A Few of Our “Greatest Hits” from 2025

Family Council

Since 1989, Family Council has worked to promote, protect, and strengthen traditional family values in Arkansas.

This year we’ve supported good laws, opposed bad laws, stood up for home schooling, promoted religious freedom, defended the sanctity of innocent human life, blunted the radical LGBT agenda, and much more.

It’s been a good year. Here’s a brief look at just a few of Family Council’s “Greatest Hits” from 2025.

Fielding One of the Best Lobby Teams in the Nation at the Arkansas Capitol

Above: Family Council staff members pause for a photo with Rep. Robin Lundstrum (R — Elm Springs) on the final day of the regular legislative session.

Family Council is consistently able to field one of the best teams of statewide lobbyists in the nation. Our friends at national organizations often talk about how effective our staff is at the state capitol. No one on our lobby team serves in the legislature, so none of us gets to vote on laws. Arkansas’ legislators deserve credit for passing good bills and voting against bad ones. But Family Council still helps secure passage of good laws by being at the legislature and by informing and equipping everyday voters across the state to make their voices heard.

Doing Our Part to Keep Arkansas the Most Pro-Life State in America

Our friends at Americans United for Life recognized Arkansas as the most pro-life state in the nation thanks to all of the good laws we have enacted that respect innocent human life from conception to natural death. Making Arkansas the most pro-life state in America took a lot of work from many different pro-life leaders. Ministers, churches, elected officials, pregnancy resource centers, and everyday Arkansans all have helped make Arkansas the pro-life state that it is today. Family Council has been pleased to do our part year after year to make sure our pro-life laws are the very best in the country.

Defending Homeschool Rights in Arkansas

One of our top priorities for this year was making sure no legislation would hurt homeschooling in Arkansas. We have been able to do that.

We have also been able to work with the Arkansas Department of Education and the Division of Higher Education to make sure homeschoolers who take concurrent credit high school and college courses continue to have access to scholarships.

On February 26, more than a thousand homeschoolers, policymakers, and elected officials gathered for Home School Day at the Capitol. Homeschoolers heard from Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Lt. Governor Leslie Rutledge, Attorney General Tim Griffin, Secretary of State Cole Jester, State Auditor Dennis Milligan, State Treasurer John Thurston, State Land Commissioner Tommy Land, and others. Rep. Cameron Cooper presented a special resolution in the Arkansas House of Representatives recognizing and honoring homeschooling across the state. Home School Day at the Capitol gives homeschool families a wonderful opportunity to gather with one another, meet legislators, watch committee meetings, and tour the capitol.

Growing Our Church Ambassador Network

Family Council launched its Church Ambassador Network to help bridge the gap between church leaders and community leaders. The Church Ambassador Network fosters intentional relationships between pastors and elected officials so pastors can minister to Arkansas’ government leaders—offering wisdom, encouragement, and prayer. This year our Church Ambassador Network grew to include several hundred ministers from different churches, and we were able to host several meetings with Arkansas’ elected officials.

Bringing Ministers and Church Leaders to the Capitol

On March 6, ministers and church leaders from across Arkansas gathered for Pastors’ Day at the Capitol. Family Council and its Church Ambassador Network initiative sponsored this excellent event. This year we got to hear from Dr. Ronnie Floyd as well as different ministers and elected officials. Pastors’ Day at the Capitol gives church leaders an opportunity to worship in the Capitol rotunda and pray over the state’s policymakers—and it’s one of the best things we do all year. Plenty of groups and organizations come to the capitol each week, but none of them gather for prayer and worship like we do.

Promoting Religious Freedom in the Public Square

From left: Dr. Jim Lagrone, Director of Family Council’s Church Ambassador Network initiative, and David Barton of WallBuilders.

This year, Family Council supported Act 573 of 2025 by Sen. Jim Dotson and Rep. Alyssa Brown letting Arkansans place privately funded copies of the Ten Commandments in public schools and other public buildings. We also have worked with outside groups to help distribute posters of the Ten Commandments across Arkansas. In August, we coordinated a press conference in Little Rock alongside our friends at First Liberty, WallBuilders, Patriot Mobile, and the Arkansas General Assembly to encourage Arkansans to donate posters of the Ten Commandments to their local public buildings. The ACLU has sued to strike down Act 573, but we believe it is a good law and that our federal courts ultimately will uphold it as constitutional.

Other Highlights from 2025

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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Family Council’s Greatest Hits from 2024

Family Council

Since 1989, Family Council has worked to promote, protect, and strengthen traditional family values in Arkansas. We’ve supported good legislation, opposed bad laws, promoted religious freedom, defended the sanctity of innocent human life, stood up for traditional marriage, blunted the radical LGBT agenda, and much more. Family Council’s team has grown this year — and so has our work. Here’s a brief look at a few of Family Council’s “Greatest Hits” from 2024.

Keeping Abortion Out of Arkansas. Pro-abortion forces worked relentlessly to write abortion into the Arkansas Constitution this year, but pro-lifers fought back. The pro-life “Decline to Sign” campaign  likely cost the Arkansas Abortion Amendment 40,000 petition signatures and tens of thousands of dollars. It also likely kept abortion off the ballot in Arkansas, because the state supreme court invalidated petition signatures collected by paid canvassers but not the petition signatures that volunteers collected. If the pro-abortion volunteers had collected more signatures this past summer, their amendment might have made the November ballot. Fortunately, our team, Arkansas Right to Life, and other pro-life groups were able to spread the word about this bad amendment. Pro-lifers worked to defeat the abortion petition drive in Arkansas, and we were able to keep abortion out of the state.

Supporting Homeschoolers in Arkansas. Homeschooling has surged to record levels in our state. Today, more than 32,000 students homeschool in Arkansas. Our homeschool office, the Education Alliance, worked daily this year to help these students and their families with everything from getting started homeschooling to applying for college — and everything in between. We also helped homeschoolers understand how they can receive funding from the state’s new LEARNS Act this year. We are glad we get to serve homeschool families in our state.

Fighting Marijuana’s Expansion in Arkansas. Marijuana industry insiders spent nearly $2 million working to place a marijuana amendment on the ballot. Our team was able to build a powerful statewide grassroots network of county coordinators to inform people about this fatally flawed amendment. We printed and distributed about half a million church bulletin inserts. Had the Arkansas Supreme Court not disqualified this amendment, we were ready with our statewide campaign, and I believe our side would have prevailed as we did when Arkansas voters rejected legalizing marijuana just two years ago. We all breathed a sigh of relief when the Arkansas  Supreme Court ruled that the marijuana amendment was legally flawed and that votes for it should not be counted. Our efforts against marijuana have positioned us to successfully fight to keep marijuana out of Arkansas.

Securing $2 Million in Funding for Pregnancy Help Organizations. One of the best things Family Council has ever done is help pregnancy resource centers secure publicly-funded grants. In 2022 we worked with former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson and with our friends in the Arkansas Legislature to pass a budget measure providing a million dollars for pro-life pregnancy help organizations in Arkansas. In 2023 and 2024 we worked with Governor Sanders and with lawmakers to secure additional appropriations for these organizations. But this year we were able to expand the program and provide $2 million in grant funding. This grant money will provide real support to women in Arkansas with unplanned pregnancies, making it less likely they will travel to other states for abortion. That is something to celebrate.

Uncovering Planned Parenthood’s New Abortion Facility Near the Arkansas Border. In May Planned Parenthood — the nation’s largest abortion provider — announced plans to build a new abortion facility in southeast Kansas, within driving distance of Northwest Arkansas. Family Council worked over the summer to locate the new abortion center. In August our team found public records showing Planned Parenthood had formed a limited liability company that quietly purchased and renovated a doctor’s office in Pittsburg, Kansas. We alerted our friends at national pro-life organizations and our pro-life friends in Kansas. Breaking this news before Planned Parenthood was open for business helped pro-lifers begin mobilizing in Pittsburg before abortions were performed. By the time Planned Parenthood opened the facility, pro-life sidewalk counselors and prayer warriors were there as well. In August, Family Council was able to participate in a joint press conference outside the abortion facility, where we shared the truth about abortion and called on people to oppose Planned Parenthood’s agenda. This was a significant accomplishment.

Opposing Abortion and Other Bad Policies in Federal Court. Besides working to keep abortion out of Arkansas, Family Council also joined multiple amicus briefs in federal court this year. These amicus briefs helped defend good, pro-life laws in states like West Virginia and Idaho, and they helped oppose bad, pro-abortion policies the Biden Administration has promoted at the federal level. We are glad to be part of this important work.

Distributing Tens of Thousands of Voter’s Guides During 2024 Election Cycle. One of our goals is to educate voters so they can vote wisely when they head to the polls. The Arkansas Voter’s Guide is one way Family Council does that. Since 1990, we have surveyed candidates running for office in Arkansas, and we have published their responses. Our guide helps voters understand where candidates stand on issues like abortion, homeschooling, marijuana legalization, immigration policy, and so on. The guide also contains summaries of the ballot measures. This year we distributed more than 75,000 printed copies of the Arkansas Voter’s Guide, and our digital guide at ArkansasVotersGuide.com reached another 11,000 people. Many churches, homeschool groups, and other organizations share our voter’s guides with their members. Altogether, our team estimates that we distributed enough voter’s guides in print, online, and via email and text message to reach more than 125,000 potential voters. All of that had a tremendous impact in Arkansas.

Forming the Church Ambassador Network. One of our goals for 2024 was to form a network of church leaders who would minister to elected leaders and partner with them to address the problems many of our communities face. This year we hired Jim Lagrone, D.Min., and Cade Daniel to carry out this initiative. Since then both Jim and Cade have traveled the state, meeting with ministers and building this network. We were able to form the Church Ambassador Network of Arkansas this year, and we have big plans for it in the coming year.

Mobilizing the Arkansas Justice Institute. This year we mobilized the Arkansas Justice Institute to provide a clear, Christian perspective on legal issues in Arkansas and network with likeminded attorneys across the state. We hired Stephanie Nichols to lead and serve as chief legal counsel for the Justice Institute. Stephanie has helped draft legislation, researched legal issues, and offered sound wisdom to our organization. We believe the work we accomplished this year will help bear good fruit at the Arkansas Legislature in 2025.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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Celebrating Family Council’s “Greatest Hits” From 2023

Family Council

As the year draws to a close, I want to invite you to take a moment to celebrate just a few of Family Council’s greatest accomplishments from 2023 with me.

Funding Pregnancy Resource Centers: This year we secured $1 million to fund a grant program for pro-life pregnancy help organizations. We need to eliminate the demand for abortion, and these publicly-funded grants are an excellent way the State of Arkansas can do exactly that.

Defending Homeschool Freedoms: Home schooling may be the most potent weapon against the cultural decay and immorality that afflicts our society. As a division of Family Council, the Education Alliance goes to the State Capitol and fights for homeschool rights and for the passage of new laws that help homeschoolers. In addition, we work with the Arkansas Department of Education to be certain that homeschool rights are respected. This year we were able to help stop multiple legislative proposals that could have hurt homeschoolers—such as state-mandated testing requirements—and we worked with our friends in the legislature to ensure the LEARNS Act will provide valuable school choice opportunities to homeschoolers.

Eliminating Exemptions for Public Libraries in the State’s Obscenity Statute: A bill by Sen. Sullivan and Rep. Gonzalez revealed a lot about some librarians. Until this year, state law let librarians promote obscene material. When Sen. Sullivan and Rep. Gonzalez tried to make librarians subject to the same law that applies to the rest of us, the librarians alleged it was “book banning.” The bill passed, and Arkansas law now prohibits public libraries from sharing obscene material.

Carrying Out Our Three-Pronged Strategy for Making Abortion Irrelevant Now That Roe v. Wade is Reversed: When the U.S. Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade, Family Council unveiled a three-pronged strategy for protecting unborn children in Arkansas: Encourage the enforcement of our pro-life laws, work with our friends to pass any new pro-life laws necessary to end abortion, and expand our efforts to assist pro-life pregnancy help organizations across Arkansas. This year we were able to fulfill all three of those goals.

Defending Religious Freedom: Arkansas now has the nation’s best religious freedom law—Act 733 of 2023, the Conscience Protection Act. This good law protects religious liberty and bans government discrimination against religious people or organizations. Act 733 helps safeguard the ability of religious people and religious organizations to operate according to their deeply held convictions.
Blocking Pro-Abortion Legislation: As predicted, pro-abortion lawmakers attacked our good pro-life laws. They introduced a constitutional amendment that would have repealed our pro-life Amendment 68 and made abortion a state constitutional right. They also attempted to pass laws allowing abortions for health reasons and in cases of incest. We joined Arkansas Right to Life in opposing these bad laws, and all of them were defeated.

Empowering People to Make a Big Difference Through Our Rapid Response Network: In 2019 we formed the Family Council Rapid Response Team, a network of over 400 people in every area of Arkansas. When we ask them to call their lawmakers about legislation, they call. When we activate them on some local issue in their city or county, they step up and make their voices heard. We worked to grow our Rapid Response Network this year, and we empowered each of them to make their voices heard at the capitol during the 2023 legislative session.

Your friendship, your prayers, your kind words, and your financial support have enabled us to do so much. If you have completed your charitable giving for 2023, thank you. If you are still making donations between now and Sunday, I hope you will consider supporting the work we do at Family Council. Click here to give securely today.

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