Current Events – Page 9 – Family Council

Leaders Call for Congressional Inquiry into SPLC Fraud Allegations

May 28, 2026Jerry CoxCurrent EventsSPLC

Leaders are calling for congressional inquiries following accusations of fraud by the left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).

The SPLC has spent decades opposing white supremacy while also branding Christian organizations like Family Research Council and Focus on the Family as “hate groups” on par with Neo-Nazis and the KKK.

The organization has also urged financial institutions to de-bank conservatives.

But last month an indictment from a federal Grand Jury said the SPLC has secretly funneled more than $3 million to a covert network of informants affiliated with groups like the Ku Klux Klan.

According to the indictment, the SPLC laundered donations through fictitious companies to people in the very groups the SPLC claimed it was working to dismantle. In some cases, the SPLC allegedly gave money to individuals listed on its “extremist” website.

On May 20, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins testified before the House Judiciary Committee in a hearing titled ‘The Southern Poverty Law Center: Manufacturing Hate.’ The hearing examined the role SPLC has played in “distorting civil rights policy in recent years” — and the real-world consequences that followed.

Perkins testified that in August of 2012, a gunman entered FRC’s Washington, D.C., headquarters carrying a pistol and fifty rounds of ammunition. The attack was thwarted by a building manager who was seriously in the process.

The gunman later confessed to investigators that he selected FRC because of the SPLC’s website listing Family Research Council as a “hate group.” The attack cost FRC more than $6 million in security-related expenses.

Perkins also testified that around 2016, the SPLC began pressuring financial companies and tech platforms to deplatform and defund organizations it had labeled extremist.

Arkansas families and churches should pay close attention to this hearing. The SPLC’s “hate group” list isn’t trustworthy. Congress and federal officials are finally saying so out loud. Arkansans should encourage their representatives to support a full and thorough investigation — one that follows every spoke on that wheel.

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

Guest Column: From ‘Liberalism’ to ‘Progressivism’

May 27, 2026John StonestreetCurrent EventsCultural Commentaries, Culture, Current Events, Liberalism, Progressivism

In March, with an 8-1 majority vote, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that “counseling conversations are speech and that states cannot silence viewpoints in the counseling room.” The majority included all but Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who claimed in dissent that states should be able to use “police powers to establish and enforce the standards of care that bind medical professionals,” including what she called “professional medical speech.” Apparently, for Justice Jackson, that power also includes the ability to determine what should count as “scientific consensus,” given the collapse of consensus on the issue of “gender-affirming care.”

In a concurring opinion, liberal Justices Kagan and Sotomayor noted that the Colorado law in question, which banned conversion therapy for minors, was not “viewpoint-neutral.” Had it been, they said, it would raise a different and more difficult question.” In another instance last summer, Justice Sotomayor did not agree with a Trump administration policy but also believed it was not the place of the Court to decide. Justice Jackson, on the other hand, described her appointment to the Supreme Court as an opportunity “to tell people in my opinions how I feel about the issues.”

This is an example of an ongoing fissure between liberals and progressives on the political and ideological Left in America. As Colson Center Senior Fellow Dr. Glenn Sunshine has previously described, part of this difference is that standpoint epistemology, the liberal idea that each has our own truth from our own perspective, has devolved into expressive individualism, the idea that “our truth” should be imposed on everyone else as a matter of human dignity.

The implications of this shift from “liberalism” to “progressivism” are significant, especially for rights of speech and conscience. On April 22, Lois McLatchie Miller posted a clip of a British police officer informing a street preacher that he could not share the Gospel in places or ways that “may” cause offense or dissuade people from seeking abortions.

Back in March, Päivi Räsänen, a lawmaker in Finland, was found guilty of “inciting hatred” for calling homosexuality a “disorder” in 2004. No riots or hatred were actually incited in the over twenty years since. She was guilty of believing and expressing the wrong things. Also in March, the Chicago Bulls waived guard Jaden Ivey “due to conduct detrimental to the team.” Given the conduct regularly tolerated by sports franchises, it is notable that Mr. Ivey’s “offense” was posting a video of himself critiquing the NBA’s promotion of “Pride Month.”

Many progressives left Twitter when it was purchased by Elon Musk, not because their ideas would be suppressed but because contrary ideas would not be. But the move to alternate social media platform Bluesky has turned out to be a mess. The progressive drive for ideological purity has stunted any real conversation. As biologist Colin Wright noted: 

I’m blocked by thousands of accounts on Bluesky I’ve never even interacted with, since I almost never post. People over there block on first contact with any ideological friction. That results in a bunch of small isolated communities. Not ideal for a social media app. 

This kind of intolerance is a feature of progressivism, not a bug. Though people often use “liberal” and “progressive” interchangeably, they are not the same thing. Like the new “dissident Right,” which devolved out of classic conservatism and rejected core tenets of it, progressivism and liberalism are not the same either. 

Liberalism calls for tolerance. Progressivism silences dissent and calls it tolerance. Progressivism claims to be about moving forward, but “forward” is just a rejection of anything old, traditional, and settled. To modern progressives, progress is transgression. They sense the world is not as it should be but are threatened by the idea that there is a way it should be.

Divorced from reality and reason, compliance with this vision cannot be argued. Rather, it must be enforced. Thus, the shift from “encouraging all viewpoints” to punishing all dissent.

From Chinese Infiltrators to Church Growth, Here’s a Recap of the Week’s Top Stories

May 22, 2026Jerry CoxCurrent EventsUpdate, Weekly Rewind

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Here’s a quick recap of the week’s top stories from Family Council and our friends:

From Family Council

🚩 China Working to Infiltrate U.S., Rewrite the Bible: Different news outlets have reported recently about China’s efforts to infiltrate the United States and squelch religious liberty and free speech both in its own country and abroad. Keep Reading.

🏳️‍🌈 Tennessee Replaces “Pride Month” with Pro-Family Celebration: Policymakers in Tennessee recently adopted a pro-family resolution replacing “Pride Month” in the Volunteer State. Watch the Video.

🚨 Gambling Addiction Is a Growing Crisis — And Online Betting Is Making It Worse: Most states have legalized sports betting. Survey data shows more than half of men ages 18 – 49 have an active sportsbook account online. Arkansans wagered a record $86.5 million in March alone this year. “Prediction markets” that operate outside the scope of state regulation have exploded in recent years as well. But this type of gambling is taking a terrible toll on everyday people and their families. Keep Reading.

🥼 New Study Finds Genetic Links Between Marijuana and Psychosis: Researchers at King’s College London recently published a study identifying the genetic pathways that connect marijuana use to psychosis. Keep Reading.

🌷 Guest Column: Dying with Dignity vs. “Death with Dignity” In a recent episode of “60 Minutes,” interviewer Scott Pelley said to his guest, “You don’t have much time. Why are you spending time doing this?” His guest, former U.S. Senator Ben Sasse, who received a fatal diagnosis of pancreatic cancer in December, replied with a laugh, “You invited me, so I assume you needed to fill some time.” Keep Reading.

🎓 EFA Data Shows Arkansas Homeschoolers Exceeded National Averages on Several Norm-Referenced Tests Last Year: Family Council recently obtained test scores from the Arkansas Department of Education via the Freedom of Information Act, and last week we reported that on average, homeschoolers scored better than private school students in the EFA program on norm-referenced tests. Keep Reading.

⛪ Church Attendance Is Up. Here’s Why That Matters. A recent report from the Hartford Institute for Religion Research found that median in-person worship attendance rose from 65 in 2020 to 70 in 2025. That may sound modest, but researchers called it significant. Keep Reading.

✉️ Family Council Joins Letter Urging Congressional Leaders Not to Fund Abortionists: Last week, Family Council joined more than 50 other pro-life leaders and organizations in a letter calling on Congress not to fund abortionists. Keep Reading.