On June 6 of this year, the Doctors Protecting Children Declaration officially launched. Included in the coalition of co-signers are members of the healthcare community representing a variety of specialties, including psychiatrists, pediatricians, nurses, physicians, scientists, and more.

MrBeast (whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson) is a wildly popular YouTuber whose channel has over 300 million subscribers. He became famous for his goofy videos that involve lots of money and often a lot of work, such as “Protect the Lamborghini, Keep It,” and “I Survived 7 Days in an Abandoned City." His videos generally star him and a small group of his friends. MrBeast is incredibly popular among tweens and teens, especially boys.

I regularly write articles about shocking cultural developments, and by now I'm (sadly) somewhat used to it. Evil men go from bad to worse just like 2 Timothy 3:13 says, and while sin never ultimately gets less hateful, it does tend to get somewhat less surprising as time goes on. However, in June of this year, the Massachusetts House passed a bill that shocked even me.

James O’Keefe, political activist and founder of Project Veritas, recently exposed Disney Creative Marketing Director Genie Gurnani’s radical push for more LGBTQ content. This content would directly target children– your young, impressionable children. O’Keefe Media Group’s (OMG) undercover journalist had an spine-chilling conversation with Gurnani that every parent should pay attention to.

Our understanding of what we think is true constantly changes. At least, it does if we continue to learn. When I was in high school, for example, my science textbook unequivocally stated that the entire universe consisted of 16 galaxies.  Period.  Now, more than sixty years later, we do not know how many galaxies there are. 

A homeschool advocate acquainted with an IFI staff member recently answered over 150 Facebook messages about homeschooling.  "It's just blowing up!" the advocate said. "Lots and lots of parents from central and southern IL wanting out." Homeschooling has been around for a few decades now, and it has made significant advances in quality and acceptability over the years, but it usually seems to have been relegated to the academic fringes. 

Over the last couple articles, we discussed the rationale for the peculiarly odd wickedness known as drag. In what possible worldview does it make sense? That worldview is known as queer theory, a philosophy dedicated to overthrowing traditional sexual norms. Queer theory teaches that different kinds of sexual activity exist on a hierarchy, and that sex is a malleable social construct. 

Last time, we pointed out the abnormally odd wickedness of drag queens and we asked the question: Why this? What possible worldview advocates for a man, dressed like a woman, wearing freakish makeup, and reading a sexually deviant book to third graders? Our search for the answer took us on a brief trip through queer theory, the philosophy committed to destroying traditional sexual ethics.

Near the end of May, we discussed Boy Scouts and their name change to “Scouting America.” In the article, we excitedly highlighted Trail Life USA as the Christian, conservative alternative to Boy Scouts. Unfortunately, within scouting, the influence of the left is not limited to the Boy Scouts. Girl Scouts, too, has been infected with a liberal agenda.  

In an obvious attempt to discredit homeschooling as a legitimate education choice, left-leaning “news” outlet ProPublica (in cooperation with Capitol News Illinois) published an article condemning homeschool freedom in Illinois.

In late June of last year, a cultural battle erupted in the small, northern-Illinois town of Rockton. With police supervising the scene, hundreds of people swarmed to the town's community center where the library board was deliberating inside. Some protesters held signs with slogans such as "Keep Your Hands off Our Children" and sang "God Bless America."

This is the last week of session. They are scheduled to adjourn on Friday, May 24th. There are two new bills that just came to our attention. Please take the appropriate action.

In our last piece, we continued our series on the troubling moral consequences of various forms of artificial reproduction technology. From the death of hordes of innocent human embryos to the violation of the sacred marriage commitment, the picture doesn't look pretty when man tries to play God. But we're not done yet. Let's look at a couple more implications of this vicious technological trend.

This week there will be lots of  rigorous floor debating, long speeches, and many specific questions. Please email your elected officials on these bills.

Frederick Douglass once said, “Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.” Reading is vitally important to a child’s imagination and education. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) notes, "At all three grades, students who more frequently read for fun on their own time had higher average proficiencies."