A recent news story by Chicago’s WGN9 is titled “Illinois is Failing Children of Color.” It examines  “Race for Results” –a report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation which found that children of color face several “inequities” in Illinois.

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%.

Being the Speaker of the House of Representatives puts you into the credibility circle. This important role, as with any political leader, gives rise to all sorts of questions exceeding the focus of the job at hand. Often, such questions come with an agenda.

Much of Generation Z is heading into adulthood, and we’re realizing that being an adult is hard, a bit scary, and often unenjoyable. Anxiety and fear are incredibly high among Gen Z-ers, also known as Zoomers. I saw an article last month reporting that 86% of Generation Z has “menu anxiety,” or overwhelming anxiety about eating out. Another article published in November reports that Gen Z is having difficulty adjusting to the demands of a 9-5 work week.

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.

Perhaps you’ve never heard of Allie Phillips. She is one to keep your eye on. Her story may help determine the fate of babies in Tennessee and elsewhere. 

Ever since we were little, when we'd wander out into our backyards and wish we could fly like the birds overhead, every one of us has had to wrestle with the difference between the way things are and the way we want them to be. We didn't create ourselves; we were born with certain physical characteristics that both empower and limit us. The same is true of our human nature overall.

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.

Recently, I noticed an online post of a local church that read: “Everyone is welcome! No exceptions. Period.” Really? Everyone?

Do we need to engage in “worldview training” with our children and grandchildren? What difference does it make? Isn’t all of that “worldview” stuff just for philosophers who use big words that my kids and I can’t understand anyway? Isn’t it enough to just follow Jesus and leave worldview to others?

January first is often considered the time for “New Year’s Resolutions,”  “turning over a new Leaf,” or launching a new “self-help program.”  Such things may have some benefits but have generally been nothing more than filler for newspapers and TV shows during the slow time following the holiday season. However, because I see our country floundering and confused, divided and drifting, I have a recommendation: How about a change of hearts in America where, for starters, we make truth normative, and children loved? 

It's been a year and a half since the Dobbs decision put Roe v. Wade in the dustbin, but abortion is still alive and well in many parts of the U.S. When you are zealously committed to a false conception of rights—and that's being charitable about the motives of abortion providers—you will find any way possible to keep the industry going.

In part one of this article,, we looked at a brief recently filed by 21 attorneys general from around the country. The attorneys general are urging the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to strike down a commonsense Idaho law that would keep boys out of girls' bathrooms, and among the brief’s signatories is Illinois' own Kwame Raoul. One sentence in the brief stood out in particular, as it compared "transgender" youth to their "cisgender counterparts."

Jesus tells us that, "If you love Me, keep My Commandments." ( John 14:15) Obviously, if we are to love God, we must know what He  requires. That compels us to study His Word so that we, like David, can say, “I delight to do Your will, O my God, and Your law is within my heart” (Psalm 40:8).

The New Year brings the annual tradition of resolutions. In February of last year, the Fisher College of Business reported that “only 9% of Americans that make resolutions complete them"…that 23% of people quit their resolution by the end of the first week, and 43% quit by the end of January.