Illinois Family Institute

You have to give credit to Laurie Higgins and the Illinois Family Institute for coming up with a truly unique rationale for opposing the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, arguing that the fact that gays enlisted and served in the military prior to the repeal proves that they cannot be trusted to obey orders ... because they engaged in "deliberate deception" by joining the military in the first place:

Supporters of the repeal make the case that since what distinguishes soldiers is their unquestioning commitment to obey orders, this radical change in military policy will have no effect on troop morale or military readiness. Ironically, they simultaneously offer demagogic accounts of homosexual soldiers who have concealed their homosexuality, which constitutes deliberate deception on the parts of soldiers who should never have enlisted in the military. Their primary act of enlisting constituted a violation of Article 125 of the Military Code of Justice and U.S. Code - Section 654 that strictly prohibits those who engage in homosexual acts or those who state that they are homosexual from serving in the military.

Despite what supporters of the repeal claim, military prohibitions against homosexuals serving in the military no more encourage deceit, than do laws prohibiting stealing encourage deceit. To claim that laws that prohibit certain behaviors encourage deceit is another way of saying people are always going to break laws. In this twisted logic, all laws encourage deceit because those who don't want to abide by them willfully engage in deceit in order to do what they want without incurring the consequences.

Last week, Glenn Beck made news when he said that he didn't think issues like abortion or gay marriage were all that important and didn't pose a threat to the nation.

Needless to say, that is not sitting well with the Right and Beck is now coming under attack from people like David Kupelian, who are accusing him of abandoning core conservative values:

[S]peaking of our founding fathers, Glenn: The three founders you picture daily on your Fox TV show under the heading "Faith. Hope. Charity" – namely Sam Adams, George Washington and Ben Franklin – would have been horrified, appalled and aghast at the mere thought of men marrying men and women marrying women.

If you want to honor the founders, don't abandon their values.

America, you have a choice right now. Hold to what you know deep in your heart is right, even if both your enemies and your friends give you a hard time. Or, take the easy route and be comfortable, but lose your culture, your country, your children, and ultimately your self-respect.

And Joseph Farah is also going after Beck for not understanding the danger of "upsetting God's order":

Beck doesn't care about one of the most blatant and despicable examples of judicial tyranny in the history of our country. He doesn't care about the institution of marriage and its 5,000-year history. He doesn't care that the Bible says God created marriage way back in Genesis and that Jesus affirmed that. He doesn't care that the family is the building block of a society and that smarter men have explained how you simply can't have freedom and self-governance without it. He also doesn't seem to care about what might become of children adopted into such unions.

That, my friends, is the perfect illustration of what's wrong with the materialist worldview – whether it is held by a raving Marxist or a conservative entertainer.

And so is Laurie Higgins of the Illinois Family Institute, who accuses Beck of not caring about the impact it is having upon children:

True conservatives need to rethink their cowardly refusal to address the inherent immorality of homosexual practice and their deeply flawed strategy of calling for a moratorium on “social issues.” It’s astonishing that any thinking person could view as non-existential the radical redefinition of marriage and the implications it has for First Amendment speech and religious liberties as well as for parental rights and public education.

...

The sexual revolution with its severing of sex from marriage and marriage from procreation paved the way for severing marriage from gender. And now we have children being procreated with the deliberate intention of separating them from the biological parents who procreated them. Children are being deliberately denied their self-evident and inalienable right to be raised by the parents who produced them ... Homosexual activists in cahoots with legislators and judges are working feverishly — and successfully — to force public educators to present resources that affirm homosexuality and Gender Identity Disorder as positive and normal to even elementary school children. And Glenn Beck proclaims that homosexual marriage doesn’t hurt America. Apparently, children aren’t part of America in Beck’s World.

Just yesterday Glenn Beck was telling David Barton and Rick Green about how his upcoming "Restoring Honor" rally was, quite literally, being overseen by God and would lead to the next Great Awakening in America. 

But will the Religious Right support his effort now that he appears to be dismissing the social issues that are central to their agenda? 

Until just last month, the Illinois Family Institute had been listed as an anti-gay hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.  Just days after the organization was removed from the SPLC list, IFI's Laurie Higgins penned a piece entitled "Church Should Fight Homosexuality Like It Did Nazism" (see this updated post for Higgins' explanation about why she was not responsible for this title and insisted that it be changed): 

We reassure ourselves that if we had lived during the age of slavery or in Germany during the rise of Nazism or during the post-Civil War era when virulent racism still poisoned American life, we would never have stood idly by and done nothing, but I'm not so sure. Look at the church's actions today when homosexuality and gender confusion are affirmed to and in our nation's children through our public schools using our hard-earned money. Where is the church? Where is the outrage? Where are the church leaders who rejoice in being persecuted?

I've asked this question before and I will ask it again: How depraved does the behavior have to be and how young the victims before the church, starting with those who have freely chosen to assume the mantle of pastor or priest, will both feel and express outrage at the indecent, cruel, and evil practice of using public money to affirm body and soul-destroying ideas to children?

In October, IFI is holding its "Family, Faith and Freedom Banquet" and guess who has been tapped as the keynote speaker:

Family, Faith and Freedom Banquet

Crowne Plaza O'Hare
5440 N. River Road
Rosemont, Illinois

Tuesday, October 6 at 6:30 p.m.

Dinner tickets are $100 each.
Tickets for dinner and a private reception with Gov. Mike Huckabee are $250.

Jeremy has the audio of the announcement in which Huckabee urges activists to attend because "I've got a lot to tell you about what I see happening as I travel across this nation and how, together, we can bring back the values that we all share: family, faith, and freedom. More importantly, by attending this banquet, you'll be helping the Illinois Family Institute continue to stand strong in promoting pro-family values across this great state. More than ever, we need to support organizations like IFI who boldly stand for the sanctity of life, religious freedom, and natural marriage."

This event comes just days after Huckabee is scheduled to appear at the How To Take Back America Conference, which features another SPLC hate group, MassResistance, and raises anew the question of just how radical an organization has to be before Huckabee will refuse to be seen with them.  At this point, there is seemingly no limit.

The Illinois Family Institute, former stomping grounds of militant homophobe Peter LaBarbera before he launched his own Americans For Truth About Homosexuality, has unveiled its new Division of School Advocacy program designed to ensure that public schools do not teach anything about homosexuality, religion, socialism, abortion, or any “immoral, unhealthy, and dangerous ideologies” that might conflict with what the IFI considers “biblical truth”: 

The Illinois Family Institute helps to fight against pervasive secular humanism that exists in our public schools. Through the newly developed Division of School Advocacy, parents will be able to find answers and resources to help identify areas where the school curriculum strays from Biblical Truth and to recognize the influence from outside organizations such as Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), which pressures administrators and educators to present this organization's views and agendas.

The purpose of the Illinois Family Institute's (IFI) new Division of School Advocacy (DSA) is to protect children from immoral, unhealthy, and dangerous ideologies and agendas in public schools. In the service of that critical goal, the DSA is committed to assisting Illinois residents to address issues related to the breakdown of Judeo-Christian family values and community standards in public education.

In addition to assisting each citizen who contacts IFI regarding school issues, Illinois Family Institute's Division of School Advocacy will continue to work tirelessly toward affecting morally sound legislation in Illinois public schools.

The DSA will provide constituents with the training, resources, and counsel needed for positive changes in public schools. Through this training, resources, and counsel, taxpayers will become better equipped to address administrators, faculty members, and school board members in appropriate and effective ways. The Division of School Advocacy will address such public school problem topics as Human Sexuality, Religion/Atheism, Race/"Social Justice", Marxism/Socialism/Income Redistribution, Gender/Feminism, Environmentalism, Abortion, Fetal Stem Cell Research, Population Control, and Miscellaneous Political Topics.