Welcome to the Friday Five! Every Friday we share our top five articles, stories, and quotes for you to read and share with your friends and church families.
We would be very grateful if you could make a donation of $100, $50, $25, or $10 today towards our work producing these Friday Fives and fighting for your values on the public square!
1. OUR BODIES OUR SPORTS: Take Back Title IX Bus Tour in Chapel Hill
We had a fantastic time at the #OurBodiesOurSports Title IX Bus Tour yesterday in Chapel Hill. It was great hearing from Payton McNabb, Coach Hatchell, and many other women athletes about how we can #TakeBackTitleIX.
You can view photos and video of the event here.
In related news, a “Kentucky federal judge blocked the Biden administration Monday from implementing its Title IX expansion for LGBTQ+ students in six states. Bush-appointed U.S. District Judge Danny Reeves sided with Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman’s lawsuit against the United States Department of Education in blocking the Biden administration’s new Title IX rule in Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia, according to the court documents. The new Title IX rule, set to take effect on Aug. 1, 2024, expands protections for LGBTQ+ students by preventing discrimination based on ‘gender identity.'”
2. CAROLINA JOURNAL: Senate and House budgets align on major funding but differ on salary increases
“The Senate unveiled its proposed budget Thursday morning with the first floor vote on the schedule for next Monday night. The move comes as the House passed its own budget draft in a 68-36 vote during a third reading on Thursday morning. At 46 pages, the Senate’s proposal is much shorter than the House’s 271-page budget. Senate leaders indicated the draft outlines essential funding priorities in an effort to ensure progress between the two chambers. “
3. NC VALUES: 📋 Funding the Opportunity Scholarship
Currently, 1,722 of you have answered our request to use our click-to-contact tool below to contact the NC General Assembly. Would you help us increase the volume even further by taking a minute to click to contact your NC Senator, and ask them to pass a pro-family budget by June 30th that fully funds waitlisted Opportunity Scholarship families and gives parents the right to challenge obscene books in schools?
📢 If you believe every child deserves an opportunity to pursue an education free from woke indoctrination, and support funding these waiting families, would you consider using the time-saving click-to-contact campaign?
Read more: https://ncvalues.org/choose-school/
4. BLOOMBERG LAW: Transgender Health Rule Lawsuits Piling Up Against Biden HHS
“Transgender health-care protections from the Biden administration are facing a wave of courtroom attacks from conservative states and groups looking to unwind legal protections on gender-affirming care. Eighteen states, a children’s health clinic, the Catholic Medical Association, and the conservative legal group that helped overturn Roe v. Wade are suing the administration to block a rule prohibiting health-care discrimination based on sexual orientation or identity.”
5. DAILY SIGNAL: German Study: Vast Majority of People Will Grow Out of Transgenderism Within 5 Years
“A massive, yearslong study shows the overwhelming majority of young people who identify as transgender will grow out of the diagnosis within five years. A similar supermajority of trans-identifying people suffered from at least one other psychological condition, found researchers, who tracked all children and young adults diagnosed with gender dysphoria over a nine-year period.”
WEEKLY PRAYER: FREEDOM
LORD, you have blessed us with a spiritual liberty that is so wonderful and beyond description, that it can only be understood through experiencing a life-giving relationship with Christ. However, we also recognize that in your grace, you have blessed our country with a political liberty that enables us to openly proclaim the experience of a life lived in the freedom of the Gospel.
LORD, as individuals and as a nation, may we never take the inalienable right of religious freedom for granted. Right now our country has faced a rapid increase in the number of attacks made against this cherished right. We have seen groups across our public arena increase in boldness and frequency their smears against religious liberty. They claim it is bigotry, when we know it is the security of the greatest of all possible loves.
Be with your people and our country as it continues to protect the constitutional right protected by our nation’s Founders. Be with legislators and the Supreme Court, as they determine through their actions the protection of this particular and fundamental freedom.
“It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5:1)
“For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” (Galatians 5:13)
“Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bondslaves of God.” (1 Peter 2:16)
Amen
Tami & Team
NC Values
