LEXINGTON, Ky. — Christians must embrace a biblically centered, conservative approach to repel a “morally toxic” culture led by America’s progressives where “children are the target,” panelists at the Family Foundation’s annual forum told supporters Saturday.

At the Kentucky Family Forum in Lexington, panelists speaking to roughly 250 people expressed strong support for Kentucky’s Amendment 2. They also called for greater restrictions on pornography, tightened access to internet-purchased abortion pills and the removal of “inappropriate” books from school libraries.

“Roe v. Wade is gone, but the devil is back with a vengeance,” said Sue Swayze Liebel, director of state affairs at Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, a prominent national anti-abortion group.

It was one of several groups with representatives who spoke at the six-hour forum and attacked the “woke ideologies” that foundation leaders say are corrupting America.

“We say no to killing unborn children (and) to redefining marriage. We say no to attacks on religious liberty and shutting down our churches (and) to the indoctrination of children in our schools,” said David Walls, executive director of the Family Foundation.

The Family Foundation is a conservative Christian lobbying group that supports “pro-family” policy whose areas of focus have recently included age verification restrictions to access online pornography, abortion bans with no exceptions for rape or incest, opposition to the legalization of medical marijuana and sports gambling and supporting a ban on gender-affirming health care for transgender teens.

It also gives support for conversion therapy, a discredited form of counseling that seeks to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity. It’s predicated on the belief that living as an LGBTQ individual is morally wrong and a sin.

The organization’s second-annual forum was touted as an educational event to “promote a biblical worldview, help build and unify the pro-family policy movement across Kentucky, and . . . equip Christians to effectively engage the culture.”

It showcased recent legislation in Kentucky’s legislature the Family Foundation played a part in passing and teased future policy ideas “based in truth, grounded in a biblical worldview (and) illuminating the path forward for our society to bring honor to God,” Walls said.

Compared to last year’s event, where more than 20 Republican lawmakers were present, far fewer members of the GOP attended the forum this year. Sens. Gex Williams of Verona and Lindsey Tichenor of Smithfield, were the only Republican lawmakers who spoke on panels.

Similar to last year’s themes, panelists on Saturday painted a bleak, conspiratorial picture of America today; one in which the far political left is working diligently to indoctrinate children in ways anathema to biblical teachings, while purposely breaking up families, not only by redefining marriage, but being inclusive of LGBTQ culture.

“We’re living in a culturally challenging time, a time of moral revolution where the very definition of what it means to be created in the image of God is under attack, (and) the rights of parents to direct the upbringing of their children is being questioned,” Walls said.

Complicit parties in that endeavor include such non-Christian groups as the government, media and public schools. These institutions are concertedly coordinating the spread of “morally toxic” and “harmful ideology, seeking to transform our culture and defy our nation” with a “complete disregard for faith, decency and morality,” Walls said.

Part of that effort is carried out by supporters of the “LGBTQ agenda,” multiple panelists said, which uses drag shows to “recruit your kids” and “proselytize its way of life onto younger generations,” said Joseph Kohm of the Family Policy Alliance. That conservative think tank has helped state legislatures in recent years craft laws banning abortion and gender-affirming health care for trans youth.

LGBTQ culture preys on children specifically, the Heritage Foundation’s Jay Richards said.

“The left realizes you’ve got to get people when they’re young. That’s why you have drag queen story hours for 5-year-olds and not in retirement homes,” Richards said.

Public schools are working collaboratively with this agenda objective, panelists all agreed; the primary option school counselors offer when a student is grappling with gender identity is “transgenderism,” because, “like it or not, government schools are the primary way they reach children when they’re small,” Richards added.

And Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s recent executive order banning the use of tax dollars to pay for conversion therapy “keeps the truth away from kids who are suffering,” said Greg Chafuen, senior counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom, a right-wing legal organization “protecting religious freedom, free speech, the sanctity of life, marriage and family and parental rights.”

Policy priorities to uphold a ‘biblical worldview’

The event hosted by one of the state’s most influential lobbying groups was a fundraiser, but it also functions as a way to tease the policy objectives and priorities of the growing far-right wing of the Republican party, which controls both legislative chambers in Frankfort.

Though specific bills were not mentioned, lobbyists, a handful of Republican lawmakers and conservative think tank staffers expressed interest in proposing a series of policies in the upcoming legislative session.

That list includes:

— Restricting cell phone usage in schools.

— Expanding pornography-related age verification restrictions.

— Passing a medical “rights of conscience” law to protect health care providers right to refuse providing a type of medical care if it conflicts with their moral beliefs.

— Codifying explicit definitions of “male” and “female” in state law.

— Removing school library books deemed inappropriate.

— Greater policing of internet-purchased abortion pills.

Liebel, director of state affairs at Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, decried the spate of constitutional amendments across the country, including in Kentucky, seeking to preserve abortion access. In 2022, Kentucky voted down an amendment that sought to alter the state constitution to make clear no constitutional right to abortion existed in the state.

Liebel said the current fight to protect “reproductive health care” also means “trans stuff,” adding, “Make no mistake, it’s not just about abortion. This is a Trojan horse for transgender.”

On stage sitting next to Liebel, Addia Wuchner, executive director of Kentucky Right to Life, asked if there were any members of the media present.

The Lexington Herald-Leader was the only media outlet present.

“If I’m going to reveal any plans for the next session, because the media’s here. It won’t happen,” Wuchner said, likening the forum to a “church service.”

A few minutes later, Wuchner said “we will be looking at” restricting the “buckets, handfuls, shipments of illegal abortion pills” which she said are “flooding into this state.”

The purchasing of mail-order abortion pills continues to spike in states that have restricted abortion, including Kentucky, where the medical procedure has been banned since 2022, except in cases where a medical emergency threatens the life of a pregnant person.

These abortions are not always formally tracked by state agencies who chart pregnancy terminations that happen under the care of a doctor. According to the Cabinet for Health and Family Services’ Office of Vital Statistics annual abortion report, 23 legal abortions were reported by Kentucky health care facilities in 2023.

Support for Amendment 2

Speakers on the final panel of the day, “Amendment 2 and the future of educational freedom in Kentucky,” characterized school choice as a necessary remedy to the liberal slant of public education, which is part of the greater plan to “indoctrinate” America’s children.

Amendment 2 will ask voters whether they want to change the Kentucky constitution to allow public dollars to go to charter, religious and other private schools. The GOP-backed amendment has been widely opposed by public school teachers, administrators and districts across Kentucky, as well as Beshear.

The Kentucky Association of School Administrators was the latest group to speak out in opposition, adopting a formal resolution last week opposing Amendment 2, in part because it will cause “dire harm to public schools and the students they serve.”

Panelists at the forum vaguely acknowledged this opposition, but Jesse Green of the Family Foundation chalked it up to schools being “weaponized by opponents of family (and) conservative values.”

“School choice is a threat to their ability to continue using schools in similar manners, because it gives families an avenue to get their families out of there,” Green said.

For Sen. Tichenor, who voted in favor of the bill that put Amendment 2 on the ballot, her dissatisfaction with public schools began during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“In 2020, when they closed our doors when they masked our kids, when we saw what was going on in the inside of schools in the books and education curriculum that (was) really and truly a very intentional effort to keep parents out, I started thinking: we have to have something different,” she said.

Amendment 2 “would open the door for more options for families,” Tichenor said. “We need those options for our kids.”

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