Does it feel like you've woken up to yet another day fighting the cultural dumpster fire? You're not alone. Many faithful brothers and sisters are fighting alongside you. But it's not enough to keep monotonously throwing water on the fire—it's sometimes important to step back and study just how the fire’s progressing. Only then can you know where best to attack.

As he lists off the groups of fighting men who joined David in Hebron, the writer of 1 Chronicles gives the men of Issachar a special description: they understood the times and they knew what Israel ought to do (1 Chronicles 12:32). Although we live in a much different context, I think the overarching principle ought to be applied to us as well. It's important for us to understand our times and know what we ought to do. As a matter of fact, knowing the right course of action often requires us to first understand our times. Spend a good while listening before speaking.

Kolby and Keegan Kemp are not among your best known names from the college football ranks. Both played the sport at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois—a school known for excellence on the gridiron and in academics. Moreover, a school steeped in the Christian faith. Kolby played wide receiver for his four years there. Younger brother Keegan was a quarterback and receiver.

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.

f you haven’t noticed, immigration has been a much hotter topic in Illinois news recently. As waves of migrants are bused up to Illinois from the southern border and as they try to find living space in shelters, airports and even police stations, Chicago and other cities are seriously struggling to find room for them all.

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.

Given the moral and fiscal bankruptcy of our state and so much of our nation, we might ask, “Are we as conservative Christians in Illinois good for nothing?” It may feel that no matter what we do, our witness and work bear no fruit. But it does not need to be that way.

In a sense, many of today's conservative Christians have an inferiority complex. Just mention higher education, the mainstream media, or the political dynamics of any major city in the U.S., and you'll likely be met with a series of sighs and slow head-shakes about how rigged everything seems to be against conservative voices.

“America's Chaplain” and Illinois Pastor, Steve Lee, now has a GiveSendGo account to collect funds for his legal defense: www.GiveSendGo.com/ChaplainLee. We at Illinois Family Institute have been raising funds for him too, collecting tax-deductible donations at www.IllinoisFamily.org/Contribute and letting people designate to the Pastor Lee Legal Defense cause.

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.

September 17th each year marks the historic moment in “the year of our Lord 1787” when the U.S. Constitution was signed in Philadelphia. This was a great milestone in world history. More of the constitutions around the world have been patterned after our nation’s governing document than any other frame of government.

Teacher union lobbyists and government employees work against every school choice bill and scholarship program they can; they reject the need for parental control over their children’s education. In doing so, they flatly dismiss the ability of parents to educate their own children or even to make viable decisions on their behalf.

The massive wave of illegal immigration coming across the U.S.-Mexico border is hitting Illinois and Chicago particularly hard, with authorities considering a plan to erect giant “refugee” tent cities to handle the influx. More than 1,500 migrants are currently staying in police stations across Chicago and ten times that many are spread across 16 shelters operated by the city.

Earlier this week, Governor Pritzker and U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona visited an after-school program at Fairview Elementary School in Springfield. This was just one stop on Cardona’s five-state midwestern bus tour to promote the Biden Administration’s new “Raise the Bar: Lead the World” education agenda.

“If I am to be effective, which I believe I am, we must always see the hurting human in front of us and compassionately, sensitively, truthfully confront that person with the everlasting gospel of Jesus Christ.” These are the honest and sincere words of Reverend Stephen Lee, also known as America’s Pastor. Recently, Reverend Lee was indicted in Georgia for so-called election interference, along with 18 others, including former president Donald Trump. The state alleges Lee and others “unlawfully conspired and endeavored to conduct and participate in a criminal enterprise in Fulton County, Georgia, and elsewhere.”