IFI is richly blessed by the supportive, encouraging, wise, impassioned, and eloquent email messages and Facebook comments we receive. Yesterday, we received just such a message in response to the call-to-action article about State Representative Kelly Cassidy’s (D-Chicago) anti-identity-choice bill, which is formally titled “Conversion Therapy Prohibition Act.”

We think IFI subscribers would be equally blessed by reading what a practicing psychologist with over fifty years of experience thinks of the legislation that professional politician and pro-abortion/pro-homosexuality activist Kelly Cassidy has proposed.

With the author’s permission, his letter is published here:

This legislation is an outrageous intrusion into the rights of families. I cannot begin to expand on the extraordinary self-imposed stupidity of persons espousing such thinking. (I do not use the word “stupid” very often, but I can think of no more expressive, all-encompassing word than “stupid” to describe my disgust for such people.)

Their ignorance of human psycho-sexual development is abysmal. There is no such thing as a “gay” gene. There may, in some cases, be a pre-disposition to what is called “gay-ness” (although the word “gay” seems an absurd distortion of language, given the relentlessly depressing medical and psychological outcomes experienced by its full-time participants). But in most instances, the choice (it is a choice) of a “gay” lifestyle results from a combination of factors, not from a single, universally determinant gene, as much of the gay community disingenuously preaches.

To suggest that counseling, freely chosen as an aid to the choice of a non-“gay” lifestyle, is harmful says that no one has the God-given, constitutionally-protected freedom to choose his/her behavior and to accept responsibility for such behavior. Such prohibitive legislation is utterly unconscionable.

Those who support the denial of client-and-family rights might also wish to recall that similar legislation was passed during the 1930s in Germany and is also entirely in sync with the dictates of Shari’a law prompting the stoning of women and the whacking off of hands. The next step could well be the banning of Alcoholics Anonymous by heavy-drinking legislators or the banning of certain religious teachings about marriage by divorced lawmakers.

One is stunned by the crass and punitive measures which militant “gay” legislators engender and, worse, by the further blindness of their colleagues who promote the advance of injustice in the cause of a sickeningly intolerant political correctness. The dimensions of this debate are a good example of how politics has overcome science and how evidence is diminished in the face of pressure, especially among ruling members of the American Psychiatric Association who knew better but caved to the politically correct flow from the “gay” culture—pressure which has devastated both common sense and our collective wisdom

Daniel Boland, PhD.

If passed this bill would prohibit parents from accessing any counseling efforts for their minor children—including teenagers—that may involve facilitating the construction of an identity that does not affirm homoerotic feelings or gender confusion. This disastrously written, fascistic (i.e., oppressive or dictatorial) bill would prohibit such counseling even if, for example, a teenager desires to construct such an identity.

This draconian bill even mandates that if a licensed mental health provider in Illinois were just to refer a teen to a mental health provider in another state in which such counseling is legal, the Illinois mental health provider would be subject to professional discipline. So much for autonomy, choice, parental rights, religious liberty, and free speech.

TAKE ACTION: CLICK HERE to contact your local state representative and urge him/her to protect the rights of minors to seek help for their unwanted attractions.  Ask them to uphold parental rights. Request that they vote “NO” on HB 217.

You can also call the Illinois Capitol switchboard at (217) 782-2000 and leave a message for your state representative.

Fighting back: Click here to donate to the Illinois Family Institute!

Written by David Roach

In the wake of an interfaith Vatican conference on marriage two months ago, a coalition of Roman Catholics and evangelicals — including Southern Baptist Timothy George — has issued a statement calling the legalization of same-sex marriage “a graver threat” to society than either “easy acceptance of divorce” or “widespread cohabitation.”

“We must say, as clearly as possible, that same-sex unions, even when sanctioned by the state, are not marriages,” the statement, titled “The Two Shall Become One Flesh: Reclaiming Marriage,” says. “Christians who wish to remain faithful to the Scriptures and Christian tradition cannot embrace this falsification of reality, irrespective of its status in law.”

At least two additional Southern Baptists — Rick Warren and Daniel Akin — have endorsed the statement, which is slated to appear in the March 2015 issue of First Things, the journal’s editor Russell Reno told Baptist Press. A list of approximately 30 Christian leaders to endorse the statement may include other Southern Baptists when it is finalized, Reno said.

Warren is pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest Calif., and Akin is president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C.

The statement was written by a consortium of Catholics and Protestants known as Evangelicals and Catholics Together (ECT), which articulates views shared by Catholics and evangelicals on theology, social issues and public policy. ECT is an initiative of the Institute on Religion and Public Life, an organization founded in 1990 by Catholic social commentator Richard John Neuhaus. The statement will appear online and in print in mid-February.

George, dean of Samford University’s Beeson Divinity School and the only Southern Baptist listed as a member of ECT, said “The Two Shall Become One Flesh” represents three years of work by the group.

Catholics and evangelicals “continue to disagree on lots and lots of issues,” George told BP. “And the people who drafted this statement are well aware of those differences. We have not smudged them or pushed them under the rug.”

Still, the members of ETC “felt the complementarity of man and woman in marriage under God” was an issue on which evangelicals and Catholics could present a united witness, George said, adding, “We felt we had to speak out on this issue.”

Among the other members of ECT are Catholics Reno and George Weigel, distinguished senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, and Protestants Kevin Vanhoozer of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and Robert Gagnon of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. Gagnon is among the leading biblical scholars to challenge contemporary assertions that Scripture permits homosexual behavior.

“The Two Shall Become One Flesh” summarizes biblical teaching and historic Christian views on marriage, concluding, “Marriage is a unique and privileged sign of the union of Christ with his people and of God with his Creation — and it can only serve as that sign when a man and a woman are solemnly joined together in a permanent union.”

Despite the longstanding Christian consensus that marriage is only the union of one man and one woman, “marriage is in crisis throughout the Western world,” the statement says. Declining marriage rates, sexual promiscuity and the normalization of gay marriage all undermine the foundations of society, according to the statement.

But same-sex marriage represents a particularly pernicious threat, the statement says.

“The revolution in our marriage and family law, already well advanced, marches under the banners of freedom and equality. But these noble ideals are here gravely misapplied. When society systematically denies the difference between male and female in law and custom, our fundamental dignity is diminished, the image of God within us is obscured, unreality becomes legally established, and those who refuse to conform are regarded as irrational bigots,” the statement says.

While expressing regret for “injustices against those who experience same-sex attraction,” the statement says gay marriage “threatens the common good” and “distorts the Gospel.”

“Keeping in mind the obligation to speak the truth in love, we must find ways to distinguish true marriage from its distortion, and we must do so without abandoning the public square,” the statement says. “We owe our fellow citizens a socially engaged witness to the truth about marriage, which, with the family, is the unalterable foundation of a healthy, humane society.”

While Southern Baptist Convention President Ronnie Floyd affirmed the content of the statement, he told BP it would be rare for an SBC president to sign on behalf of the SBC a document produced by a group with which the convention has no formal relationship.

“I applaud the courage and clarity of this powerful statement on marriage,” Floyd told BP in written comments. “In a day when even religious leaders are caving in to the shifting sands of cultural change, it is refreshing to read such a well-reasoned essay on God’s original intention for marriage. I pray the Lord will use this to influence those who influence public policy. Our nation stands in desperate need of a spiritual awakening.”

Originally Published at BPNews.net.

Written by Matt Dietrich

The headline on a Daily Beast article Wednesday gives Illinois government way too much credit: “Illinois’ Absurd Fight to Block Medical Marijuana.”

That title implies a measure of organization that, unfortunately, doesn’t apply to anything about the state’s medical marijuana program since Gov. Pat Quinn signed it into law in August 2013.

A better headline might be, “Illinois’ Incompetence and Legacy of Corruption Blocks Medical Marijuana.”

When Quinn on Aug. 1, 2013, signed what officially is known as the Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Pilot Program Act  – an oxymoron given what would transpire over the next 17 months — he made Illinois the 23rd state with a medical marijuana law on its books. It capped years of effort by sufferers of numerous chronic diseases to persuade Illinois lawmakers that marijuana provided them relief where prescription drugs failed.

The program was a pilot, limited in scope and carefully crafted in a 200-page bill to ensure that Illinois would not follow the example of California, where infamously (or perhaps just famously) lax regulations make “medical” marijuana easy to obtain.

A press release from Quinn following the signing was emphatic in describing the scrutiny patients, producers and dispensers would face:

The new law enacts strict restrictions on the cultivation centers to ensure professional licensing, 24-hour surveillance and inventory control. There will be 22 cultivation centers – one for each State Police District. Each must comply with local zoning laws, and be located at least 2,500 feet from day care centers and schools.

The dispensing of medical cannabis will also be tightly regulated. Unlike some states, Illinois law will not permit patients or caregivers to cultivate cannabis. Eligible patients may purchase up to 2.5 ounces of cannabis every 14 days. There will be no more than 60 licensed dispensaries, which must comply with strict rules established by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation.

The law specifies 35 medical conditions for eligibility, such as muscular dystrophy, cancer, multiple sclerosis and HIV/AIDS. The prescribing physician and patient must have an established relationship. Minors and people with felony drug convictions or psychiatric conditions do not qualify. Patients may not be police officers, firefighters, probation officers or school bus drivers. Patients who drive while impaired by medical cannabis face the same penalties as those who drive while impaired by prescription drugs.

Quinn himself was effusive after putting his signature on the bill. From the same release:

“As Nelson Mandela once said, ‘Our human compassion binds us the one to the other – not in pity or patronizingly, but as human beings who have learnt how to turn our common suffering into hope for the future’,” Governor Quinn said. “Over the years, I’ve been moved by the brave patients and veterans who are fighting terrible illnesses. They need and deserve pain relief.”

“This new law will provide that relief and help eligible patients ease their suffering, while making sure Illinois has the nation’s strictest safeguards to prevent abuse.”

All that was left was to vet those who would cultivate and distribute medical marijuana to patients who qualified. Compared to getting this through the Legislature and signed into law, this should have been the easy part.

Yet 17 months after Quinn quoted Mandela, he slipped out of office without signing off on rules for growers and dispensers of medical marijuana. We never got an explanation why Quinn left this important bit of work undone, but now it’s landed in the lap of Gov. Bruce Rauner.

Quinn already had signed the medical marijuana bill by the time he and Rauner squared off in the 2014 gubernatorial election, so the issue of medical marijuana per se was not the subject of debate in the campaign. Rauner, however, was strongly critical of the licensing process that was under way. He said it lacked transparency and therefore was open to manipulation by those seeking to profit from the new law.

“If we’re going to have this process, we should do it open, transparent,” Rauner said in September 2014.

At his first press conference after becoming governor, Rauner reiterated his suspicion of the licensing process for growers and dispensers. He also said he was committed to seeing the law put into action.

“What we now need to do is get immersed in the process and learn exactly the status. How’s it been managed, how’s it been run and look at whether we need to change anything that’s occurred,” Rauner said. “I have a concern — I expressed my concern during the campaign — that it looked like some folks had left the administration, they were playing lobbying roles, they were working with some of their friends to get some of these contracts. I’m concerned about the process. I don’t think it’s been run well. We’ll have to assess the situation once we get inside…

“I want to enforce the laws of the state and that particular law is on the books. I want to make sure it’s managed and run properly.”

Given Illinois’ long history of pay-to-play politics, Rauner’s concern over the licensing process hardly is frivolous. Anytime a brand new industry enters the state — gambling comes to mind — those with inside knowledge of its regulatory infrastructure and its key government decision-makers have an advantage for getting in on the ground floor.

Again, Rauner never criticized the law itself; just the vetting process of those who want to profit from it. We may never get a full explanation of why, nearly a year-and-a-half after he signed this bill into law amid much fanfare, Quinn let the paperwork fall to his successor. Perhaps we’ll learn that Rauner’s initial suspicions were well-founded.

None of this will be any consolation to the 650 approved patients who thought relief was on the way in mid-2013.

Compassionate indeed.

Originally Published at RebootIllinois.com.

“When logic and proportion have fallen sloppy dead…”~ Grace Slick

A week ago, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to decide whether to impose same-sex faux-marriage on all 50 states. Judges have already imposed it on 25 states in contravention of the will of the people in those states.

Many on the political Left and Right are predicting that the U.S. Supreme Court will decide in June to impose same-sex “mirage” (hat tip to theologian Doug Wilson for that term) on the entire country despite the absurdity of finding anything in the Constitution that would require the legal recognition of homoerotic unions as “marriages.” Such a requirement exists only in the shadowy penumbras formed by the gaseous emanations emitted by the phantasmagorical imaginations of homosexual activists and their judicial accomplices.

It doesn’t take much in the way of augural ability to predict this outcome. You have one justice, Anthony Kennedy, issuing this mind-blowing statement about liberty in 1992: “At the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.”

Well, that was either Anthony Kennedy or Timothy Leary.

Inquiring minds would like to know how Kennedy reconciles this expansive mysterious definition of liberty with lawsuits against Christian business owners whom homosexuals seek to compel to produce a product they have never produced (e.g., cakes or floral arrangements for same-sex faux-marriages) and which violates their religious beliefs.

And it’s impossible to square such a definition of liberty with New York Times op-ed columnist Frank Bruni’s claim that “Baking a cake, arranging roses, running an inn: These aren’t religious acts….” Bruni is unwilling to allow orthodox Christians to define religious liberty in any way that the Left doesn’t like or that affects actions outside their pews, homes, and hearts.

In 1996, Kennedy ruled to overturn a Colorado law that prohibited establishing “sexual orientation” as a basis for a protected class. Such a law was, of course, rational in that “sexual orientation” is just a linguistic legerdemain used to render equivalent heterosexuality—which is constituted by objective criteria like anatomy and biology—and homosexuality—which is constituted solely by feelings and volitional acts. What other condition constituted solely by feelings and volitional acts is granted protected status?

In this case Kennedy wrote that such a law reflected a “bare desire to harm” and was motivated by nothing other than “animus.” Apparently the desire not to open the protected status floodgates to other groups whose “identities” are constituted by their feelings and volitional acts reflects a bare desire to harm such groups in Kennedy’s wonderland. Methinks a hookah-smoking caterpillar had given Kennedy the call.

Then in 2013 when Kennedy voted to overturn parts of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which had passed the House 342-67, passed the Senate 85-14, and had been signed into law by President Bill Clinton, Kennedy argued that the “essence” and “avowed purpose” of DOMA was “to impose a…stigma upon all who enter into same-sex marriages.”

In Kennedy’s befogged mind, no recognition of the natural procreative potential that inheres the union of a man and woman or of the needs and rights of children could possibly have factored into Congress’s decision to pass DOMA. No siree, it was just a pernicious desire on the parts of 427 Congresspersons and Bill Clinton to stigmatize homosexuals.

To aid in our divination of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision, let’s take a quick look at the out-of-court shenanigans of Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan. Ginsburg has officiated at two same-sex “weddings,” and Kagan has officiated at one. At Ginsburg’s first “wedding,” she said, “People who love each other and want to live together should be able to enjoy the blessings…in the marriage relationship.”

At least as illuminating is the statement Ginsburg made at the National Constitution Center about the increasing societal acceptance of pseudogamy (hat tip to Professor Anthony Esolen for that term): “So I see the genius of our Constitution, and of our society, is how much more embracive we have become than we were at the beginning.”

The slippery embracive slope

Perhaps Ginsburg hasn’t foreseen or doesn’t care where our marriage abolitionists the genius of our Constitution is leading us. Our embraciveness has far more embracing yet to do.

Polyamorists and polygamists will ramp up their demands that marriage be “expanded” to allow unions composed of more than two partners. Who is the government to tell them whom they can love? Why should their children have their family structures stigmatized? Why should binary unions receive benefits that plural unions are denied? What, other than animus, could motivate people to oppose plural unions? And how will the legalization of plural unions affect the marriages of couples—hetero or homo?

Next will come the brothers who too are in love. They can’t reproduce, so there’s no risk of birth defects, but even in the case of sibling lovers, the risk of birth defects is relatively small. Moreover, we don’t legally require genetic testing prior to marriage to determine if non-related couples are at high risk of passing on an inherited disease.  And genetic testing can always be done during pregnancy when there’s plenty of time to dispose of defective products of conception. Remember too that Justice Ginsburg has proclaimed from on high that people who love each other should be able to marry. Who are we to judge? If marriage has no inherent nature but rather is merely a social construct, we can reconstruct it in any way embracive sexual anarchists’ and judges’ hearts desire.

Effect on public schools

Once five judges impose same-sex marriage on every state, be prepared for public schools to be recruited into the unholy effort to indoctrinate children with Leftist beliefs about marriage. Once same-sex mirage is imposed on all states, government schools will be compelled to talk about it in glowing, biased terms from kindergarten on.

Parents (and future parents), if you have not yet made plans to exit public schools, the time to do so is now. Your job is not to help children who have the misfortune of being raised by homosexuals feel good about their unjust family structures. Your job is to protect your own child’s mind from  false ideas, to protect their hearts from loving wrongly, and to preserve their innocence.

C.S. Lewis, concerned about the relativism he saw promoted in schools, warns in is book on education, The Abolition of Man, that “Without the aid of trained emotions, the intellect is powerless against the animal organism….The head rules the belly through the chest—the seat…of emotions organized by trained habit into stable sentiments.”

“Progressives” have taken control of public education. They seek to organize the emotions of children by trained habit into stable but wrong sentiments. It is almost impossible to properly organize the emotions of children by trained habit into stable sentiments that reflect truth when they are in public schools for seven hours a day, 186 days a year, for 13 or more years.

In the aftermath of what should be an unthinkable cultural event, Christians can respond rightly or wrongly. To acquiesce or to persist in our cowardly passivity which has facilitated the degradation of marriage and injury to children would heap shame on travesty. Instead, Christians should dig their spines out of the closet, dust them off, and put them to good use. It is hoped they yet have chests that spines can support.

The Truth Project

First Annual IFI Worldview Conference
featuring Dr. Del Tackett
April 10-11, 2015

CLICK HERE for Details

Like a plastic Piggly Wiggly bag fluttering about in the alley, those untethered from God’s natural law are violently tossed to and fro by the gusting winds of moral relativism. Jenny Kutner is one such Piggly Wiggly bag. A 20-something assistant editor at Salon.com, she describes herself as “focusing on sex, gender and feminism.”

By “focusing on sex, gender and feminism,” and as you will soon see, this young “progressive” means to say that she spends her days rationalizing each and every conceivable form of sexual deviancy, as well as trying to otherwise deconstruct that which she and her fellow feminist travelers view as an artificially constructed culture of “heteronormativity” – the sinister brainchild of the evil-man-led global patriarchy (for those interested, we meet Tuesdays at noon at the Golden Corral on Wards Road). Along with a growing number of secular leftists, Kutner’s latest sexual taboo for de-stigmatization is incest.

Those of us defending the institution of legitimate marriage and fighting to preserve respect for sexual morality in our culture have long warned of the greasy slope made slippery by the advent of counterfeit “same-sex marriage.” If you artificially remove one requirement for marriage – in this case, the binary male-female prerequisite – then there is no justification, logically or legally, for not removing all requirements. If we yank one foundational brick from the marriage wall, then, as in the days of Jericho, the whole danged thing comes a-tumblin’. That is to say, in the wake of America’s burgeoning “gay marriage” tsunami, we can soon expect to dog-paddle the ensuing sewage of legalized polygamy, incestuous marriage and heaven-knows-what-else.

In her Jan. 15 piece headlined, “A woman describes her sexual relationship with her estranged father,” Kutner introduces us, via an earlier interview with the “Science of Us” website, to “an 18-year-old ‘from the Great Lakes region’ who has been in a serious relationship with her previously estranged father for two years.”

Daddy’s little girl, a self-identified bisexual who says she lost her virginity to her father at the age of 16, is planning a grand wedding with the old man. (Can you say mass confusion? “Are you family of the bride or the groom? Forget it. Sit wherever you want.”)

They later plan to settle down and have cross-eyed children of their own, thereby restocking the shallow gene pool from which Pops can later fish for his next victim.

Writes Kutner: “Genetic Sexual Attraction (GSA) is a term used to describe intense, almost obsessive romantic and sexual feelings that estranged relatives often feel for each other upon reunion – yes, I said ‘often.’ According to the Guardian, ’50 percent of reunions between siblings, or parents and offspring, separated at birth’ result in GSA – a much higher proportion than one might expect.”

Holy Oedipus complex, Batman! I guess absence really does make the heart grow fonder.

Calling Dr. Freud.

Set aside for a moment the bovine nature of this absurd assertion and pay special attention to Kutner’s application of the pseudo-scientific phrase: “Genetic Sexual Attraction (GSA).” This is a regular propagandist tool employed by the sexual anarchist left. They’ve become quite accomplished in the art of Orwellian Newspeak. To achieve the noble cause of unfettered sexual license, one must redefine the terms. In fact, one must recreate the terms.

Hence, male-on-male sodomy becomes “gay.” That which, heretofore, has been known as “child rape” shall, from henceforth, be called, “intergenerational romance.” He who was once identified as a “pedophile predator” shall, from now on, be referenced as a “minor-attracted person.” And, yes, the empirically pathological impulse of some sick pervert to schtupp his 16-year-old daughter shall, forevermore, be known as, “Genetic Sexual Attraction (GSA).”

Kutner continues: “The woman goes on to describe moving in with her father and his ex-partner (who is now their roommate), and how she must hide the relationship from her mother, who she says has not yet picked up on the fact that she and her dad are dating.”

Ah, the indifferent ease with which Kutner writes the words, “… she and her dad are dating.” This heartwarming story of love, romance and everlastingly damnable criminal reprobation “actually forces one to do some rigorous double-checking of one’s own beliefs,” she adds. “What the woman has to say about having children with her father, for instance, certainly forced me to consider my response carefully, given my own advocacy of reproductive freedom.”

And that’s what it all boils down to – that nebulous catch-all known as “reproductive freedom.” Libertine license. The left’s sacred “right” to have sex with, and/or to dismember alive in the womb, their own children. The freedom – between abortions, AIDS treatments, herpes outbreaks and Hep C shots – to otherwise copulate with whomever, or whatever, they so choose.

You know: “Equality.”

The Truth Project

First Annual IFI Worldview Conference
featuring Dr. Del Tackett
April 10-11, 2015

CLICK HERE for Details

Written by Walt Heyer

Should a person’s faith determine everyday actions such as where to shop and spend money? As the Christmas holiday approaches that question takes on a greater significance.

Nothing sends a message quite like money. It stands to reason then that where people of faith spend their money has the ability to send a powerful message to companies. Look no further than the attempt to destroy Chick-Fil-A for adhering to the religious convictions of its founder. Christians came out in massive numbers to support the beloved chicken chain and set a goal for single day and quarterly sales for the company. The planned “boycott” was a dismal failure.

The decision to patron or to boycott a company based on the views of the owner, or the organizations and legislation that company supports is near and dear to many people. In fact, an entire organization devoted solely to informing “faith driven consumers” was created for that purpose.

Faith Driven Consumer describes itself as:

“Faith Driven Consumers are Christians who choose to live out our faith in every arena of life – including the marketplace. We make daily decisions based on our biblical worldview and see everything we do in the context of stewardship. Our heartbeat is to give honor to God with every choice we make…. As Faith Driven Consumers, we choose to match our wallets to our worldview and support companies whose corporate actions are compatible with biblical faith. This is action every one of us can take, every day. And we can advocate for and grow faith-compatible businesses all over America.”

Many people have become concerned about spending their money at restaurants, businesses, and organizations that actively oppose their deeply held religious convictions. They seek to make informed decisions about where to spend their money in order to be good stewards of what God has blessed them with. No one can fault them for that.

But one area of life that is routinely overlooked is in the area of retirement and investment saving. This area of spending is rarely given any consideration and many of these “faith driven consumers” would be surprised at the unbiblical values being supported by their retirement and investment money.

Investment products like IRA’s, Bonds, and Mutual Funds are often stock-market based. Investors use an individual’s money to invest into a certain company with the hope of seeing a return. This is how many organizations and companies make money – by spending other people’s money. And this is how the investor makes money – by earning interest and dividends. But what you may not know is that the organizations and companies your financial advisor is investing your money into could very well be actively opposing your religious convictions.

What if your IRA is built on supporting abortion and euthanasia?

What if your mutual fund is built on investing in tobacco and gambling industries?

What if your stocks and bonds are advancing the pornography industry?

You may have never thought about how your retirement and investment money was being spent, but it might be a good idea to reconsider.

One resource that can help is The Timothy Plan. The Timothy Plan website describes the financial advisor organization as:

“Today, the Timothy Plan continues to be the leader in the Biblically Responsible Investing arena. It continues to launch new funds in response to changing economic and other conditions…In conjunction with their Kingdom mission and focus, Timothy Partners provides financial support to numerous ministries including those involved in human trafficking, defending of Christian liberties, and preserving the life of the unborn.” (Click here to learn more about the Timothy Plan.)

The Timothy Plan also publishes its annual “Hall of Shame.” This is a list of the top 30 corporations in America that support such unbiblical values as abortion, pornography, gambling, and homosexuality. The Timothy Plan does this as a service to the conscientious investor that would like to avoid supporting these unbiblical values with their investment dollars.

I know you can’t possibly know what every organization or business does with its money. Maybe the mom and pop diner down the road is supporting pornography and you’d never know it. Maybe that national chain is defending the unborn. The point isn’t necessarily to try and know what ever business in your town does with their money. The point is to be educated enough to make a faith based decision when needed.

For me, that means not going to Starbucks. They have openly and vocally support causes that I believe are unbiblical so I choose not to patron their establishment. What that means for you might be entirely different. But, one thing is for sure, Christians need to be more intentional about where we spend our money. Our money is being used to advance causes we do not support; let that sink in for a moment.

What can you do?

First, check out the resources in this article to see if you frequent any of the companies or organizations listed. If so, consider finding an alternative.

Second, talk with your financial advisor about what companies your investment dollars are supporting. If your money is supporting companies on the Timothy Plan’s “Hall of Shame,” talk with your advisor about removing them. It is your right to decide where your money goes and any financial advisor has the ability to add or remove a company from your mutual fund or bond fund.

Last, share this information with others so they too can be a “faith driven consumer” that seeks to be a good steward of the resources God has given.

I get it, we can’t avoid every company or organization. But that doesn’t mean we can’t be intentional about where we spend our money sometimes. It could make an eternal difference.

Help us reach our goal of raising a total of $80,000 by December 31st.

You can also send a gift by mail to:

Illinois Family Institute
P.O. Box 88848
Carol Stream, IL  60188

As the president of one of the largest homeless shelters in Chicago, Pastor Phil Kwiatkowski of the Pacific Garden Mission sees the effects of drug addiction everyday and questions the recent legislative push to legalize the “gateway drug,” marijuana. IFI’s Monte Larrick also spoke with two recovering drug addicts who share there experiences with marijuana and the devastating consequences it has had on there lives. Watch the video below:

Please consider how you can help IFI begin 2015 from a place of strength.

The State of Illinois Seizes Sick Child and Blocks Hospital Transfer

In today’s America the severing of sick children from their parents by the state has become so common it has a nickname “the Parentectomy.”

You may recall the highly publicized ordeal of the Pelletier family. Justina’s parents, Lou and Linda Pelletier, gained national attention and garnered public support when their very sick 14-year-old daughter, Justina, was taken by the state. Her parents were charged with “medical child abuse.” In other words, they disagreed with the diagnosis of a new doctor and wanted her transferred to another hospital.

It’s easy to dismiss the Pelletier case with “there must be more to the story.” Be careful with that thought. It is a defense mechanism that can lead to a false sense of security.

Michelle Rider explains it this way. “We are taught that hospitals are safe, that doctors are safe, and DCFS intervenes when intervention is needed. So when we accept the fact that this is really happening, we are accepting that we are not safe and our children are not safe.”

Sadly, these are the words of experience every parent needs to hear because it’s happening in Illinois. Michelle Rider, a 34 year-old single mother was charged with medical abuse for seeking a transfer to another hospital for her critically ill son.

Isaiah was born with the genetic condition neurofibromatosis type 1 also known as NF1, a condition that produces pain and tumors on his nerves, in his abdomen and on his spine. Isaiah has spent most of his life in and out of hospitals undergoing and recovering from surgeries. As a young teen he endured an amputation, with the hope the suffering would end.

Michelle, a registered nurse by profession, sought out a specialist to remove the tumors and found Dr. McKay McKinnon. Together they decided to travel from their home state of Missouri to Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago for the surgery.

During the surgery another medical issue returned. Isaiah’s leg, one that had been amputated the year before, began to convulse. In the past this had produced excruciating pain that lasted for weeks. The first time it happened he was transferred to Boston Children’s Hospital where they did manage to stop the pain, but failed to produce a diagnosis. This time around, a week into his stay at the Chicago hospital, he was admitted into ICU for pain management of the convulsive stump.

After two weeks of watching her son suffer, it was clear to Michelle that Isaiah’s doctors had no idea how to make the pain or the shaking stop. Nor did they understand what was causing it. Michelle requested a transfer to the only hospital that had any success relieving his pain. She wanted to take him back to Boston Children’s Hospital.

As Michelle readied herself to leave the Ronald McDonald House, where she was staying at night, Isaiah begged his mom by phone to hurry. Before she could board the transport shuttle to the hospital another call came. It was a social worker eager to know when she would arrive.

This same anxious agent of the state met Michelle at the hospital entrance. She was chipper and pleasant, making polite small talk and inquiring about Michelle’s night’s sleep. “I have someone that wants to meet with you,” she told Michelle. The social worker then went on to explain that the woman waiting to meet her was Dr. Zena Leah Harris, the director of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU).

Instead of going to Isaiah’s room as Michelle expected, this new doctor led her back into another area of the hospital. Not knowing what was going on, Dr. Harris and two social workers ushered Michelle into a small room with few chairs. Pushing pleasantries aside the doctor announced, “We’re taking your son for 48 hours.” Then Dr. Harris informed Michelle, “I will be making medical decisions for your son going forward.”

“I will never forget those words,” Michelle said. “They had the shuttle that had brought me, waiting for me to take me back to the Ronald McDonald House. They took my hospital band off of me and then they waited until I stopped crying before they took me back out into the lobby.”

The hospital had her evicted from the Ronald McDonald House. At that point, all communication with Boston Children’s Hospital ended. She was completely severed from her child’s care, and Isaiah from her protection, when he needed and wanted her the most. The state of Illinois, with the blessing of the hospital that was supposed to help them, isolated Isaiah from his family and left him to suffer alone in a strange city.

After 30 days in ICU at Lurie Children’s Hospital, they sent him to Maryville Children’s Hospital. It only took 48 hours before Maryville requested to send him back to Lurie. But Lurie refused and suggested he be sent to a shelter.

Not willing to discard the boy and not able to return him to his family to recover, Maryville held him for two weeks until DCFS sent into a foster home in the south side of Chicago. There, Isaiah has told his mother he was attacked, exposed to prostitution and held at gunpoint. The details of that traumatizing ordeal are just beginning to surface.

Although Isaiah is now in the custody of his grandparents, he remains in the clutches of the state of Illinois and is once again in a medical crisis with critical level pain. The involuntary violent shaking has returned.

Inside sources say that Cincinnati Children’s Hospital is willing and capable of helping Isaiah’s rare condition, however the state of Illinois is blocking the transfer to Cincinnati.

Instead, the state extradited him from his home state of Missouri against his will and that of his family and sent him back to Chicago, to the very hospital that took him from his mother, failed to help him, and cast him aside.

Today, a judge will decide whether he will be allowed to return home or be sentenced to suffer the ongoing medical neglect and abuse at the hands of DCFS.

“Isaiah is currently being held and isolated with an electronic bracelet while his mother is concerned that he’s being needlessly drugged in this incredible human rights violation,” explained Attorney Randy Kretchmar.

“The State’s case is complicated by a lack of any evidence whatsoever and that Michelle actually did anything to cause Isaiah’s medical condition, which all parties acknowledge to be a real, chronic genetic disorder.”

A protest was scheduled outside of Cook County Juvenile Court at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, December 15th, against the Illinois DCFS and Lurie Children’s Hospital while Michelle Rider stands before Judge Nicholas Geanopoulos for today’s hearing.

“The actions by Lurie Hospital and Illinois DCFS are destroying this young man. This case is not unique. It is happening to thousands of families across this country. The willingness to destroy families to achieve a private agenda is unacceptable. Worse yet, it goes against the grain of the work they are mandated to do,” said Hanna Roth, Founder of The Rainbird Foundation, a global organization committed to the end of child abuse.

Take ACTION: Please pray for Michelle Rider, Judge Geanopoulos and all involved in this disturbing case.

Please support the work of Illinois Family Institute.

Written by  Kelsey Harkness

A former adviser on drug policy to three presidents—Clinton, Bush and Obama—says, despite popular fiction, marijuana does kill.

“Saying marijuana has never contributed to death or never killed anyone is like saying tobacco hasn’t killed anyone,” Kevin Sabet, president of Project SAM, told The Daily Signal after speaking at a Heritage Foundation event today on marijuana policy. “In that same way, marijuana does kill people in the form of mental illness, suicide and car crashes.”

Read more:  7 Harmful Side Effects Pot Legalization Caused in Colorado

On Black Friday your government was shopping with credit cards too it would seem.  The total outstanding U.S. public debt just hit a new historic level, which probably would be better associated with a red Friday rather than a black one. As of the last workday in November, total U.S. public debt just surpassed $18 trillion for the first time, or $18,005,549,328,561.45 to be precise.

Our nation’s debt now exceeds, at 103 percent, total Gross Domestic Product which some say was artificially inflated by half a trillion when the government decided to add the “benefit” of R&D intangibles into the GDP earlier this year.

This unprecedented total US debt has increased by 70 percent under just one President, Barack H. Obama. It has gone from $10.625 trillion on January 21, 2009, to $18.005 trillion now.

Yet, the President’s term and his reckless spending are far from over.  If he succeeds with his executive order for amnesty for illegals, a new report finds that if that act involves 4 million illegals, the net cost (benefits paid in minus benefits paid out) to taxpayers for his action will be another $2 trillion in taxpayer-funded services like Medicaid and Social Security.

In other words, this president has taken the debt that it took 43 other presidents to rack up, doubled it in just six years, and saddled future generations with $20 trillion in IOU’s.

Written by Lisa Suhay

What flash mob is this? Traditional caroling door-to-door appears to have been replaced by holiday flash mobs bringing good cheer ahead of Santa’s reindeer.

For starters, prepare to get misty over the US Air Force Band’s rendition of “What Child is This” as the camera shows the glowing faces of mesmerized children listening to the Christmas classic performed with choir as part of a flash mob at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.

The YouTube video of the USAF performance published on Dec 3 has prompted us to scour the Internet for the best holiday flash mobs – both foreign and domestic.

Journey of Faith performed a Christmas “Flash Mob” at the South Bay Galleria in Redondo Beach on Dec. 18, 2010 transforming weary shoppers into a resounding choir.

Christmas Food Court Flash Mob, Hallelujah Chorus of Nov.13, 2010 is a keeper because it involves operatic-quality professional singers blowing diners away as the first singer spears to be singing Hallelujah into her cell phone. Over 100 singers participated in the event.

It would appear that the most memorable mobs take place in an environment of the downtrodden, exhausted and put-upon holiday shopper or traveler.

In the latter case, there is West Jet’s flash mob that took place in the Calgary Airport amid travelers waiting for a sold-out 11:30 p.m. redeye flight in the middle of the night.

“How do you turn a sleepy boarding lounge into the North Pole in 60 seconds? On December 4, 2012, we decided to surprise 166 guests waiting to board a Calgary-Toronto red-eye flight with a little Christmas cheer,” the Youtube description of the video reads. “We invited elves, snowmen, carolers, sugar plum fairies, reindeer and Santa Claus, himself, to help us make this a memorable evening. Thanks to all our guests for joining in on the fun!”

Anyone having a bad day any time of the year will be uplifted by the faces of travelers as they morph from bleary to beatific.

However, for sheer hilarity and ingenuity there is the Algonquin College exam week pre-Christmas flash mob of Dec 13, 2011 with Darth Vader, Mr. Naughty himself, conducting the Carol of the Bells while rocking an electric guitar.

If you’re seeking a flash mob that leaves you wanting less because it’s just a bit too freaky, there was the Lady Gaga event on Dec 12, 2011 to aid the Birmingham Children’s Hospital.

A rogue pack of red, bodystockinged “Santas” interrupt news Reporter Robin Powell during a live report in Birmingham and give shoppers reason to want to board up their chimneys to keep Mr. Claus out.

Topping it all off is the Justin Bieber-alike Little Drummer Boy flash mob event that took place in Mexico  on Dec 23, 2012 as performed by Klap Dance Studio México. Dancers arrived with bells on – literally – to rock the holiday.

Of course there’s no place like home for the holidays so to round out this story we go to Boston (home of The Christian Science Monitor) for a moving mob that took place Dec. 14, 2013 as Berklee School of Music students and Beantown musicians filled the MFA’s Shapiro Family Courtyard with song, featuring soloist Mark Joseph & a full choir and string section.

The bustling Bostonian crowd fell silent in the unification of the holiday spirit and nostalgia.

This article was originally posted at The Christian Science Monitor website.

The young black man in the video below, Frederick Wilson II, expresses views that are arguably far wiser and more helpful in the debate over justice and racial reconciliation than anything Al Sharpton, Eric Holder, or Jesse Jackson has said in recent years.

And Wilson’s views are exponentially more helpful than these inflammatory words from Louis Farrakhan who spoke recently at Morgan State University:

The young are God’s children, and they’re not goin’ down peaceful. You may not want to fight, but you better get ready. Teach your baby how to throw the bottle [Molotov cocktail] if they can [he then imitates a child throwing, while the audience laughs and applauds].

We’re gonna die anyway. Let’s die for something. Elijah Muhammad said…near fifty years ago…there were 20,000,000 of us, he said “If 10,000,000 of us lost our lives, there would be 10,000,000 of us left to go free….”

In this book [Farakkhan holds up a book], there’s a law for retaliation: Like for like. The Bible says, an eye, a tooth, a life. As long as they kill us, and go to Wendy’s, and have a burger, and go to sleep, they’re gonna keep killing us. But when we die and they die [cheering and standing ovation], then soon, we’re gonna sit at a table and talk about it We want some of this earth, or we’ll tear this G##d#mned country apart! As-salaamu alaikum.”

Perhaps this kind of rhetoric contributed to some blacks believing that the way to end racial injustice in Ferguson, Missouri was to steal and destroy the property of fellow blacks.

I hope that those high school social studies teachers who currently use tax dollars to promote their Leftist social and political views about race would show the Wilson video to students to balance out the whole “institutional racism” theme.

A few years ago when I was helping a Deerfield High School (DHS) student with a paper for her American Studies class, she shared that by the end of her first semester in that class, she hated America and hated being white. Great job, teachers. I’m sure that’s just what American taxpayers want their hard-earned money to subsidize.

Political proselytizing in public schools continues unabated. DHS teachers Ken Kramer and Neil Rigler continue to teach American Studies, and this year’s curriculum includes an essay by Leftist homosexual playwright Tony Kushner and five essays (some of which come from controversial history book A People’s History of  the United States) by Leftist American history revisionist Howard Zinn:

“American Things” by Tony Kushner

“A Kind of Revolution” by Howard Zinn

“American Ideology” by Howard Zinn

“Columbus and Western Civilization” by Howard Zinn

“We Take Nothing by Conquest, Thank God” by Howard Zinn

“Slavery Without Submission, Emancipation Without Freedom” by Howard Zinn

Other authors include Eric Foner, Barbara Kingsolver, Lorraine Ali, and Leon Litwack, all liberal.

“Progressives” will argue that these scholars are well-respected scholars and prize-winners, which is true but ignores the bias that shapes their work, determining which facts to include, which to omit, which to emphasize, and how to frame their analyses. It also ignores the academic mission of both Zinn and Foner to use their role as historians to advance their political agenda.

Let’s take a glimpse at the writers whom public school “agents of change” promote.

Former Leftist, now conservative writer David Horowitz writes this about Eric Foner:

In 2002, Columbia University hosted a conference of academic radicals called, “Taking Back The Academy: History of Activism, History As Activism.” The published text of the conference papers was provided with a Foreword by Professor Eric Foner, who is a past president of both the Organization of American Historians and the American Historical Association, and a leading academic figure. Far from sharing Professor [Stanley] Fish’s view that a sharp distinction should be drawn between political advocacy and the scholarly disciplines, Professor Foner embraced the proposition that political activism is essential to the academic mission: “The chapters in this excellent volume,” wrote Foner, “derive from a path-breaking conference held at Columbia University in 2002 to explore the links between historical scholarship and political activism….As the chapters that follow demonstrate, scholarship and activism are not mutually exclusive pursuits, but are, at their best, symbiotically related.”

Kramer and Rigler include in their coursepack the essay “And Our Flag Was Still There,”  in which well-known author and liberal Barbara Kingsolver takes aim at patriotism:

Patriotism threatens free speech with death. It is infuriated by thoughtful hesitation, constructive criticism of our leaders and pleas for peace. It despises people of foreign birth who’ve spent years learning our culture and contributing their talents to our economy. It has specifically blamed homosexuals, feminists and the American Civil Liberties Union.

In other words, the American flag stands for intimidation, censorship, violence, bigotry, sexism, homophobia, and shoving the Constitution through a paper shredder? Who are we calling terrorists here? Outsiders can destroy airplanes and buildings, but it is only we, the people, who have the power to demolish our own ideals.

Thomas Sowell (who happens to be black), Senior Fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution ), has this to say about Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States of which Kramer and Rigler are so enamored:

It speaks volumes about our schools and colleges that far-left radical Howard Zinn’s pretentiously titled book, “A People’s History of the United States,” is widely used across the country. It is one indictment, complaint, and distortion after another.

Anyone who relies on this twisted version of American history would have no idea why millions of people from around the world are trying, sometimes desperately, to move to this country. The one virtue of Zinn’s book is that it helps you identify unmistakably which teachers are using their classrooms as propaganda centers.

One wonders if all the “progressive” public school “agents of change” around the country tell their students and their parents that Zinn is a controversial historian. One wonders if they require their students to read criticism of Zinn’s revisionist history and discuss Zinn’s open admission that he used his work to advance his Leftist political goals. One wonders if Leftist “educators” require students to spend equal time reading the work of Thomas Sowell, and Abigail and Stephan Thernstrom—you know, in the service of diversity, balance, and “critical thinking.”

It’s not just curricula that are infected with biased Leftist ideas that distort American history and foster division rather than unity among disparate groups. School administrations also promote Leftist assumptions through professional development conferences, workshops, and seminars that taxpayers subsidize. These include controversial racism-profiteer Glenn Singleton’s National Summit for Courageous Conversations, Regional Summits for Courageous Conversations, and “Beyond Diversity” seminars, which suck money from Americans through their public schools.

For the uninitiated, liberal theories regarding oppression almost always address homosexuality. Here’s an excerpt  from one of the sessions offered at last fall’s National Summit for Courageous Conversations in New Orleans:

Phase 2 seminar. Journey back to a time when homosexual men and women were exalted in their native cultures (”Two Spirits”), only to have it stripped away when Eurocentric ways took control.

And we can’t forget one of the most infamous wastes of taxpayer money: the annual White Privilege Conference that seeks to persuade whites that they are racist oppressors by virtue of nothing other than their skin color.

The curricular choices of liberal teachers present a lopsided picture of America that over-emphasizes America’s flaws and de-emphasizes those aspects of America that have made this the greatest nation in history. Biased Leftist resources transform education into indoctrination and exacerbate rather than mitigate racial hostility.  The Leftist assumptions about race, oppression, and justice that emerge from the writings of Brazilian Marxist Paulo Freire, Peggy McIntosh’s invisible knapsack, the White Privilege Conference, and Glenn Singleton’s dizzying array of money-making seminars and summits are corrupting education and disuniting Americans.

Race ballyhooers who line their pockets from the sale of their snake oil that aggravates racial wounds thus ensuring the perpetuation of their schemes claim they seek courageous and honest conversations.  They don’t. The only kind of “conversations” they want are ones that involve them pontificating and others sycophantically echoing.

It would behoove taxpayers to send an email to their local school administrators, asking if any district money has been or will be spent on any of these professional development conferences.

Please consider supporting the work of Illinois Family Institute.