Football fans come to know, and often despise, the term “interference.” It usually results in a penalty against the defensive or even the offensive player preventing a pass from being completed. The Chicago Bears have seen their share of these—and our Illinois college teams as well.

The term can have a good connotation as well. For example, when an individual or group “runs interference.” As dictionary.com explains, this can mean to:

“Handle problems or help clear the way for another, as in The press secretary runs interference for the governor.”

Let’s consider both applications of the term at work in government recently. First, the positive, depending on your politics. The Texas legislature ran interference for parents on a “universal school choice bill.” Texas became the largest state in the nation to offer universal school choice to families. Governor Greg Abbott signed the bill into law on May 3, 2025, making all Texas K-12 students eligible to apply.”

Now a couple of negative government interference examples. Illinois has been grappling with legislation about how the state wants control of all education—public, private, or homeschool. Time to keep our eyes open.

The Illinois Family Institute helped lead the charge to make our citizens aware of the legislative activity on HB 2827. The proposed “Homeschool Act” was defeated in the Illinois General Assembly on April 11th. Thus it failed to advance to the Senate. The bill would have regulated homeschooling and private schooling—clearly interfering with parents’ right to educate as they see fit.

The second negative example of government interference in Illinois involves ongoing legislative activity regarding physician-assisted suicide. Specific bills included HB 1328 and SB 9, which would allow terminally ill adults to request medication to “end their lives peacefully.” SB 9 cleared the Senate Executive Committee. The House bill passed at the end of May but failed to move through the General Assembly.

Consequently, physican-assisted suicide remains criminal in our state.

Illinois has a number of pieces of “interference legislation” that most citizens may fail to track, including abortion pills, gambling, and the legalization of prostitution. You can, however, follow the progress of each bill by checking illinoisfamily.org.

Across this great land of ours, Illinois is not the only state in a struggle for righteousness. Another clear example of government interference can be found in Colorado. Earlier this year, the Colorado House of Representatives passed a law that could have created legal grounds for the state to strip custody from parents who (according to several legislators) might “misgender” their children.

The legislation—HB 25-1312—passed the Colorado House on April 6th. The bill “would make using a person’s name given at birth or using a person’s biologically correct pronouns discriminatory actions under the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act.” It could be considered, “coercive control.”

However, a heavily amended version of House Bill 25-1312 (known as the Kelly Loving Act) was later passed on May 6th by the Colorado Senate. In the final version, key provisions included:

• Defining misgendering and deadnaming as discriminatory acts.

• Making it a discriminatory act to intentionally misgender a transgender person or call them by their previous name (deadnaming).

• The bill originally included language that would have made judges consider misgendering, deadnaming, or threatening to publish information about a child’s gender-affirming care as a form of “coercive control” in child custody cases. This provision was removed from the bill. 

It’s too easy to see these as mere political battles. Reality is that the kind of warfare we see at work has spiritual underpinnings. As the apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesians:

“Finally, my brothers, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, and against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.“ (Ephesians 6:10-12, MEV)

When the dark spiritual forces are seeking to interfere with our lives—by whatever means they choose—we must “…take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” (Ephesians 6:13)

And stand we must.