The second Defend Marriage Lobby Day of the year is less than two weeks away on Wednesday, October 23rd in Springfield.

Whether you’re able to come or not, we need you to contact your state legislator today.  If you are able to join us in Springfield, please let your legislators know that you’re coming and look forward to speaking with them about protecting marriage in Illinois.  If you’re unable to come, please send your legislator a message to protect marriage by clicking HERE.  Tell them that you wish you could attend and ask them to protect marriage. 

Your attendance could very well lead to the defeat of same-sex “marriage” this year.  Our adversaries have only six days this fall to accomplish their radical goals: October 22-24 and November 5-7.  We are holding our Defend Marriage Lobby Day on the second day of the veto session.

While it would not be prudent to publicize all of the information about the vote count on SB 10, I can say that I am encouraged.  A large turnout on October 23rd will make a huge difference and could derail the opposition’s efforts.  (Find a bus ride HERE).

Your efforts are already making a difference.  Stephanie Trussell of WLS radio interviewed me on Sunday afternoon.  Stephanie saw a bumper sticker on a supporter’s car and googled “Defend Marriage Lobby Day.”  This led to the phone call, and an opportunity to get the word out to tens of thousands of listeners.  Then yesterday afternoon, Joe Walsh from WIND radio had me on his program to help us get the word out.  

Thank you for your faithfulness and courage in standing for the truth. Keep getting the message out!

I am so excited to see how our grassroots efforts are making a difference.  You made it possible for us to sell out the IFI Fall Banquet that we held recently with Dr. Benjamin Carson.  Over 1,100 Illinoisans turned out to show their support for Christian values.  This event reminded me that, despite what media pundits want us to believe, protecting life, family, and freedom is a value shared by many, many citizens.

The Illinois Review published a comprehensive news story on the event.  They wrote:

Dr. Carson subtly compared what is happening in the White House to the teachings of Chicago native, Saul Alinsky, whose Rules for Radicals published in 1971 served as impassioned counsel to young radicals on how to effect constructive social change.  Never mentioned by name, but implied, was how the President had been schooled in Alinsky’s rules as a community activist in Chicago.  Prevalent among Alinsky’s rules being applied by the White House through its actions and policies: 1) if you push a negative hard enough it will gain traction and become a positive and 2) driving a wedge between people or groups of people will create class warfare and with it division and unrest.

The push for same-sex “marriage” is meant to divide people, and it is, of course, a negative.  Secular progressives know that if they push this negative hard enough it will eventually appear to be a positive.  They hate the God of Christianity and the Bible.

We must resist this scheme.  As Christians, it is our duty.  For the sake of our children and grandchildren, let’s make sure marriage revisionists go no further in advancing their effort to pervert the legal definition of marriage.  

You can help right now by contacting your legislator:

Take ACTION:  Send an email or fax to your state representative today.  Ask him/her to stand firmly and courageously against SB 10, and warn him/her not to be persuaded by the emotionally manipulative and intellectually hollow rhetoric of the homosexual lobby.

Illinois state lawmakers return to Springfield today for the first day of the lame duck Veto Session. 

Among the many pieces of legislation the legislature might take up is HB 30, which would legalize “medical” marijuana. 

Take ACTION:  Click HERE to email your state representative now and urge him/her to vote “NO” on HB 30. 

Facts about HB 30: 

• If passed, HB 30 would allow the creation of 59 “medical” marijuana stores throughout the state of Illinois – one for each state senate district. 

• If passed, HB 30 would conflict with federal and Illinois zero tolerance drug laws. 

• HB 30 allows for a qualified patient to get 2½ ounces of marijuana every 14 days (183 joints, 13 per day). Even the most experienced marijuana drug user smokes on average three to four joints a day, which would leave roughly 135 joints, or around 1.8 ounces. The patient could sell the 1.8 ounces of marijuana for $250 to $550. Diversion of medical marijuana would be a problem for schools and teachers. 

• HB 30 would permit a qualified medical marijuana patient to drive a school bus or a car 6 hours after consumption. Research shows that a single marijuana joint with a moderate level of THC can impair a person’s ability to drive for more than 24 hours. (Leirer et al, 1991) Marijuana impairs cognitive and psychomotor performance. It can slow reaction time, impair motor coordination, limit short-term memory, and make it difficult to concentrate and perform complex tasks. 

• One third (33%) of all drivers in the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) for which there were known drug test results were positive for one or more drug. Marijuana was the most frequently identified drug, accounting for 28% of drug positive drivers. (NHTSA 2010) 

• Each year, two-thirds of new marijuana users are under the age of 18. One in six of these adolescents will go on to develop marijuana use or dependence. (SAMSHA, 2010; Hall and Degenhardt, 2009) 

• Teens that start smoking marijuana regularly (20 times a month) before age 18 and are dependent show an average IQ decline of 8 points by age 38. (Persistent Cannabis User Show Neuropsychological Decline from Childhood to Midlife, Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study) 

• Colorado experienced an explosion in their medical marijuana industry and students were able to easily access marijuana from the increased number of registered users. Since 2009, public school suspensions for drug violations increased 45 percent, expulsions for drug violations increased 35 percent, and referrals to law enforcement increased 17 percent. 

Time is short. Please call your legislator now and urge him or her to oppose HB 30.  It will only take a minute, so please take action now. Then share this alert with your friends and family in Illinois so that they, too, can ask their representatives to stand against anti-family policies like HB 30. 

Thank you!

Stand With Us

Your support of our work and ministry is always much needed and greatly appreciated. Your promotion of our emails on Facebook, Twitter, your own email network, and prayer for financial support is a huge part of our success in being a strong voice for the pro-life, pro-marriage and pro-family message here in the Land of Lincoln.  Please consider standing with us.

Click here to support Illinois Family Institute (IFI). Contributions to IFI are tax-deductible and support our educational efforts and lobbying efforts.

Click here to support Illinois Family Action (IFA). Contributions to IFA are not tax-deductible but give us the most flexibility in engaging critical legislative and political issues.

You can also send a gift to P.O. Box 88848, Carol Stream, IL  60188.

Marijuana is one of the most hotly debated drugs of our time.  According t an important report by Kevin Sabet, PhD, Policy Consultant and Assistant Professor, University of Florida, we can say with some certainty that marijuana use is significantly linked with addiction, heart and lung complications, mental illness, car crashes, IQ loss and poor school outcomes, poor quality of life outcomes and poor job performance.  Please read and print a copy of “Just the Facts:  Marijuana and Health.”   

The upcoming election is very important.  All State Representative and Senate districts will be on the Nov ember ballot.  There will be many opportunities to talk with the current Legislators and their opponents prior to the November 6 election as they are out campaigning and asking for your vote. 

Legislators will be back in Springfield on November 27-30 and December 4-6 for the Veto Session.   Those Legislators who are not running for office and those who lose in the election can still vote until January 9, 2013.  Those “Lame Duck” Legislators are more likely to cast votes on controversial legislation, such as HB 30, which legalizes marijuana as medicine.  The bill could be called for a vote very quickly, so it’s important to talk to the state legislators who represent you and the candidates running against them BEFORE the election.

Take ACTION:  Click HERE to contact your state lawmakers to ask them to oppose legalizing “medical” marijuana in the Land of Lincoln. 

During the first half of the Illinois Veto Session in Springfield (Nov. 16-18), IFI’s two lobbyists and I spoke to dozens of lawmakers about the ramifications of passing same-sex “civil unions” legislation (SB 1716) in Illinois. Many lawmakers are unaware that section 10 of this bill states that any partner in a civil union shall be legally considered a “spouse” and “family.” It isn’t just conjecture to say that the proponents of this bill are trying to redefine the very meaning of marriage and family.

To make matters worse, too many lawmakers do not realize that if passed, this legislation will open the floodgates to discrimination and civil rights lawsuits. Religious liberty and freedom of conscience willdiminish for conservatives in Illinois.

Lawmakers will be in Springfield for the second half of the Veto Session Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week (Nov. 29-Dec. 1). According to one pro-homosexual website, a vote on this bill may come as early as Tuesday, November 30th.

Take ACTION: Please call your State Representative during this time and ask him/her to vote “NO” on SB-1716 and to inform you of his/her decision before casting a vote. Simply call the Capitol switchboard at217-782-2000, tell the operator you need to find your state representative, and give the operator your zip code. You should be transferred to his/her Springfield office via the switchboard immediately.

The Left is engaged in a full court press. Governor Patrick Quinn, Comptroller-elect Judy Baar Topinka, House Speaker Mike Madigan, Attorney General Lisa Madigan, and Chicago Mayoral candidates Rahm Emmanuel and Carol Moseley Braun are all lobbying state legislators for this extreme anti-family bill. They need 60 votes to pass this bill in the Illinois House, and they are working hard to achieving that number.

That is why they must hear from us today! Grassroots Illinoisans must be heard on this issue. Voters in 31 states have rejected the redefinition of marriage and family at the ballot box. The people in Illinois are no different.

Thankfully, Cardinal Francis George and the Catholic Conference of Illinois issued a strong statement in a press release last week saying that “the public understanding of marriage will be negatively affected by passage of a bill that ignores the natural fact that sexual complementarity is at the core of marriage.”

Background

A recent e-mail from Penny Pullen, a former state lawmaker and current state president of Eagle Forum of Illinois, warned that the passage of a civil unions bill would result in the following:

• Civil union legislation would force employers to grant registered same-sex cohabiters the benefits currently provided for spouses of married employees.
• Such legislation undermines the unique position which marriage holds in our society as the foundation of the family.
• It also will cost taxpayers to add unrelated persons to health insurance coverage for public employees and as dependents under workers compensation benefits.
• And it will force employee benefit costs to rise in the private sector.
• Additionally, based on experience with the impact of such legislation in other states, this corruption of Illinois’s official treatment of marriage will likely lead to mandates on schools to teach quasi-spousal relationships as equivalent to marriage.SB-1716 is a jobs killer and an added burden for taxpayers. It will negatively affect our state’s moral climate and our children’s understanding of the family.

Equality Illinois, the state’s full-time pro-homosexual lobby and political group, lists the following organizations and unions as supporters of SB 1716:

• Access Living
• ACLU of Illinois
• Anti-Defamation League
• Advocacy Council for Human Rights, Bloomington
• Chicago Bar Association
• Chicago Coalition of Welcoming Churches
• Citizen Action Illinois
• Chicago Teachers Union
• Heartland Alliance for Human Needs and Human Rights
• Illinois Department of Human Rights
• Illinois Federation of Teachers
• Illinois Network of Centers for Independent Living
• Illinois Planned Parenthood Council
• Illinois State Bar Association
• National Association of Social Workers of Illinois
• Northwest Suburban Now
• People for the American Way
• Protestants for the Common Good
• Quad Cities for Diversity
• Service Employees International Union
• Unite Here, Local 1

Prayer Request

Finally, I am urgently seeking your prayer covering this week as we work to educate our lawmakers on the perils of this bill. I ask you to pray that we are able to connect with the key lawmakers that we’ve identified as “on the fence” and that the Lord would give us favor in their eyes. I ask you to pray that the Lord would give these lawmakers wisdom and understanding of how the passage of “civil unions” will lead to the weakening of the family and God’s institution of marriage.

Please pray that these lawmakers would recognize how this will undermine the foundation of our Judeo-Christian culture and harden the hearts of people to the Gospel message through the promotion of sexual behavior and a humanistic ideology that the Bible clearly identifies as sin. And pray that God would give them the courage to stand for truth.