The Illinois Family Spotlight podcast will highlight a specific cultural or political issue of which our listeners should be aware. Our discussions will be informed by a biblical worldview that will help expose the lies and distortions promulgated within secular culture. We will be interviewing policy experts and scholars whose knowledge and insights will help listeners form a wiser worldview.
Our final Spotlight for May features a recent conversation between Monte Larrick and Pastor Dan Haas of Aurora Community Church. In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, Haas wonders what is God’s message to believers in Christ and what is the Church’s task. Dan stresses the opportunity the pandemic presents to re-evaluate and prepare for what ministry could look like inside and outside of the physical church facility in the months to come. He also emphasizes that Governor Pritzker’s “one size fits all” approach to restrictions is flawed and injurious.… Continue Reading
Former Obama chief of staff and exploiter of crises, Rahm-bo Emanuel, is now informally advising Befuddled Biden. Before Americans take a looong walk off a short presidential pier and vote for Befuddled Biden, let’s take a short walk down Memory Lane. Since Biden obviously won’t be able to join us on Memory Lane, we’ll send Stacey Abrams to his Delaware bunker to carry him.
In 2007, Joe Biden said this about former president Barack Obama: “I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.… Continue Reading
Calculated Carnage—known euphemistically as Planned Parenthood (PP)—won’t let a little thing like a pandemic keep it from its bloody and profitable business. Planned Parenthood of Illinois (PPIL) has opened a new facility in Waukegan, Illinois, a Lake County city where one quarter of the families and one quarter of the population are under the poverty line.
Calculated Carnage calculates that targeting the babies of the poor is a more profitable business model than targeting the babies of the affluent (You’ll never find PP trying to sneak an abattoir into Glencoe, Lake Forest, or Winnetka).… Continue Reading
On this edition of Spotlight, the four C’s: Constitution, constitutional rights, churches, and coronavirus share center stage. Our podcast leads off with attorney and constitutional scholar David Shestokas. Monte Larrick and David discuss how Governor J.B. Pritzker has overstepped his authority by issuing coronavirus-related executive orders that masquerade as law. Additionally, they contemplate the Governor’s true motivation, especially as his actions directly target churches, freedom of religion, and the right to peaceably assemble.
Midway through the podcast, Monte and David are joined by Pastor RichardGiovannetti who shares his pastoral perspective on how Illinois’ excessive restrictions are negatively impacting ministry, worship, and fellowship.… Continue Reading
On Wednesday, declassified documents reveal that sixteen government officials during Obama’s reign of corruption requested the “unmasking” of General Michael Flynn, among whom are six notable Obama minions: Joe Biden (1 request), John Brennan (2 requests), James Clapper (3 requests), James Comey (1 request), and Samantha Powers (7 requests).
Golly gee, I wonder if former president and afficionado of Chicago-style politics Barack Obama knew anything about this.
Give me your young, your old, your faithful masses yearning to worship freely. This revision of The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus could well be the rallying cry of Pastor Steve Cassell of Beloved Church in Lena, IL. On this edition of Spotlight, Pastor Steve joins me for a timely discussion regarding the perilous intersection of COVID-19, governmental “authority,” and Constitutionally-guaranteed personal liberties.
Pastor Steve and I consider how churches and people of faith should respond to Illinois’ lockdown and examine the dangerous precedent that could be established by our governor’s abuse of his executive power.… Continue Reading
| Benjamin D. Smith | May 12, 2020 4:22 AM | Comments Off on “I Will Not Stand Idly By And Let Darkness Take Over Our Nation” (Illinois Family Spotlight #198)
The toxic sludge oozing throughout the Obama Administration, his Department of Justice (DOJ), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and Democrat allies in Congress is seeping out, enabling Americans to see more clearly that the unhinged efforts to unseat President Trump were taken straight out of Richard Nixon’s Watergate playbook.
In an effort to be re-elected, Nixon’s campaign attempted to illegally wiretap and burgle the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters and then engaged in a complex cover-up in which Nixon tried to involve the CIA, FBI, and DOJ.… Continue Reading
Conservatives are accustomed to the sanctimonious scoldings of hypocritical “progressives” who self-identify as the moral tutors of America—tutors who will forcibly “guide” Americans through the wide gate and onto the broad road that leads to self-righteousness. But those who have eyes to see will notice that the chinks in the armor of “progressives” that conceal atrophied consciences and darkened hearts are growing. Ironically, it’s the evil empire of Communist China that is taking a pickaxe to those chinks.… Continue Reading
While numerous businesses have been designated as “essential” and allowed to operate during the COVID-19 pandemic, Illinois’ governor has deemed houses of worship for all faith traditions as non-essential entities, denying people of faith access to these facilities for corporate worship and prayer. Monte Larrick spoke with Pro-Life Action League’s Ann Scheidler at a May 1st prayer vigil, held outside Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago, to protest Governor Pritzker’s overreach. Mrs. Scheidler emphasized that now is the opportune time to stand up for our civil and religious liberties, as well as step up our pro-life activism.… Continue Reading
| Benjamin D. Smith | May 5, 2020 4:43 AM | Comments Off on “We Need Our Churches Open and Operating, Not As Mere Monuments” (Illinois Family Spotlight #197)
You are good and do good;
Teach me Your statutes.
~Psalm 119:68
I shall make mention of the lovingkindnesses of the Lord,
the praises of the Lord, According to all that the Lord has granted us,
And the great goodness toward the house of Israel,
Which He has granted them according to His compassion
And according to the abundance of His lovingkindnesses.
~ Isaiah 63:7
O taste and see that the Lord is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!… Continue Reading
| Benjamin D. Smith | 
May 26, 2020 4:41 AM | 
Comments Off on “Are There Silver Linings to This Pandemic?” (Illinois Family Spotlight #200) 
