Another Opportunity to File Witness Slips!
03.04.24
There has been a flurry of activity at the Capitol in Springfield which will continue until March 22nd before lawmakers break for for Spring Break. We urge you to take a few minutes to file witness slips for a dozen bills that will soon have a hearing.
Securing Our Future
By Thomas Hampson   |   02.09.24
Our ability to protect children from sexual exploitation is declining every day.  The environment has become sexually saturated.  Prime-time programs on broadcast television promote casual sex, even for teens.  Pornography is impossible to avoid short of disconnecting all electronics.  Standards of dress and conduct have become eroticized.  Societal taboos about sexual experimentation have severely eroded, and internal inhibitions have steeply declined.
Unsafe
By Thomas Hampson   |   01.31.24
There are 341,000 students in the Chicago Public Schools, divided among 638 schools—476 elementary schools and 162 high schools. According to the recent report by the Chicago Public Schools Office of Inspector General (OIG), there were 446 sexual misconduct allegations reported to the OIG during the calendar year 2023.
Local Focus
By Thomas Hampson   |   01.25.24
Why are local elections so uninteresting to voters? Local elections in Illinois generally draw about 16% of registered voters. This is compared to the average turnout over the last 20 years for presidential elections in Illinois of 63% and the average turnout in the off-year elections of 44%.
Don’t Call it Conservatism
By Mae Arthur   |   01.23.24
With every passing year, it seems we Christian Conservatives find ourselves increasingly in the minority. There might be more of us than we know, but the loudest and best-funded voices are almost exclusively liberal. If we know our Bibles, this shouldn’t come as a shock to us. For many of us who are weary of fighting in relative obscurity, though, there is a real temptation to uncritically align with anything or anyone that seems allied to our purposes.
Freedom Versus Foolishness
By Mae Arthur   |   01.17.24
As of January 1, a new Illinois state law is in effect that removes grant funding from public libraries that ban books “because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.” House Bill 2789 was signed by Governor J.B. Pritzker last summer and is just the latest in a string of policies advanced by this administration and motivated by its apparent obsession with indoctrinating kids into sexual orientation and gender identity ideology.
Who is Welcome?
By Thomas Hampson   |   01.16.24
Recently, I noticed an online post of a local church that read: “Everyone is welcome! No exceptions. Period.” Really? Everyone?
The Downfall of Scholastic Books
By Kenna Rose   |   01.05.24
Stories are powerful and incredibly influential. Almost everyone can point to at least one story, if not more, that have deeply changed the way they think, act, or live. Even without meaning to, we tend to base our perception of reality around the stories we know, love, and tell.
The Illusion of Action
By Thomas Hampson   |   01.03.24
How we spend our time and money reveals what we care about. That principle applies not only to individuals, but to groups, to corporations, to governments. What people say means very little. It’s what they do that counts.
Who is Responsible?
By Thomas Hampson   |   11.15.23
There are 1.85 million public school students in grades K to 12 in Illinois. Of those, 1.2 million of them, 65 percent, cannot read at grade level, and 1.4 million, 76 percent, do not have math skills at grade level. Did you know that?
Which Side?
By Thomas Hampson   |   10.31.23
Which side are you on? Do you know? There are only two. From the moment you get up in the morning until you go to sleep at night, you take one side or the other.
Different Perspectives?
By Thomas Hampson   |   10.18.23
Several essential characteristics separate humans from other mammals. The most significant among them is our complex reasoning ability. We can solve problems throughout the full range of our current awareness. We have a powerful capability to observe, collect, and analyze facts. We can formulate theories and design meticulous studies to test them out. And we can debate the meaning of the findings of those studies.
The Unimaginable Twisting of Every Principle of Parenthood
By Thomas Hampson   |   10.10.23
In a July 2010, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation featured a story by Ginger Gorman about a homosexual couple’s efforts to become parents. Peter Truong and Mark Newton of Queensland, Australia were celebrated as loving, caring, gay parents of their son, Boy 1.
Upcoming Faith and Family Events in Illinois
09.29.23
Listed below are some wonderful upcoming events that will inform and equip you and your family for the cultural challenges today. While all of these are not IFI events, we hope to be present at most, if not all of them. We hope to see you at some of these!
Fictional Book Bans
By Thomas Hampson   |   09.20.23
Alexi Giannoulias, Illinois Secretary of State, recently testified before a U.S. Senate Committee on the issue of how to determine what books belong in libraries and who determines what stays and what goes. Under questioning by Senator John Kennedy (R-LA), Giannoulias found himself at a loss for words after Kennedy read obscene passages from two controversial books, Gender Queer and All Boys Aren’t Blue, often found in public and school libraries.
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