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.

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-à-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.

Extraordinary Incuriosity

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.

Redefining Violence

What the heck is “hemochorial placentation,” you may be asking yourself, and how does it do “violence” to “gestators”? Defining it is easy-peasy. “Hemochorial 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).

Hemochorial 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.

Embryonic Moral Reasoning

As demonstrated by both the anti-woman Lewis and the morally empty shells at Illinois Governor J. B. 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.

Empty & Chilling Words

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.

This article was originally published by Salvo Magazine.

The Thomas More Society filed a complaint in federal court stating that both the state of New York and New York City are discriminating against pro-life advocates.

The complaint, which was filed Jan. 21, 2020 on behalf of Evergreen Association, Inc., accuses the State and City of New York of disregarding the charitable organization’s First Amendment rights. Evergreen operates maternal health and pregnancy centers under the names “Expectant Mother Care” and “EMC Frontline Pregnancy Centers.” The Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Chris Slattery, Director of EMC Frontline, described the discrimination: “We are all about saving the unborn lives threatened by abortion. Thus, we are all about offering alternatives to abortion. New York’s discriminatory laws undermine our charitable mission. How could we in good conscience hire someone who advocates abortion to encourage expectant mothers not to pursue that deadly route?”

According to a media release from the Thomas More Society, the complaint charges discrimination against pro-life organizations in the following ways:

• Violation of the right to association (First Amendment)
• Violation of due process (Fourteenth Amendment)
• Violation of free speech (First Amendment)

In a public radio program in Jan. 2014, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo denounced pro-life advocates as “extreme conservatives,” saying that “they have no place in the state of New York.” Despite repeated calls for him to apologize, the governor has refused. In the same pattern, the Thomas More Society states, “A recent string of New York attorney generals has sought to silence peaceful citizens offering abortion-bound women information on life-affirming alternatives.”

In remarks about the legislation, Thomas More Society Special Counsel Timothy Belz stated, “This is especially egregious when you consider that the law was packaged with other bills specifically designed to strip away any regulation of abortion. New York’s ‘Boss Bill’ was passed in tandem with the state’s Reproductive Health Act, which legalizes abortion until the birth of the child, and the Comprehensive Contraception Coverage Act, which requires health insurers to provide no-cost birth control, including abortifacient drugs, in their health plans.” In Illinois, the Reproductive Health Act (SB 25), passed by the General Assembly at the end of the spring 2020 session, also requires all employers in the state to provide no-cost birth control and abortions up to nine months in their health plans.

According to the Thomas More Society release, “The case challenges the constitutionality of New York’s so-called ‘Boss Bills,’ laws that make support of abortion a protected class in the employment nondiscrimination laws of both New York State and New York City, thus forbidding employers from making hiring and promotion decisions  based upon ‘reproductive health’ decisions of employees or applicants, including the decision to have or promote abortions. The laws pose existential threats to pro-life organizations because they impose debilitating fines and also provide for statutory damages.”

Belz explained, “These laws violate our client’s rights in multiple ways. Expectant Mother Care and EMC Frontline exist for the purpose of advocating for and providing desperate women with alternatives to abortion. Forcing them to hire someone who promotes abortion would completely undermine their mission.”

“It’s ludicrous,” said Belz, “and tramples all over Expectant Mother Care and EMC Frontline’s right of expressive association guaranteed by the First Amendment. These state and city laws also violate our client’s right to free speech and right to due process. Finally, the state’s failure to define ‘reproductive health decision making’ makes the laws unconstitutionally vague.”

The Thomas More Society is a not-for-profit law firm headquartered in Chicago and Omaha, dedicated to restoring respect in law for life, family, and religious liberty. 

To read the complaint visit https://www.thomasmoresociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Complaint-for-Declaratory-and-Injunctive-Relief-1-16-20.pdf.

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.

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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As you may know, our state lawmakers returned to the Capitol late Sunday afternoon to begin their last week of regular session, which is scheduled to end on Friday, May 31st. At 6:08 PM, SB 25 (House Amendment 1) was posted and then scheduled for a hearing at 7:08 PM. This proposal, sponsored by State Representative Kelly Cassidy (D-Chicago) is very similar to the extreme abortion expansion legislation filed by her earlier this year.

It should be noted that this bill was posted and scheduled in the absolute minimum amount of time required to be considered in the Illinois General Assembly and done on a Sunday night in the middle of Memorial Day weekend. Proponents were somehow prepared, however, with legal and medical witnesses to testify and a small group of melodramatic activists wearing handmaid costumes (see picture above) to boot.

State Rep. Tom Demmer (R-Dixon), Deputy Republican Leader and Minority Spokesmen for the Appropriations-Human Services Committee, pointed out at the outset of the hearing that “this bill, which is not an appropriations bill, was sent to an appropriations committee of the House. This bill does not make any appropriations for the state; it is a substantive bill. But it was sent to this committee.” His complaints fell on deaf ears.

For approximately two hours, the committee heard testimony from proponents and opponents, and the sponsor fielded questions from members of the committee. Unfortunately, Committee Chairperson Robyn Gabel (D-Evanston), cut questions short. To this point, State Representative Avery Bourne (R-Litchfield), strenuously complained that she had many more questions to ask about the legislation and pointed out that the committee process was the right place to do it. Yet, questions and answers were severely truncated.

You can watch the entire hearing on the IFI YouTube channel.

In the end, SB 25 was passed out of committee by a vote of 12-7 along party lines. It now moves to the Illinois House floor where it is already on 3rd reading (conveniently teed up) and could be called for a vote of the full Illinois House today or anytime this week.

PRAY: If you believe, as we do at IFI, that our “struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places,” then you recognize the centrality and indispensability of prayer in circumstances like this. Without a doubt, this is a spiritual battle and well beyond our human control. Frankly, given the makeup of the General Assembly, it looks impossible to stop this bill. But since we serve a God who specializes in doing the impossible, our prayers and petitions must flood His throne room with appeals for our pre-born neighbors throughout this week:

Pray that proponents of this destructive legislation would not be able garner the 60 votes needed to pass from the Illinois House to the Illinois Senate.

Pray that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and in both chambers would be troubled by the scope of this legislation.

Pray that lawmakers would understand that pre-born babies, just like their own children and grandchildren, are “fearfully and wonderfully made” in the image of God. Human beings are His crown jewel of creation as they are made in the image and likeness of God.

Pray that lawmakers would recognize that abortion extinguishes a human life with great potential.

Pray for Almighty God’s intervention in this situation in Springfield. Pray Psalm 108:12-13.

Take ACTION: If you are able to fast and pray today, please join me in doing so, yet we cannot stop there. We still must act by calling our state representative today to urge him/her to reject SB 25, the grotesquely misnamed “Reproductive Health Act.” Click HERE to find their contact information. Your state senator and state rep. are the last two on the page. Please call today! The Capitol switchboard number is (217) 782-2000.

You can also call Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) and respectfully appeal to his staff not to expand abortion or repeal parental notification through the passage of SB 25. Please call his Springfield office at (217) 782-5350.

You can (and should) also send an email your state lawmakers:

More ACTION:  Click HERE to send a message to your state senator, state representative and to Gov. JB Pritzker. Urge them to stop targeting innocent pre-born children and vulnerable women in Illinois. Ask them to vote against the grotesquely misnamed “Reproductive Health Act.”

P.S. We continue to watch for final action on other bills (among others): “recreational” marijuana (SB 7), the anti-IFI resolution (HJR 55), gambling expansion (HB 1260, HB 3308, and SB 516), and a plethora of other tax and fee increases. Pray that these bills fall short of the votes they need to pass.

A bold voice for pro-family values in Illinois!

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