shouldn’t judge between right and wrong. I doubt she thinks that if Christians say bestiality is wrong, they’re committing an offense against God. What she’s saying is that she no longer accepts biblical teaching on homosexuality, and, therefore, no one else should either.

Regressives don’t object to private schools having rules of conduct that reflect moral beliefs. Nor do they object to private schools expelling students for violating rules of conduct. Regressives object to anyone holding the moral belief that homoerotic acts and relationships are immoral. Instead of trying to create the impression that this school expelled a teen for an innocently decorated cake, why don’t regressive news sites just be honest and say a teen was expelled for intentionally violating rules based on Scripture that leftists abhor.

Listen to this article read by Laurie:

https://staging.illinoisfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Media-Misrepresents-the-Story-of-Christian-School-That-Expelled-Student.mp3

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.

In Part 2 of Pastor Derek Buikema’s interview with author Rod Dreher, they discuss his book, The Benedict Option, which explores ways that Christians in our post-Christian societies can create communities in which a shared “basis for moral reasoning” can be fostered and in which Christians can “live out the faith” in ways that make it “resilient” and, thereby, help restore culture. Rod describes what the Benedict Option is and, equally important, what it isn’t. In such a time as this of radical and comprehensive moral, theological, and ideological chaos, Rod’s radical vision is both compelling and inspiring.

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.

IFI has a special treat for our readers. Recently, Derek Buikema, senior pastor of Orland Park Christian Reformed Church, interviewed Rod Dreher, senior editor at the American Conservative and author of The Benedict Option, when Rod spoke at the Touchstone Magazine Conference held annually at Trinity International University in Deerfield, Illinois.

Starting today, we will release the first in a series of short video excerpts from this informative, inspiring, and delightful interview and then will release the full uninterrupted video. In this first excerpt, Pastor Derek and Rod discuss the nature, importance, and cultural implications of a Christian worldview, and whether the church writ large has one. Enjoy!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Listen to this article read by Laurie:

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

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