Christian Heritage News

New Life Impact Church, led by the Rev. Clarence Smith Jr., at 3540 W. Cermak Road in Chicago on Friday, Jan. 3, 2020. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune) By Anne Stych - Posted at Ministry Watch: A Chicago pastor has been indicted on federal charges that he stole more than $800,000 intended for food programs for needy children and spent it on a luxury car and other personal expenses. The Rev. Clarence Smith Jr., 45, of New Life Impact Church is charged with overreporting the number of meals his organization fed children as part of the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) and overcharging the federal grant program, which is partly administered by the Illinois State Board of Education. Smith received almost $1 million for services from the state in July 2016 then spent $142,000 soon after on a 2015 Bentley automobile, the Chicago Tribune reported. Continue reading...

Wheaton College students Caeden Hood, from left, Gabriel Emerson, Matthew Swart, Daniel Allen and Jeremy Chong at Millennium Park, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2019. All of them except Allen are suing the city because of rules they believe infringe on their ability to exercise their First Amendment rights to free speech and free exercise of religion at Millennium Park. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune ) By Steve Warren - Posted at CBN: A group of four Wheaton College students is pushing back after Chicago's Millennium Park restricts any type of evangelism. The park is one of the Windy City's top tourist attractions. It hosts almost 25 million visitors every year and is the number one tourist attraction in the Midwestern US, according to Wikipedia. But now the city is limiting access to those who want to share the gospel. "An essential part of Christianity is sharing the gospel," said Jeremy Chong, a sophomore at the college, told the Chicago Tribune . The four studen

By Thomas J. Gradel - Posted at NPR Illinois Public Radio : The country seems especially divided over the 2016 race for president. But there was a time in Illinois history when division led to bloodshed over political campaigns. Essay — Exercising your right to vote on Election Day and campaigning for your preferred candidates are usually safe, low-risk endeavors. But in the first half of the 20th Century it wasn’t always peaceful. Politicians were threatened, bombs were thrown and gunshots fired. In Chicago and in other rough towns, some candidates and their supporters fought with their fists, and then with guns and bombs. In some elections, even before the votes were tallied, the political combatants were counted among the wounded and the dead. Read more and listen here...

Image from Wikipedia Posted at Culture News: The principal at Vernon Hills High School in suburban Chicago said he admires Muslim students so much that he supports the Muslim Student Association (MSA) effort to dress non-Muslim school girls in the garb familiar to the oppressed female populations of Islamic cultures. "I think this is an opportunity for our kids to embrace the Muslim community within the school." -- Jon Guillaume, Principal Read more here... 

Posted at Tennessee Christian News: A school district near Chicago, Palatine 211, provides numerous accommodations for transgender students, The Daily Signal reports. The district calls the students by requested names, honors selected gender (including allowing them to play on the sports teams of the gender they identify as belonging to), and permits them to use single-sex bathrooms, since stalls ensure privacy. But the federal government has decided that the district is still guilty of violating Title IX, the law prohibiting sex-based discrimination, over certain locker room restrictions. “District 211 is not excluding transgender students from their gender-identified locker room,” said district superintendent Daniel Cates in a statement. “Though our position has been inaccurately reported, a transgender student may use his or her gender-identified locker room simply by utilizing individual measures of privacy when changing clothes or taking showers.” Read more here... See also: Dept.

By Heather Clark - Posted at Christian News Network: CHICAGO — A school district in the Chicago area is remaining steadfast in its refusal to allow a male student who identifies as female to change in the girls’ locker room despite an opinion from the U.S. Department of Education that the district is violating federal law. According to reports, an unidentified high school student within Township High School District 211 requested to use the girls’ locker room nearly two years ago since the student asserts that they identify as female. But the district declined, citing the privacy concerns of the other students. It in turn offered the student a private location to change, but the student rejected the accommodation. He then contacted the American Civil Liberties Union, which in turn filed a federal complaint with the Office of Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education. Read more here...

Posted at Culture News: Image from NBC Chicago - click here for story. Acclaimed gymnastics coach, Patricia Hermann, operating at facilities in the Chicago suburbs of Hanover Park, Hoffman Estates, Mount Prospect and Roselle, was arrested at her home in Schaumburg by police on felony charges of sexually molesting two minor girls at a hotel in Georgia while they were at a competition event trip months ago. Read more here... Click here for report and video from abc7 Eyewitness News.

Posted at Illinois Review: CHICAGO— Tuesday, Barbara Byrd-Bennett pleaded guilty in federal court today to using her position as chief executive officer of the Chicago Public Schools to guide lucrative no-bid contracts to her former employer in exchange for bribes and kickbacks, the Chicago Division of the FBI reports. In a written plea agreement, Byrd-Bennett admitted that she steered no-bid contracts worth more than $23 million to two education-consulting firms, THE SUPES ACADEMY LLC and SYNESI ASSOCIATES LLC. In exchange, Byrd-Bennett expected to receive cash kickbacks from the companies, as well as a consulting job at SUPES upon her retirement from CPS. The kickbacks were to be paid to Byrd-Bennett in the form of a “signing bonus” on the first day of her new employment, according to the plea agreement. Read more here...

Posted at Culture News: President Obama has personally championed every deviant aspect of the Gay Agenda, even sexually-confused transgenderism, and has utilized every power lever of the federal government to fundamentally transform America. However, Illinois' largest high school district (in suburban Chicago) is now risking a punishing loss of federal funding for rejecting a federal order that forces a boy into the girls shower, even though the liberal-minded school administration has already allowed the boy free access to the girls toilet facilities. "For all of us, our [gender] identity is who we are. This identity, though their body doesn't match, their identity is that of the other gender. And we fully, fully support that and acknowledge that. [But] At some point, we have to balance the privacy rights of 12,000 students with other particular, individual needs of another group of students. Our principles that we stand on are the ones that define who we are." --

Mayor Rahm Emanuel By Ted Dabrowski - Posted at Illinois Policy: Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has called for the largest-ever collection of taxes and fees in modern Chicago history an attempt to plug the city’s $750 million budget hole, rather than making dramatic reforms to spending. The mayor has confirmed Chicago’s budget will include the following increases, according to  Crain’s Chicago Business : $543 million in total property-tax increases to pay for city pension contributions, with property taxes rising by: $318 million this year An additional $109 million in 2016 An additional $53 million in 2017 An additional $63 million in 2018 Read more here...