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.
1. NC VALUES: Biden’s Title IX changes halted, with a catch
In case you missed it, last week a federal court halted operation of President Biden’s Title IX rule change that attempts to redefine “sex” as “gender identity” in schools.
However, there’s a catch!
The decision ONLY applies to states and organizations that were part of the case. Unfortunately—and thanks to our liberal Attorney General, gubernatorial candidate Josh Stein—North Carolina was not on the list of states bringing suit (which included Kansas, Wyoming, Utah, and Alaska).
However, per the decision, every school attended by the children of Moms for Liberty or by members of Female Athletes United and Young America’s Foundation (YAF), will be exempt from implementing these disastrous Title IX changes. This also includes anyone who joins these organizations before the judge’s deadline, which is July 14th.
If you have kids in North Carolina schools, and would like them to be temporarily protected from President Biden’s Title IX changes, would you consider joining Moms for Liberty, or having your child join Female Athletes United or Young America’s Foundation for free before the July 14th deadline?
Read more: https://ncvalues.org/bidens-title-ix-changes-halted-with-a-catch/
2. LIFE SITE NEWS: Trump-backed GOP platform draft drops call for federal abortion ban, opposition to homosexual ‘marriage’
“On Monday, however, the Washington Post reported that Trump aides have submitted to the Republican National Committee’s platform committee a 16-page draft written largely by former Trump assistant Vincent Haley that drops the condemnation of Obergefell and any discussion of homosexual ‘marriage’ at all, and while it preserves opposition to men in women’s sports and taxpayer funding and promotion of ‘gender transitions,’ it reportedly ‘stops short of seeking to bar parents from seeking medical treatment [i.e., ‘sex changes’] for minor children.'”
3. WRAL: Fort Liberty responds to slide calling pro-life groups ‘terrorist organizations’
“Fort Liberty is responding to backlash after a slideshow presentation used for training at the U.S. Army base referred to pro-life organizations as ‘terrorist organizations.’ A photo circulating on social media shows one slide from a presentation used to train soldiers. The slide, titled ‘Terrorist Groups,’ lists several pro-life groups, including National Right to Life and Operation Rescue, and ‘opponents of Roe v. Wade,’ the federal law that protected a person’s right to an abortion before it was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022.”
For more on this story, check out this Carolina Journal piece by David Larson.
4. THE DAILY SIGNAL: Scholastic, Pearson Take a Step Back From Pushing LGBTQ+ Material on Kids
“In June, Scholastic, the world’s largest children’s book publishing company, put its push for LGBTQ+ ideology front and center when it released its 2024 guide to its ‘Read with Pride’ initiative. As reported by The Washington Stand, the guide was to be a ‘resource’ for ‘supporting LGBTQIA+ youth’ by promoting books with radical ideological themes, including transgenderism and taking relationships ‘to the next level’ with sexual intercourse. It also had a glossary of definitions for LGBTQ+ terminology such as ‘agender,’ ‘allocishet,’ and ‘genderfluid.’ And yet, despite its unapologetic stance on this agenda, recent developments have caused some to wonder if the company has begun to pull back.”
5. NORTH STATE JOURNAL: UNC System schools receive guidance on equality policy
“All 17 UNC System Schools have received legal guidance on implementing a new equality policy adopted by the UNC Board of Governors on May 23. The policy replaced the system’s diversity, equity and inclusion policy that was previously in Section 300.8.5 of the UNC Policy Manual. The new guidance emphasizes the need to balance institutional neutrality with academic freedom, student support and the university’s core mission.”
Read more: https://nsjonline.com/article/2024/07/unc-system-schools-receive-guidance-on-equality-policy/
Weekly Prayer: Family
LORD, we cry out to you as Father. You are a model of the love, mercy, and authority of the perfect parent. We thank you for modeling for us what every parent should strive for, and for creating this wonderful institution called family.
LORD, we thank you for creating us with a basic nature designed to not be alone. You made us to desire the intimacy of relationships, and it is here where we experience joys indescribable: the joys of marriage, the joys of having children; the joys of seeing our children have children. What a blessing and mercy you gave us in the family! In it we find our first teachers, our first guardians, and our first authorities.
LORD, we recognize how deeply you love your children, and how deeply it pains you when they go astray. Alongside our adoration and thanksgiving, we pray in confession—as individuals and as members of larger communities—over any sins we may have committed that undermine your beloved institution. Forgive us when we endanger your institution through selfishness and arrogance. Forgive our communities and nation for attempting to redefine some of the most basic and deepest parts of being human—being made male and female, having lifelong marriage vows and responsibilities, and having parental rights over educating one’s children.
“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” (Colossians 3:12-17)
Amen
NC Values
