The lame-duck session is currently underway in the Illinois General Assembly prior to the new session beginning on January 11th. One would think there isn’t anything more that could be done to further expand abortion in Illinois. Unfortunately, one would be wrong.

Late Wednesday night, Senate President Don Harmon (D-Oak Park) filed Senate Amendment 1 to HB 4664 during this lame-duck session. The purpose of the lame-duck session is to clean up cleaning unfinished business from the previous session. It’s not to introduce new legislation. So, why not wait until next week when the new session begins? The likely reason is that this amendment is so bad they want to ram it through rather than face the PR problems of a typical months-long session.

Senate Amendment 1 to HB 4664 includes the following:

The bill allows a doctor who had his/her medical license revoked in another state due to performing unlawful abortions to obtain a medical license in Illinois. In fact, the bill allows most medical personnel (e.g., doctors, nurses, psychologists, psychiatrists, and social workers) who have lost their licenses in other states due to unlawful abortion-related activities to obtain licenses in Illinois.

The bill allows the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation to issue a temporary permit to anyone who lawfully committed abortions in other states. This would include midwives, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants. The language states: “[T]he General Assembly finds that the adoption of rules to implement a temporary permit for reproductive health is deemed an emergency and necessary for the public interest, safety, and welfare.”

The bill provides abortion-training programs at the Department of Public Health.

The bill requires the Department of Public Health to provide a website which would list all the abortion providers in Illinois and “support services, such as airfare, lodging, ground transportation, public transportation, meals, childcare, doula support, and translation support to help a person access and obtain an abortion. Payment support resources, including coverage options, State programs, and other [financial] assistance…”

The bill requires insurance companies to cover the cost of abortion pills.

The bill would prohibit the governor from surrendering a person to another state that had laws prohibiting abortion if that person was involved in abortion in Illinois.

The bill requires two hours of continuing education “in training on reproductive health care” for all “health care professionals” renewing their licenses on or after January 1, 2024.

The bill allows a pharmacist to dispense hormonal contraception from a standing order from a local health department or the Department of Public Health, after the patient completes a self-screening risk assessment and without having a relationship with the patient.

The bill eliminates all Department of Public Health liability for “injury caused by the pharmacist’s or patient’s use of the self-screening assessment or the dispensation of hormonal contraceptives pursuant to the standing order.

The bill prohibits pregnancy-related services (i.e., pregnancy care centers) to advertise services that “misled, deceived, or damaged” any person seeking reproductive health care services. This would be left to the interpretation of the Courts. They are going after pregnancy care centers.

The bill also appears to go after those who practice “sidewalk counseling” and most likely those who pray outside abortion clinics: “[P]rohibited conduct” is that which would “interfere with a person seeking to gain entry or access to a licensed provider or reproductive health care services.” 

The attorney general (AG) will “adopt such rules as will be necessary” to investigate and issue subpoenas and court orders for testimony and documents. During that time, the AG may grant injunctive relief that restrains the conduct constituting the violation–in other words, SHUT THEM DOWN. Civil penalties not to exceed $50,000 can be imposed on persons who violate this Act.

TAKE ACTION: Click HERE to contact your current state representative and state senator to urge them to oppose anyone of the three** massive abortion expansion bill, which also violates the deeply held religious beliefs of those offering hope and abortion alternatives to women in crisis pregnancies.

**Abortion wish list bill — 3 versions:

1) SA 1 to HB 4664 — the worst bill that goes after Crisis Pregnancy Centers, etc. (this is in Illinois Senate Rules Committe)

2) HA 1 to SB 3799 — House Amendment 1 passed House Exec Committee; held on 2nd Reading (does not attack Crisis Pregnancy Centers)

3) HA 4 to SB 1534 — House Amendment 4 passed the Illinois House and is now in the Illinois Senate on concurrence (this version does not attack Crisis Pregnancy Centers) — this one most likely to be the version to pass.

You can also call their offices for a greater impact. Click HERE to find the phone numbers of your current elected officials. NOTE: The newly elected state reps and senators will not take office until next week.

Thank you for taking the time to stop this bill!

Dr. Erwin Lutzer, senior pastor emeritus of The Moody Church in Chicago, was the keynote speaker at IFI’s 2021 annual banquet. Dr. Lutzer, a stalwart defender of biblical values and an outspoken champion of pro-life and pro-family causes, is the author of several award-winning books, including The Church in Babylon, When a Nation Forgets God, and Hitler’s Cross.

Dr. Lutzer’s address, titled “We Will Not Bow,” is a play on the title of his recent book We Will Not Remain Silent. Lutzer began his address with a story from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago: after a Soviet state function, the audience began to applaud Stalin, continuing for over eleven minutes—they all knew that the first to stop applauding would be arrested and executed. As Solzhenitsyn recognized, freedom is lost when the will to dissent is quenched. Just as it was in Solzhenitsyn’s Russia, the American people now find themselves faced with the same question:  will we courageously defy the ideologues of our age? Or will we simply keep clapping along?

Lutzer brought this point home with a familiar story from the book of Daniel: Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had the same choice to make. Would they bow to the idolatrous image of Nebuchadnezzar? These three Jews were captive in a foreign land with pagans worshiping false gods, yet they refused to bow; they refused to surrender, even under the threat of death. In our day, as Lutzer noted in his address, persecution of Christians—whether through marginalization, deplatforming, loss of employment, or lawsuits—will continue to get worse. We have no reason to assume that we will retain the freedoms we have grown accustomed to. Regardless, just like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, we must have absolute confidence in the power of our God to deliver us. And even if He does not deliver us, He is with us always, even unto the end of the age (Matt. 28:20). May God grant us the courage to risk everything in the face of persecution. As Lutzer puts it, “it is not necessary to win in this life to win in the life to come.”

Please help us meet our end-of-year matching challenge!
Every dollar donated to IFI in the month of December will be matched, dollar for dollar, up to $130,000.

We praise the Lord that He is sovereign and rules over all. It would be very easy to be discouraged, if we just looked on external circumstances. We must preserve as His people through His power.

On Thursday, November 10, the school board for D211 will be taking a vote whether to adopt the radical “Comprehensive Sex Education” standards connected with legislation signed into law in 2021, SB 818. Illinois has 860 school districts. As of August 2022, only 23 districts agreed to adopt the new standards while 540 school districts made the choice to opt out.

To read the standards, please click this link.

To refresh your memory on some of the debate and controversy, please read these articles:

Cultural Collision” “Comprehensive” Sex Ed Passed in Illinois Senate

Illinois Lawmakers’ Insatiable Appetite for Sexualizing Other People’s Children

Dumb Things Dems Said in Sex Ed Floor Debate

Please take action in three ways:

1] Please pray about the Thursday, November 10 meeting. If you live in the district you should also come. Encourage your pastor to attend.

For information about the November 10 School Board meeting, please click this link: adc.d211.org

To learn more about this situation: https://newhopeforyou.org/d211/

2] You can email the school board members and in a polite email encourage them not to adopt these new standards. I have heard that most people communicating with the board have expressed their opposition to these new standards.

Here are their email addresses: aklimkowicz@d211.org, srosenblum@d211.org,  kcavill@d211.org,  cbradley@d211.org,  mcramer@d211.org,  pdombrowski@d211.org,  tmcgowan@d211.org

3] Please share this information with others you know and encourage them to pray and take action.

I am very blessed that my children are not subjected to this perversion as well as all our CLA students, but I also am concerned about the nearly 12,000 students in the district. For the sake of God’s truth and the well being of others, we must take action and be involved.

In Christ,

Pastor Calvin Lindstrom
Christian Liberty Academy

Don’t miss this opportunity to see Kevin and Sam Sorbo in person!

The annual IFI Fall Banquet — the largest Christian pro-family event in Illinois — is right around the corner. This year, we can hardly wait to welcome our special guests. We know this will be a blast! We only have a few open spots left.

The deadline to purchase your reservations is Tuesday, October 25th at noon, so please do not delay if you plan to join us for this special evening. Your attendance and support is essential to our success!

Event Details:

Illinois Family Institute
Faith, Family and Freedom Banquet

Friday, October 28, 2022
The Carlisle
435 E. Butterfield Rd.
Lombard, IL

7:00 PM – 9:30 PM

Secure your reservations now. Click HERE or call (708) 781-9328.

Click HERE for a banquet flyer.

P.S. Please watch to this brief video clip from the Sorbos:

I know I’m not the only one who has noticed the uptick in crime lately. Anyone paying attention has seen frequent and numerous examples cited in the news or on social media. Yet the Democrat lawmakers who remain in control continue pushing to defund the police, disarm citizens, and lessen the consequences of crime. Tucker Carlson summarizes the craziness of this beautifully in a 20-minute, worth-the-watch segment (posted below).

Carlson begins by saying, “Dystopia is a world where the police will not protect you, and at the same time, you are not allowed to protect yourself.” It’s a frightening thought, even more so because it looks like America is headed down a path like that. It’s the natural outcome of an ideology that insists one skin tone is inherently evil and another inherently the victim. Many of the crimes are being committed by a demographic that doesn’t fit within the ideology of Critical Race Theory, so lawmakers pass laws that will result in fewer arrests of a certain demographic. It’s placing a bandage over a wound without realizing there is a large splinter causing it to fester.

In the video pasted below, Carlson includes an example that hits close to home, citing our own state’s unfortunate SAFE-T Act in one of numerous examples of how Democrats have managed to defund the police quietly. Watch the video and ponder the questions Tucker Carlson poses at the end. What are we the people going to do about it?  Sit by and just let it happen? It’s definitely something to consider come time to vote.

In Cook County, 91.5 percent of black third grade students failed the 2021 state math exam.

This means 91.5 percent of black third graders are not proficient at math, which is considered a core skill for later success in life. These students struggle with quickly adding and subtracting, multiplying one-digit numbers by multiple digit numbers, and fractions, according to the standards set by the state.

Results of state exams are graded in five levels proficiency, rather than a score from zero to 100. The worst level is “Did Not Meet,” followed by “Partially Met,” “Approached,” “Met,” and “Exceeded.” Data in this story was accrued by combining results from the first three levels of proficiency where students do not meet the expected math proficiency.

Numerous counties saw all black third grade students fail to reach an acceptable proficiency level in math. Counties include: Mason, Marshall, Fulton, Lawrence, Adams, and Lee County.

Illinois report card data showed there were dramatic declines in academic achievement since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

However, a Wirepoints investigation found the Illinois school system prioritizes social promotion of black students over their literacy.

“’Social promotion’ – pushing kids into the next grade regardless of ability – leaves unsuspecting Illinois parents believing their kids are being educated simply because they’re advancing,” wrote report authors Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner. “Social promotion in Illinois continues into high school. That’s when district officials tell parents what they want to hear – that their children have what they need to graduate.”

Wirepoints also cited “racial equity” programs that blame low black student scores on racism, calling schools “more obsessed with vague outcomes like equity and diversity than merit and competence.”

District information was gathered from the Illinois Report Card.

This article was originally posted by North Cook News on August 1, 2022.

A 25-year-old man who pretends to be a woman was kicked off a community college campus in Texas and charged with a class C misdemeanor for allegedly choking a 17-year-old female student. Like the teen victim, the strange adult man who goes by the name Averie Chanel Medlock was a member of the women’s cheerleading team. Medlock complained that the teen girl said he is a man—which he is—and that he has a penis—which he presumably does.

While Medlock may be the first female impersonator to choke a female cheerleader, he is not the first female impersonator to be a member of a women’s cheer team. A man who goes by the name “Justine” Lindsay became a member of the NFL’s Carolina Panthers female cheerleading squad—the TopCats—last March, usurping a spot from an actual woman.

TopCats entertainment director, Chandalae Lanouette, offers this sorry justification for her decision to choose a man over a woman for a coveted spot on a female cheer squad:

My goal is to create a team of individuals that are absolute fire on the field but are incredible human beings in the locker room, good friends, good people, and at the end of the day, you have to walk through the door first to get to that spot.

I’m sure a male cheerleader is “absolute fire on the field” relative to female cheerleaders, what with all that lung capacity and all those bulging muscles. I’m not sure, however, how Lanouette defines “good people,” in that a man who sashays through a women’s locker room—undressed or dressed—is not engaging in good behavior. He’s doing something profoundly unjust, immoral, insensitive, and selfish.

“Justine” Lindsay continues the trend of men replacing women in women’s sports, thereby making a mockery of Title IX which is being abused to allow “transwomen”—formerly known as men—in women’s sports and locker rooms.

Ironically, as the “trans” cult continues its long march through our institutions, the harm being done by it and its sycophantic bootlickers continues to be exposed.

Detransitioners and their parents are telling their tragic stories on websites like Parents with Inconvenient Truths about Trans (PITT) and subreddits.

Men who claim to be women are being moved to women’s prisons where they’re raping women.

England’s National Health Service is shutting down its only child “gender” clinic, the (in)famous Tavistock clinic, which saw a 4,000 percent increase in children and teens being referred for treatment for gender dysphoria between 2009-2019. An independent review of Tavistock’s “Gender Identity Services for Children and Young People” concluded that there are “significant knowledge gaps … in relation to treatment with puberty blockers.”

On July 19, 2022, the chair of the review committee, Dr. Hilary Cass, acknowledged what critics of the quack use of puberty blockers for the “treatment” of gender dysphoria in children have been saying for years:

We do not fully understand the role of adolescent sex hormones in driving the development of both sexuality and gender identity through the early teen years, so by extension we cannot be sure about the impact of stopping these hormone surges on psychosexual and gender maturation. We therefore have no way of knowing whether, rather than buying time to make a decision, puberty blockers may disrupt that decision-making process.

A further concern is that adolescent sex hormone surges may trigger the opening of a critical period for experience-dependent rewiring of neural circuits underlying executive function (i.e., maturation of the part of the brain concerned with planning, decision making and judgement). If this is the case, brain maturation may be temporarily or permanently disrupted by puberty blockers, which could have significant impact on the ability to make complex risk-laden decisions, as well as possible longer-term neuropsychological consequences. To date, there has been very limited research on the short-, medium- or longer-term impact of puberty blockers on neurocognitive development.

Deep-pocketed activists—like the corrupt Pritzker family—and medical profiteers, all of whom pretend to care about children as they experiment on them for their own selfish ends surely know there is no science to support the deceitful and fearmongering claims they make. But who needs science when leftists have been winning the culture through name-calling, stigmatization, de facto censorship, and good old-fashioned propaganda.

Leftist propaganda in the service of normalizing disordered feelings and deviant behaviors is ubiquitous. It poisons not just the professional medical and mental health industries but also the arts, social media, “news” media, businesses big and small, religious institutions, and the many-tentacled education monster. And that is where Florida’s remarkable governor comes in.

In April 2022, under Gov. Ron DeSantis’ leadership, the Florida Department of Health provided guidance based on evidence on the treatment of gender dysphoria for children and adolescents:

Due to the lack of conclusive evidence, and the potential for long-term, irreversible effects, the Department’s guidelines are as follows:

• • Social gender transition should not be a treatment option for children or adolescents.
  • Anyone under 18 should not be prescribed puberty blockers or hormone therapy.
  • Gender reassignment surgery should not be a treatment option for children or adolescents. Based on the currently available evidence, “encouraging mastectomy, ovariectomy, uterine extirpation, penile disablement, tracheal shave, the prescription of hormones which are out of line with the genetic make-up of the child, or puberty blockers, are all clinical practices which run an unacceptably high risk of doing harm.”

Then in June 2022, under Gov. DeSantis’ leadership, “The Secretary of the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration requested that the Division of Florida Medicaid review the treatment of gender dysphoria for a coverage determination.” The review set forth that “As a condition of coverage, sex reassignment treatment must be ‘consistent with generally accepted professional medical standards (GAPMS) and not experimental or investigational.’”

The review concluded the following:

Following a review of available literature, clinical guidelines, and coverage by other insurers and nations, Florida Medicaid has determined that the research supporting sex reassignment treatment is insufficient to demonstrate efficacy and safety. In addition, numerous studies, including the reports provided by the clinical and technical experts listed above, identify poor methods and the certainty of irreversible physical changes. Considering the weak evidence supporting the use of puberty suppression, cross-sex hormones, and surgical procedures when compared to the stronger research demonstrating the permanent effects they cause, these treatments do not conform to GAPMS and are experimental and investigational.

But Gov. DeSantis wasn’t done protecting children. Following the Biden administration’s extortion attempt to force schools to treat “trans” kids as if they are the sex they aren’t or lose federal money to feed impoverished students, DeSantis took action.

On July 28, Florida’s Commissioner of Education, Manny Diaz Jr., sent a letter to all public schools and private schools in Florida clarifying Biden’s extortion effort:

The purpose of this memorandum is to make you aware that the sub-regulatory “guidance” documents issued by the USDOE and USDA are not binding law, do not create any new legal obligations, and should not be treated as governing law. Indeed, the USDOE has even acknowledged in litigation that its guidance document is not binding or enforceable. …

As such, you should not treat the USDOE and USDA guidance documents as binding or otherwise modify your practices or procedures based on these documents. Specifically, for example, nothing in these guidance documents requires you to give biological males [aka boys] who identify as a female access to female bathrooms, locker rooms, or dorms; to assign biological males who identify as female to female rooms on school field trips; or to allow biological males who identify as female to compete on female sports teams. …

The department will not stand idly by as federal agencies attempt to impose a sexual ideology on Florida schools that risk the health, safety, and welfare of Florida students.

The obsession of leftists with all things sexually deviant matters because truth matters. Their obsession with promoting evil as good is destroying the foundations of civilized societies. In their ignorance, leftists (and an increasing number of “Republicans”) believe that cultural approval of homosexuality, cross-sex impersonation, and sexually undifferentiated “marriage” has no bearing on the health of a country. And because of their ignorance, things are falling apart, the centre is not holding, and anarchy is loosed upon the world.

Listen to this article read by Laurie:

https://staging.illinoisfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Trans-Cult-Marches-On-Even-As-Its-Harms-Are-Exposed.mp3

Written by Dr. David J. Ayers

So now it is official. The U.S. Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization has overturned Roe v. Wade, and the legal issue of whether and how to restrict abortion has been returned to the states.

I cannot imagine how much this is going to be discussed in the coming days, months and even years—from every conceivable angle. Moreover, many states will become legal and political battlegrounds for this issue. This includes my own Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Dobbs shifts and even intensifies the struggle between pro-life and pro-choice, but it certainly does not end it.

Still, those who have stood for the pro-life cause, many of us for decades, have much to be thankful for. Not least among them are the many Evangelicals and Catholics who have stood for life, voting, pressuring, picketing, appealing, funding, manning legal organizations, lobbying, and educational organizations focusing on state and federal efforts, and a lot more. We stayed in the fight and have seen a wonderful victory.

However, a major concern I have had for a long time has not been so much political, as it has been pastoral and personal. This includes what will now be a growing need to care for pregnant women in difficult circumstances before and after they give birth. It includes compassionate ministry for post-abortive women and others, such as the biological fathers of these aborted babies and the families of these women. And this last thing includes, for too many who were comfortable with that decision to abort, helping them see the sin of abortion, encouraging confession and spiritual restoration. We have done a lot, and now will need to do more.

Which brings me to one of the issues I tackled in my recently released book, After the Revolution: Sex and the Single Evangelical. That is, the degree to which abortion is far more common among believers associated with conservative churches which are overwhelmingly opposed to it than most people realize or want to know.

Consider the two most recent releases of the large and prestigious National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG), which is an undertaking of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Among middle-aged women 35 to 44 years old who have been pregnant, 13 percent of Evangelical Protestants and 12 percent of Roman Catholics have had at least one abortion. Their level is not significantly different than that of mainline Protestants, even though many if not most mainline churches do not oppose abortion, and many support it. They are certainly doing better than those of no religious affiliation, an astounding 29 percent of whom had had an abortion by that age. But still.

And for too many, it has not just been one abortion. Among these respondents, of those who had ever had an abortion, one-third of both the Evangelicals and Catholics had more than one.

A report of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine shows that things are actually a lot worse. Despite the anonymity and professionalism of the NSFG, the women surveyed tend to dramatically underreport abortion. Up to half or more of the women who said they had not had an abortion in fact had one. This problem is probably worse for religious women because they are more likely to experience guilt and shame when they have done this than those who are not religious.

We Evangelicals and Catholics must face up to the reality that we have a serious pastoral issue on our hands. The shepherds of Christ must not focus so much on the larger political and cultural scene that they end up ignoring the hurting people needing their care.

Sound teaching on all that the sanctity of human life means, rooted in the larger themes of Christian theology and anthropology, must characterize our churches. Too many pastors and priests rarely if ever address this sensitive issue, from the pulpit or other teaching ministries.

But we must also uncover and confront the plague of actual abortions, and their effects, in our own spiritual houses. The heating up of the abortion debates in the coming days, months, and years will open more raw wounds than we think. How many of these women have never confessed this sin? How many have but continue to suffer from it, even years or decades later? And what about the others in their intimate circles?

When I read the Gospels, I see a Jesus who, though perfect and without sin, approached sinners with compassion, person-to-person, without ever diluting the truth. As He did with the Samaritan woman at the well or the weeping prostitute, He laid bare the reality of their sins, realizing that they themselves were typically conscious of them. But He never did so in ways that demeaned them or left them without hope.

Religious people, let us be honest about how much abortion has occurred in our own churches. Let us redouble our efforts to instruct the people of God. But let us also draw out those who have sinned, even terribly, into the healing light of God’s grace and the love of His people.

Dr. David J. Ayers is the Fellow for Marriage and Family with the Institute for Faith & Freedom. His latest book is “After the Revolution: Sex and the Single Evangelical.”

With the U.S. Supreme Court announcing it will be issuing opinions starting this week, we may have a final decision on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health – the case that should overturn Roe v. Wade. Should this occur, and after nearly 50 years of bloodshed of the innocent and unborn, rejoicing will abound!

Not to dump buckets of cold water on our rejoicing, but the reality for constituents in Illinois is this will be the time to “not be weary in well-doing,” but to soldier on and turn our attention more than ever to being vocal, educating those around us, and applying pressure to our elected representatives.

The timing couldn’t be more perfect either– as dozens of our legislative representatives are running for re-election, and may be more inclined to listen to their constituents’ concerns. What’s more, with a bit of courageous boldness on our part, our quasi pro-life friends and neighbors who, rather than select a candidate based on a “single-issue,” might be persuaded that this “single-issue” is THE issue forming the basis of our society. This truth could also motivate the otherwise “too busy to vote” crowd to get out and cast a ballot.

As we have these conversations, it’s helpful to be reminded of what makes a good legislature: lawmaking coupled with a balancing of power and representing one’s constituents–most important in a representative republic! So, what DO the voters of Illinois want from their lawmakers?

Given the fact that Illinois has recently passed radical pro-abortion legislation such as taxpayer funding [2018] and removed all abortion restrictions including parental notification [2021], our legislature has clearly not represented the majority viewpoint of Illinois voters on these issues.

A statewide poll of Illinois voters in March of 2021 commissioned by One Nation Under God Foundation and Illinois Family Institute, conducted by the Tarrance Group, helps to answer the question of what “we the people of Illinois” want in terms of these issues.

Here are a few of the key responses to the survey:

If a minor under the age of 18 is seeking an abortion, do you think the law should require her parent or guardian to be notified before the procedure? Overall 72% voted “yes.

56%        Yes (strongly)
16%        Yes
22%        No
6%          Undecided

Would you say that the government is taking away too many rights from parents and preventing parents from raising children in an appropriate way?

67%        Yes
28%        No
5%          Undecided                 

Taxpayer funding of abortion.  We did not poll this question, however, other Illinois polls place opposition to taxpayer funding at around 65%.

It’s  easy to feel alone in the crowd, isn’t it? You’re one small voice in the community, right? Actually, these statistics indicate nothing could be further from the truth! An overwhelming majority of Illinois voters are on the side of life, parental rights, and family.

This fact was driven home last night as I sat in a Precinct Committeeman training meeting. A roomful of Illinoisans, most of whom had never met before, found camaraderie over these issues that are affecting our state. Finding others that are like-minded helped to fan the flame of my courage to get vocal in a bold and courageous way.

We rejoice in the likelihood of the overturning of Roe v. Wade so that the abortion issue can be returned to where it belongs – the states. It is a victory to be celebrated for sure. It will be a gift from above, but in Illinois, it might be a temporary gift if we don’t get busy in “well-doing.”

Get equipped!

-Click here to access the 2022 Primary Election Voter Resources.

-Click here to read about the connection between Common Law, Abortion, and Nuremberg. It might be a good talking point with your neighbors as you seek to inform.

Many Americans have concluded that truth is nothing more than subjective opinion, shaped by “lived experience.” In his IFI presentation,  Dr. Everett Piper dismantles society’s beliefs about truth through a biblical lens and makes clear the consequences these beliefs will have. His unwavering and unapologetic defense of truth provides the information needed to dismantle the Left’s arguments.

Dr. Piper, an author and former president of Oklahoma Wesleyan University, shares the importance of truth in our world. He explores how the denial of truth has led to an increase in tyranny. The Bible says that the truth will set us free. It is daily becoming clearer that governments that deny the truths of Scripture are becoming more oppressive. Dr. Piper explains that the denial of truth will continue to lead to both oppression and despair.

During the Q&A segment, Dr. Piper addresses public and Christian education; if the age of peaceful discussion is over; and the consequences of Christians staying silent about the LGBTQ agenda.

Dr. Piper’s presentation will equip and edify you. Please watch and share with friends and family.

Please watch/listen and share with those who need to hear this worldview session!

Should politics and religion be completely separate? Are Leftism and Christianity diametrically opposed? Is Leftism even compatible with Christianity? Listen to Dr. Everett Piper, former president of Oklahoma Wesleyan University, as he tackles these questions and more in his worldview presentation titled: “The Religion of Wokeism.”

Whether it’s defending unborn children or protecting our borders, Dr. Piper explains how conservative political views align with Christianity. He talks about how the religion of “wokeism” requires us to, among other things, submit ourselves to others, judge people on how they look instead of how they act, and affirm detestable behavior. Dr. Piper illuminates how incompatible “progressive” and Christian agendas are.

Dr. Piper also delves into the causes of this dismal state of affairs, including irresponsible parents, corrupt pastors, and the government school system. Author of books such as Not a Daycare: The Devastating Consequences of Abandoning Truth and his newest book Grow Up: Life Isn’t Safe, But It’s Good, Dr. Piper leaves us with hope for the future. He emphasizes staying grounded in truth because we know God will prevail. During a fascinating Q & A after his speech, Dr. Piper answers several important questions that many Christians have.

Please watch/listen and share with family members, friends and neighbors!

Please watch/listen and share with those who need to hear this worldview session!

Gas stations across the country are filled with drivers who are incensed by the rising prices at the pump. In the last year, gas prices have risen by nearly 50 percent and are currently at the highest level since 2008. Several factors have caused the soaring prices of gasoline, but in Illinois, we can blame the left’s proclivity for excessive taxation.

Indeed, many problems are adding to the rising prices. As a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. is imposing a ban on all Russian imports. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the U.S. imported 3 percent of our crude oil and 20% of our petroleum products from Russia in 2021. The petroleum products are utilized in the refinery process to supplement our crude oil. Although the problems in Eastern Europe are affecting the prices, taxes exacerbate the problem. According to the Gas Buddy, an app dedicated to tracking gas prices, Illinois is within the top 10 of the highest gas prices in the nation at an average of $4.37 per gallon. California tops the list at an average of $5.80 per gallon.

While Illinois has high prices at the pump, surrounding states tend to have much lower prices. Missouri, for example, is currently paying an average of $3.72 per gallon. Missouri’s cost is slightly up as the state-approved its first gas tax hike in 25 years. The hike in Missouri’s taxes started in October with a 2.5 cent hike, which would recur every year for five years and then cease. In comparison, a law signed in 2019 doubled the gas tax from 19 cents to 38 cents per gallon in Illinois. The law calls for the gas tax to rise every year following the initial jump with no foreseeable end. The tax is now up to 39.2 cents per gallon and will increase this summer if nothing changes.

According to some experts, prices will continue to rise over the summer nationwide. In Illinois, if the tax hike is not frozen or rescinded, there is no doubt that the price will rise even more. Missouri’s officials recognized the bad timing of their slight increase in taxes and have approved a refund to any state taxpayer of 2.5 cents per gallon if they provide receipts. Some Republican leaders called for the sales tax to be frozen at 18 cents per gallon in Illinois, but little has changed our situation.

To  make matters worse, Illinois also has a flat rate motor fuel tax. We are one of only a few states with a double tax on fuel. Representatives from the Illinois Fuel and Retail Association and the Republican leaders feel that lowering the taxes could make Illinois more competitive. Every state that borders Illinois currently has lower gasoline prices. Any Illinois resident living near a border state is likely crossing the state line to fill their tank. Lowering our taxes and subsequently lowering gas prices will incentivize Illinoisans to purchase fill their tanks at home. We can increase our revenue and help our economy by simply making it affordable for our citizens.

Take ACTION: Click HERE to ask your state representative to co-sponsor and champion HB 5723. This proposal was introduced a few weeks ago by State Representative Mark Batinick (R-Plainfield) and would cap the sales tax on gas at 18 cents per gallon for motor fuel and 80 percent of that amount for gasohol and biodiesel.

If you believe that Illinois should rescind the gas taxes and help Illinois make gas affordable for our citizens, please contact your Illinois representatives to ask them to support HB 5723. Then ask them to revoke the sales tax and stop the double taxation on our residents.  

This legislation is written to go into effect 30 days after it is signed into law. Rep. Batinick is a member of the International Trade & Commerce Committee.

In the aftermath of the events of January 6, 2021, the narrative is becoming more and more fixed. Simply stated, it claims that the vast majority of Americans who voted for Trump were gun-waving, white supremacist, insurrectionist, Christian nationalists, who need to be marginalized, if not purged from society. For many reasons, we need to continue to challenge that narrative. And recent world events involving Russia, China, and Canada provide a perfect opportunity to push back against that misleading and caricatured narrative.

To be clear, having voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020, I do not want him to run again in 2024. And I am sympathetic to the argument that, in many ways, did Trump more harm than good, especially in his post-election behavior and in the damage that was done to our Christian witness when he looked to him as some kind of political savior. (I know that strong Trump supporters find this perspective utterly outrageous, but that’s a battle I am not here to fight.)

But the purpose of this article is not to offer a retrospective analysis of the Trump presidency. Rather, it is to respond to those who cannot possibly understand how God-fearing, Bible-loving, morality-espousing people could vote for Trump. We actually had some very good reasons.

Let’s start with the recent events in Canada and Prime Minister’s invoking of the Emergencies Act in an attempt to crush the Freedom Convoy protesters. According to reports, he “invoked the Emergencies Act for the first time in the country’s history to crack down on protests against his vaccine mandate — just days after the Biden administration urged him to use ‘federal powers.’”

How much of this came directly from President Biden? Only those involved know for sure.

But if true, an obvious question arises: Could you imagine the Trump administration encouraging this kind of extreme crackdown against freedom-loving, peaceful protesters? Could you imagine Trump telling Trudeau, “Yeah, you really need to crush this resistance”?

I think not.

Yet, when it came to international policy and America’s role in the world, those of us who voted for Trump felt far more confident in his leadership than the leadership of Biden. Does this make us violent white supremacists? Or, put another way, when it came to the massive implications of our international policies, was there no justifiable reason to vote for Trump?

As for Russia, while Trump’s critics claimed that he was either too friendly with Putin or actually admired him, others saw things quite differently.

Writing for the Jewish Press on July 24, 2018, Daniel Greenfield claimed that, “Trump Stood Up to Putin, Obama Appeased Him.”

He wrote, “The architects of Obama’s appeasement of Putin have been some of the most militant voices denouncing Trump. . . . Instead President Trump has steadily reversed Obama’s tide of concessions to Putin.”

He continued, “The media is outraged over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But when that happened, Ukraine asked for weapons and the only aid that Obama offered their country was MREs. It took months for Obama to come through with boots and tires. Meanwhile Trump has delivered actual weapons.

“Why did Obama refuse to provide Ukraine with weapons? According to senior officials, to avoid antagonizing Moscow. Trump isn’t afraid of Russia. Obama however was shaking in his loafers.

“While Trump approved anti-tank missiles for Ukraine, Obama slow-walked shipments of boots, putting them on trucks instead of planes so that they took months to arrive, so as not to upset the Russians. Meanwhile the Trump administration cut the red tape by dipping into its own European stockpiles.

“In the time it took Obama to ship boots to Ukraine, Trump shipped Javelin missiles.”

And he closed with this: “Unlike Obama, President Trump sold weapons to Ukraine. Unlike Obama, he bombed Assad and took on Russian mercenaries. Unlike Obama, he provided Poland with working Patriot missiles. Unlike Obama, he didn’t base his foreign policy around fearing to offend Moscow. Unlike Obama, he stood up to Russia.”

The fact is that many of us who voted for Trump felt that he would do a better job of standing up to the world’s strongmen than Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden would do. (For a relevant Twitter poll, see here.)

As for China, allow me to share two personal anecdotes. While in Australia in early 2020, shortly before the COVID travel restrictions, I was picked up at the airport by a Chinese national who was now an Australian citizen.

When I asked him for his views on Chinese President Xi, he told me plainly that he thought he was dangerous. When I asked him for his views on President Trump, he said, “He’s a hero.”

In fact, a colleague of mine who has spent almost all his adult life living and working in China, and who is well-connected to the underground Chinese church, told me that every Christian he knew in China was praying fervently for the reelection of Trump. And when Trump lost, many of them wept.

More broadly, a Bing search for the words how Trump stood up to China (not in quotes) yields pages of articles and videos with headlines like this: “It Takes a Trump to Stand Up to China” (The Hill, December 6, 2016); and “Finally, a President Stands Up to China” (Townhall, August 28, 2019).

To be sure, Trump had more than his share of critics when it came to his Chinese policies, with CNN claiming in July 2020 that, “Trump blasts Beijing in public, but privately Trump org imports tons of Chinese goods.”

But the fact remains that America just competed in the Beijing Olympics, with our athletes being urged not to protest and our official diplomatic protest seeming quite tepid, even with its reference to China’s “ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity.”

Really now, if we truly believed that China was guilty of “ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity” shouldn’t we rather boycott the Olympics? Why not put teeth in our words?

Obviously, I cannot imagine the pressures President Biden is under, and the purpose of this article is not to throw stones at him. (How many Biden-bashing articles have I written?) And, to repeat, I do not want to Trump to run again in 2024 for quite a few reasons.

I’m simply reminding those who broad-brush and smear all of us who voted for Trump that international policies were a major consideration for many of us, with those policies potentially affecting hundreds of millions of lives. (And I’ve not said a word here about our policies with Iran.)

That is hardly a matter of white supremacy or dangerous Christian nationalism. This is matter of worldwide humanitarian concern.

This article was originally published at AskDrBrown.org.

HB 4126 enhances a great program already underway in Illinois. It allows children who have qualified to receive a tuition scholarship through the Invest in Kids program eligible to renew first for the next school year.

Click HERE to file a witness slip as a Proponent of HB 4126.

-Fill out your name, address, email and phone number. Leave everything else blank or put self.
-Highlight “Proponent” and “Record of Appearance Only.”
-Check Terms of Agreement and click Create Slip.

More About Invest in Kids Scholarship Tax Credit Program

Illinois enacted the Invest In Kids Scholarship Tax Credit Program in 2017. This program offers a 75% state income tax credit to individuals and businesses that contribute to qualified Scholarship Granting Organizations (SGOs). As long as the 5 regional areas or total statewide maximums have not been reached ($100,000,000), individuals and businesses can contribute at any time. The SGOs then provide tuition scholarships for students whose families apply and meet the income requirements to attend qualified, non-public schools in Illinois.

This Act is scheduled to sunset on January 1, 2024, but some lawmakers want to keep the program going and even expand it.

For those who might be interested in donating, the process is as follows:

Set up a My Tax Illinois Account. You will be sent a letter ID through the mail to finalize the account. Once completed, go back to the My Tax Illinois web site to access your account. Click on the blue Accounts tab, click on Individual, click on Contribute to Invest in Kids.

It will require you to name a Scholarship Granting Organization (SGO) to make your pledge. Two are listed below or you can find a list of them at the Illinois Department of Revenue web site. Note: You do not pledge to the state, but rather to the SGO.

You will be contacted by email to access your Contribution Authorization Certificate. Lastly, go to the SGO web site of your choice to upload your Contribution Authorization Certificate and make your donation.

Empower Illinois is an SGO. Families whose previous year’s total annual income does not exceed 185% of the federal poverty level are eligible. As of several months ago, more than $126 million has been raised and over 16,000 tuition scholarships have been granted since 2018. The average scholarship amount granted in 2020 was $6,297 per student.

The needs are greater than the scholarship money available, however. In 2020, for example, 22,142 students applied through Empower Illinois, but only 5,505 were awarded scholarships. This is where churches, individuals and businesses can step up to meet the need!

Children’s Tuition Fund is an SGO that aids Protestant schools by raising support, identifying families in need within their community, and awarding scholarships to deserving students.

This is such a worthwhile endeavor to help families provide Christ-centered education to their children.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The members themselves need to be prepared for persecution.

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

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

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

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

Dreher too implores churches to make changes immediately:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Listen to this article read by Laurie:

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