Current Events – Family Council

Here Are A Few Of Our Goals for 2025

Jan 1, 2025Jerry CoxCurrent EventsUpdate

Family Council has big plans for 2025 in Arkansas. The state legislature will convene on January 13 — and our team plans to be there, working on more than a dozen legislative priorities. Here is a little of what we hope to accomplish in the coming year:

Abortion: Lawmakers are already planning legislation for the coming legislative session that will weaken Arkansas’ good abortion law. Unborn children who are conceived as a result of rape or incest have just as much right to live as any others. Unborn children who may be born less than perfect have as much right to be born as anyone else. We won’t stand by and let them destroy everything it took to make Arkansas the most pro-life state in the nation.

Homeschooling: Anti-homeschool lawmakers are already planning legislation for the coming legislative session that discriminates against homeschoolers by taking LEARNS Act funding away. Homeschoolers are currently eligible for these State funds and we intend to work to see them treated fairly.

Pregnancy Center Funding: The State of Arkansas currently provides $2 million per year in funding to help about 50 pregnancy centers across the state. These tax-funded grants help pregnancy centers provide pregnant women and girls with alternatives to abortion. We plan to work with Governor Sanders and lawmakers to keep this funding going.

Parental Rights and Religious Freedom: We have several bills ready for introduction that will strengthen parental rights in Arkansas. We have other bills that will strengthen the rights of churches, pastors, and businesses who refuse to participate in weddings or other activities that violate their religious beliefs.

Online Safety for Kids: We plan to work with lawmakers on bills that will require age identification and/or parental consent for minors to access social media and other online material.

Abortion and Marijuana Amendments: We need to fix Arkansas’’’ flawed petition initiative laws that enable the wealthy abortion and marijuana industries to pay people to circulate petitions for state constitutional amendments that deceive people. If they have their way, they will keep pushing amendments that will lead to the deaths of innocent unborn children and create more marijuana drug addicts. We and others successfully fought these efforts in 2024. If the laws aren’t fixed, we can expect these powerful forces to try to put their dangerous amendments on the ballot every two years.

These are just a few of our goals for 2025. You can learn more about what we hope to accomplish this year by clicking here.

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

A Little Courage Goes A Long Way: Guest Column

Dec 31, 2024John StonestreetCurrent EventsCommunism, Truth

Often, even the smallest acts of courage can change the world. Kamila Bendova and her late husband Václav, both Christians and mathematicians, raised their family in Communist-controlled Czechoslovakia while engaged in the anti-totalitarian efforts of the Charter 77 resistance group. Kamila shared their story of courage during the Colson Center National Conference in May.

The Bendova’s courage began with a small act of resistance. In an old video clip from the BBC, which Kamila showed during the conference, she and her husband are debating whether to acquiesce to the government’s demand that citizens display little flags celebrating the communist takeover:

You see, they wanted us to show the world that the Czech Republic was a democracy on the outside. But on the inside, it didn’t work like that. Yes, we had elections, but there was only one party you could vote for.

Powerfully, the video concluded with the two agreeing, simply and decisively, but also courageously, “No little flags. No little flags.”

Eventually, their resistance would cost them greatly. In 1979, Václav was arrested for his involvement with Charter 77 and imprisoned for four years. Despite this hardship, Kamila continued to open her home to dissidents, many of whom would stop by to seek advice and encouragement before being investigated by the secret police. She relayed secret communications and hid resistance documents in her apartment. All the while, she and her family prayed, studied, and stayed together. The Bendova’s taught their children to love truth and reject lies, especially by reading to them every night. The story that most shaped the moral imagination of the children was Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, which was illegal at the time.

When asked “Why Tolkien?” Kamila responded:

Because we knew Mordor was real. We felt that their story … was our story too. Tolkien’s dragons are more realistic than a lot of things we have in this world.

Like the hobbits and their friends, Kamila’s family also faced an oppressive regime. And like Tolkien’s heroes, the Bendova’s faithfulness and small acts of courage were not in vain.

Author Rod Dreher has told the Bendova story in two of his books. At the conference, he noted that courage is costly but comes with great gain:

What has [a person] gained by being willing to make this stand? For one thing, he’s gained his self-respect. He knows that he won’t live by lies even if he has to pay a price for it. Beyond that, though, he has made a statement to the wider community that it is possible not to live by lies. It is possible to defy this unjust authority if you are willing to suffer.

Over time, enough people may be inspired by seeing the small but meaningful acts of courage that they will bring down the entire system, which is built on lies. That’s why it’s important to take the flag down or to take the sign down in your shop, or not to sign a petition that you don’t believe in.

It may be that Kamila’s example of courage, even in the smallest aspects of raising children and exposing lies, can inspire Christians today who face what Dreher calls “soft totalitarianism.” America may not have secret police or gulags, but we do have woke universities and social media influencers, and powerful DEI departments and state civil rights commissions. They threaten to cancel and to penalize and to fire. We’ve seen how small acts of courage from bakers and professors and pundits and X accounts can push back on the darkness we face.

Likely, the new administration will bring a reprieve from the most aggressive corners of the left. Even so, this was made possible by small acts of courage in various corners of our culture and, in the days ahead, the courage in our houses will be more important than what comes from the White House. Kamila and the Bendova family are reminders that little acts of courage go a long way.

Federal Judge Says Local Voters in Charge Can File Amicus Brief in Lawsuit Over Casino Amendment

Dec 16, 2024Jerry CoxCasinos, Current EventsCasino Gambling

The federal judge presiding over the lawsuit regarding Issue 2 has determined the group Local Voters in Charge can file an amicus brief in the case.

Issue 2 is a constitutional amendment that voters passed on November 5. The measure prevents the State of Arkansas from licensing a casino in Pope County.

It also prevents any additional casinos from being opened in Arkansas without a new constitutional amendment and without local voter approval at a special election.

Cherokee Nation Business received a license to operate a casino in Pope County before Issue 2 passed. After passage of Issue 2, Cherokee Nation Business filed a federal lawsuit to undo the will of the people and block the amendment.

Local Voters in Charge worked to place Issue 2 on the ballot. After Cherokee Nation Business sued to block Issue 2, Local Voters in Charge asked the federal court for permission to intervene in the lawsuit.

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge D.P. Marshall, Jr., issue an order denying Local Voters in Charge’s request to intervene. However, the judge gave the group permission to file an amicus brief in the case.

The amicus brief will give Local Voters in Charge an opportunity to provide arguments and information in support of Issue 2.

Legalized gambling has become a scourge in our state. On average, Arkansans are gambling more than a million dollars every day on sports betting alone. In spite of that, casino tax revenue has not improved Arkansas’ roads or boosted the economy. Instead it’s hurt our communities. The Arkansas Problem Gambling Council has seen a 22% increase in calls for help with problem gambling this year. Unless Arkansas’ lawmakers and its people take a stand, gambling addiction is simply going to continue wrecking lives and hurting families in our state.

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