Contact: Illinois Family Institute, 630-790-8370, info@illinoisfamily.org; Dave Smith, 773-858-6602

GLEN ELLYN, Ill., Aug. 29 /Christian Newswire/ -- Illinois Family Institute (IFI) Executive Director David Smith today decried the Minneapolis Police Department’s suspension of Dr. Michael Campion, a former IFI Board Member, after reports surfaced of Campion’s past affiliation with IFI.

“Does this mean that any person with a Christian or moral belief system cannot work for the City of Minneapolis?” Smith asked. “This case has all the markings of blatant anti-Christian discrimination and bigotry. People of faith should follow it carefully, because they could be next.”

Today the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that the Minneapolis PD “has temporarily suspended the use of a well-known psychologist who has been screening potential officers for more than a year after community members questioned his affiliation with a group that opposes civil rights for gays.”

The newspaper reported that Dr. Campion's “affiliation with a conservative Illinois group that says it opposes the ‘gay lifestyle’ was brought to interim Chief Tim Dolan's attention on Wednesday during a meeting with the Police Community Relations Council.”

Campion served on IFI’s Board of Directors from 1998 until 2005. The Star Tribune reported that his business, Campion, Barrow & Associates, based in Champaign, Ill., has “received high marks from a consulting firm hired by the Minneapolis Police Department to evaluate his ‘general procedural goodness and specific cultural fairness’ of his testing procedures.”

This is not the first time Dr. Campion has suffered discrimination after having his character assassinated by liberal activists. Last year, the City of Springfield, Illinois, fired Campion as psychological reviewer for police and firefighter candidates after the left-leaning weekly Illinois Times ran an article about his role with Illinois Family Institute.

“I have known Mike Campion for years, and he is a man of great Christian integrity and character,” said Peter LaBarbera, IFI’s Policy & Media Advisor. “Mike is a fair and decent man, respected by his peers, who honors the ethical standards of his profession.  Now he is being smeared by pro-homosexual activists. The message is growing across our nation: Christians are the only group that can be discriminated against--especially if they live out their faith in the public square.”

Added Smith: “It is ironic that advocates of tolerance and diversity would deny Dr. Campion’s right to exercise his First Amendment freedoms of speech and association—not to mention his freedom of religion.”