Anni Cyrus was born in 1983 in Iran– after the the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Because of this, she grew up in the Islamic Republic of Iran in a strict Islamic family with a father who was a strong, Islamic authority figure.  Anni's one experience outside of the strictness of her family upbringing was her grandmother, who grew up in the free side of Iran before the Islamic Revolution.

Last month, the theology editor at Christianity Today Stefani McDade published a piece defending her choice to eventually send her young daughter, currently a mere toddler, to a local government school. The back-to-school season prompted her to examine how we think about education, discipleship, and the faithfulness of God.

Hundreds of thousands of unaccompanied minors—illegal immigrants—are missing.

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.