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. CAROLINA JOURNAL: 21 states support Folwell, State Health Plan in transgender carecase
“Twenty-one state attorneys general have asked the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to accept a friend-of-the-court brief supporting N.C. State Treasurer Dale Folwell and the State Health Plan. Folwell and the health plan are defendants in a case involving transgender health care. Participating states include three of North Carolina’s four neighbors. The entire group of 4th Circuit judges will hear arguments in September in a case challenging the N.C. State Health Plan’s exclusion of coverage for treatments used by transgender patients. The Appeals Court will hear that case along with a similar lawsuit involving West Virginia’s health plan.
2. NC VALUES: IFFNC files 11th Circuit “Littlejohn vs. School Board of Leon County”Amicus Brief
Our sister organization, the Institute for Faith and Family, recently filed an amicus brief in the important 11th Circuit US Court of Appeals case “Littlejohn vs. School Board of Leon County.”
“Transgender ideology is invading American life at an alarming rate. In addition to the massive intrusion on parental rights, the Leon County Schools LGBTQ+ Critical Support Guide (the “Guide”) jeopardizes First Amendment rights by demanding the use of a minor child’s preferred name and pronouns, not only without parental consent or knowledge—but under an official policy that authorizes and directs school personnel to actively deceive a child’s parents if they do not affirm the child’s life-altering decision to transition to the opposite sex. This massive interruption of a school’s expected truthfulness in communications should, at the very least, require the voluntary, informed consent of parents before enrolling their children. Instead, the school district surreptitiously facilitates a major life decision that is virtually guaranteed to cause irreparable harm. The Guide thus turns family structure on its head. Instead of children requiring parental permission, the Guide mandates that parents have permission from their child to attend a meeting at the school about the child’s gender transition. This policy is unconscionable.”
Read more: https://ncvalues.org/11th-circuit-littlejohn-v-school-board-of-leon-county-florida/
3. CAROLINA JOURNAL: Undercover video reveals CRT topics are taught in NC publicschools
“An undercover video from a conservative news outlet reveals that several public school districts across North Carolina are teaching topics connected to Critical Race Theory. The group Accuracy in Media released the video May 30 that contained comments from school staff in Rockingham County, Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools, and Durham County Public Schools. The school personnel admitted to teaching concepts on “white privilege, historical racial iniquities,” and others. They also said teachers use an education subscription service called Newsela to obtain information. Newsela partners with leftist groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center and the New York Times’ 1619 Project.”
Read more: https://www.carolinajournal.com/undercover-video-reveals-crt-topics-are-taught-in-nc-public-schools/
4. FOX NEWS: Thomas’ UPenn teammate speaks out, says university ‘wanted us to be quiet’
“A college teammate of transgender swimmer Lia Thomas is speaking out after anonymously participating in the Daily Wire’s 2022 documentary ‘What Is a Woman.’ Paula Scanlan, who competed on the University of Pennsylvania women’s swimming team during the 2018-19 and 2021-22 seasons, spoke with Daily Wire host Matt Walsh in a video posted to social media Monday night, saying she is ready to join former college swimmer Riley Gaines in ‘fighting for women and girls across the country.'”
Read more: https://www.foxnews.com/sports/lia-thomas-upenn-teammate-speaks-says-university-wanted-us-be-quiet
5. WATCH: Fred VonCanon announces he’s running for Congress
Last night, in front of hundreds of supporters including family, friends, activists, and donors, Fred Von Canon announced his campaign against Rep. Don Davis (NC-1). Von Canon shared his background, his biography, and his beliefs – along with an optimistic vision of a path forward during these tough times. “We need to elect serious people to be our leaders, serious people, with serious conservative solutions, who have the courage and the backbone to stand up for those principles and serve the country and their constituents,” said Von Canon. “And we need to start doing that right now.”
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
