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. NC VALUES: 58,000 families are waiting
There are 58,400 families waitlisted, hoping their children will not be left behind and trapped in failing, dangerous schools. Every child deserves the opportunity to attend the school that best fits their needs.
While the Senate has passed additional funding, we are currently waiting on the NC House to respond. 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 below to spend a minute contacting your representative?
Click-to-contact: https://ncvalues.org/choose-school/
2. OP-ED: Mary Summa: Another assault on parental rights and the law
“Unless things change quickly, a Planned Parenthood-style sex education program will be forced into a public middle or high school near you, compliments of the left-leaning cabal of bureaucrats at the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI).
Over the past year, NCDPI oversaw the revisions of the North Carolina Essential Standards, including those standards that govern sex education. Standards set the goals and directives of what is to be taught in North Carolina schools and are revised only every 10 years. The third and final draft has been issued by NCDPI, and within the next month, the Standards will be up for final approval by the Democrat-controlled State Board of Education for final passage.
The big problem is the Draft of the Standards violates state law.”
Read more: https://nsjonline.com/article/2024/05/summa-another-assault-on-parental-rights-and-the-law/
3. NEWS & OBSERVER: UNC System board approves policy gutting DEI efforts at NC public universities
“Programs and administrative positions supporting diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at North Carolina’s public universities are one step closer to facing potential elimination — or at least significant changes — following a vote by the board that oversees the schools.
The UNC System Board of Governors approved a policy Thursday that repeals the university system’s previous DEI requirements. Those directives, implemented in 2019, required each of the system’s 17 campuses to employ a chief diversity officer and work to achieve diversity-related goals, among other mandates.”
Read more: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article288507395.html
4. CAROLINA JOURNAL: Pornographic books found in NC schools spark calls for legislative action
“Books found in school libraries showing and describing sexually explicit content have sparked calls for the General Assembly to further regulate obscene books accessible to children in schools across the state.
NC Values coalition is calling on the General Assembly to take action during the short session to address such pornographic content in schools. During a press conference this week, the group displayed various children’s books that are sexually inappropriate for young students. Some of the content is so obscene that it could not be shown publicly.
‘It’s time for a statewide solution,’ said Tami Fitzgerald, Executive Director of NC Values. ‘We should adopt statewide criteria for book selection to ensure books are educationally and age-appropriate, and to require schools to comply with North Carolina’s obscenity laws. This is specific criteria used to select books that are age-appropriate and that are not pornographic. So to say that this is about banning [books] is absolutely wrong.'”
5. CAROLINA JOURNAL: Democrats file legislation to put abortion access in the state constitution
“Sen. Rachel Hunt, D-Mecklenburg, has filed a bill that, if passed into law, would codify abortion access in the North Carolina Constitution. Hunt is the Democratic nominee in the 2024 North Carolina lieutenant governor’s race.
Senate Bill 909, ‘Protect Women’s Healthcare,’ would amend Article I of the state constitution to protect abortion access.”
Weekly Prayer: NC Officials
LORD, you also have instructed us to pray for our governing officials, and we come to you in the spirit of this petition. We pray for our state government and its executive, legislative, and judicial servants. May they indeed be servants unto the people, and govern in a manner that protects liberty and virtue. In the same spirit, we pray for public servants across our local governments. May they all heed your mandate in Romans 13:4 to be in positions of authority as “God’s servant” and for the “good” of the public. They govern in what we confess are difficult times. May they plead with you to give them wisdom, and may your grace to govern wisely be poured out on them.
Protect us from the oppression and loss of freedoms that other countries have experienced, and help us to value and preserve freedom, which we know comes only from You.
“I have indeed seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to set them free.” Acts 7:34
Amen
NC Values
