Month: June 2022

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Coach Kennedy WINS at SCOTUS!

Following the incredible Dobbs victory handed down by the US Supreme Court on Friday, overturning Roe v. Wade, and the additional ruling last week confirming religious freedom and school choice in Carson v. Makin, SCOTUS handed down yet another major win today in Coach Kennedy’s case!

Coach Joseph Kennedy was fired from a public school in Washington State after he prayed briefly at the 50-yard line.

Kennedy began saying a brief prayer following games years ago. Initially he did so alone, but some students were curious about what he was doing. When they asked if they could join, he responded, “This is a free country,” and “You can do what you want.” Shortly after, more and more students joined in until almost half the team participated.

When the school learned what he was doing, they told him he could no longer pray publicly. Despite initially obeying the order, Kennedy believed it violated his freedoms of speech and religion. He felt responsible to thank God for the games in that way. So, he continued to pray, and as a result, lost his job.

Indiana Family Institute was proud to stand with Coach Kennedy at the highest court in the land as we signed onto an amicus brief supporting religious freedom and free speech rights.

Your prayers and support matter! Because of your generosity, Indiana Family Institute is able to support these major cases at the US Supreme Court that are now restoring life and liberty across the nation.

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Donate to the 5 Freedoms Project

The five freedoms enumerated in the First Amendment are under deep scrutiny and even attack these days. And, the challenges to the First Amendment have become so varied and numerous that national organizations are hard-pressed to respond to all of these threats in a timely and effective manner.

This is why (with Alliance Defending Freedom’s blessing) we launched the Five Freedoms Project in Indiana. Instead of delegating claims to the first attorney that responds, our plan is to develop a network of attorneys that focus in particular practice areas (such as employment law) and to match claims to an attorney in the relevant practice area. Further, and this is especially true in parental rights cases, cases can be won or lost in a short period of time if the claimant does not receive advice on his or her legal rights and assistance during the public relations firestorm that often develops in such cases. For these reasons, this project is designed to provide Indiana claimants with prompt legal referrals and public relations assistance.

Thank you for donating to assist in this vital work.

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Life has only declined since Roe

Curt Smith, Chairman of Indiana Family Institute, penned an op-ed yesterday which highlights the lies we’ve been told about abortion since the Roe decision was first handed down. He writes:

Court observers tell us the U.S. Supreme Court will hand down a landmark abortion decision overturning Roe v. Wade any day now.  This observation is based on the unprecedented “leak” of a draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito declaring that Roe was wrongly decided, because the U.S. Constitution includes no right to abortion.
           
Assuming that legal logic holds, which is a safe assumption as the Court verified the authenticity of Alito’s draft and any substantial departure from it would show the majority was bullied by the leaker, states will soon determine their unique abortion policy.  
           
That will be a healthy debate, though full of acrimony. I say healthy because among Roe’s most pernicious progeny is an overall coarsening of the culture as the value of life was diminished. We began America with a heart-felt cry for “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” But post-Roe we dropped “life” for a third of the citizenry, leaving only liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And a libertine culture we have.
           
This cultural coarsening occurred even though the pro-abortion side promised when Roe was originally decided in 1973 that America’s social problems would only get better when children were “chosen” and “wanted.”
           
Instead, by any measure, quality of American life has dramatically declined since. There is more fatherlessness, more teen violence, more incarcerations, more people in poverty, fewer intact families, and increasing drug overdoses…

           
…The causes of these maladies are far broader than one court case, of course. Yet Roe, which ranks among the worst court decisions ever along with Dred Scott (slaves are property, decided in 1857) and Plessy v. Ferguson (separate but equal accommodations by race are legal, decided in 1896), belongs on the ash heap of disgraced social policy. This is because Roe is more, far more than horrible public policy.

Roe helped deaden our society’s empathy. Roe sent the signal that we should not meddle in others’ affairs – no matter who may be hurt by it. Roe set the stage for generations taught to worship the self, and that one’s own desires always comes first. Roe embedded moral relativism into our society.

When Roe is overturned – and we expect that decision to be handed down any week now – we will be fighting not only for increased legal protections for the preborn child in Indiana, but to change our sick culture.

We depend on your help, activism, prayers, and generosity to advance protections for life and liberty. Thank you for being part of Team IFI, and let’s get ready for life after Roe.

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Jasper drag show exposed by LibsofTikTok

A drag show aimed at children in Jasper, Indiana has been canceled following a exposure from the popular Twitter account LibsofTikTok. The LibsofTikTok account functions by simply republishing information that others have already shared themselves online, but due to a large following, the exposure results in a massive amount of attention.

In this case, the account found a scheduled drag show aimed at children hosted by the Dubois County Pride Committee and was planned alongside the city of Jasper, Indiana.

LibsofTikTok shared the flyer for the event on Twitter, where the post received more than 1,000 retweets and more than 3,800 likes. The flyer emphasized that the drag show was “open for all ages” and encouraged attendees to bring their children, calling the event “family friendly.” This isn’t about inclusivity, as LGBT activists so often claim – this is about indoctrination.

The Dubois County Pride Committee and the city of Jasper ultimately canceled the event, citing “security concerns” following the post from LibsofTikTok. Supporters of the event accused the user of going on a “campaign of terror” against the LGBT agenda, but failed to recognize that LibsofTikTok simply reshared the publicly available flyer published by the organizers themselves, indicating that publicity most groups would appreciate instead has exposed the unpopularity of these radical LGBT events aimed at children. 

“They say it’s innocent. They say it’s just about inclusion and acceptance. They say no one is trying to confuse, corrupt, or sexualize kids. They lie,” said LibsofTikTok in a thread full of instances where LGBT activists attempted to use drag as a way to desensitize kids to their agenda.

Individual actions do make a difference, and we encourage you to stay vigilant in fighting the LGBT agenda’s harmful impact on your children. Continue to be watchful and expose any attempts to normalize such events, and be encouraged by the fact that more and more parents are becoming aware and are fighting alongside you. 

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No pronouns? No lunch money

The Biden administration continues to push back against religious freedom, and its latest move reaches into classrooms across the country. The Department of Agriculture announced last month that it intends to change the Title IX definition of discrimination based on sex “to include discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.” While this is not surprising given the administration’s support for an extreme LGBT agenda, it is yet another assault on religious freedom being wielded by a president who claims to be devout.

This change means that any school receiving any type of federal funding will be required to adhere to far-left LGBT policies, or else risk losing that funding and putting students at risk. Students who receive FAFSA or Pell Grant funding may lose it if their schools do not change their policies, and schools around the country could lose billions of dollars in federal lunch money. This isn’t about inclusivity or acceptance– this is a political tool being used at the expense of our kids.

In order to continue receiving federal funding, schools will be required to follow asinine policies such as allowing boys into girls’ restrooms and locker rooms, allowing boys to participate in girls’ sports, and even facing punishment if they fail to call transgender students by their preferred pronouns.

While the new policies proposed by the USDA include a religious exemption for Christian schools, experts are unsure thus far whether it will actually protect those schools from choosing between losing funding or violating their beliefs. If the administration chooses to ignore the exemptions, it could open a legal battle to force Christian schools to comply. In these cases, they aren’t just forcing schools to implement dangerous ideas in order to feed their students – they are launching a direct attack on religious freedom by attempting to force Christian schools to contradict their beliefs.

President Biden claims to be devout, but his administration continues to take steps that fly in the face of God. Using children as pawns in a political game of chess is stooping to a low level, and that is only heightened by the fact that religious freedom is being attacked as well.

Parents should be free to send their children to religious schools knowing that those schools will teach according to biblical principles, and they should also feel comfortable sending their children to public school without fear of radical indoctrination. Yet this administration has consistently taken steps that attempt to remove parental rights and indoctrinate.

Continue speaking out. Now is not the time for silence!

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