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. ICYMI: Mama Bear Workshops
Last week was a busy one! In addition to successfully overriding Governor Cooper’s vetoes, we also hosted two Mama Bear Workshops in Hickory and Greensboro.
Our Mama Bear Workshops gave attendees an overview of the current events and transparency issues that are in North Carolina Public Schools. The workshops also equipped Mama Bears and Papa Bears on how they can get involved in protecting our children from harmful curriculum and indoctrination. Attendees heard from a number of excellent speakers, including Joseph Backholm (Family Research Council), Sharon Supp (Alliance Defending Freedom), Michele Morrow (Pavement Education Project), and our Executive Director, Tami Fitzgerald.
These events are one of the many strategies we employ for making a pro-values impact across our state and society. Check out some of the photos and videos below for a sample of what unfolded.
We look forward to seeing you at the next one!
View more: https://ncvalues.org/photos-mama-bear-workshops/
2. PEP: Help stop obscene books in schools
Pavement Education Project (PEP), is an all-volunteer organization dedicated to exposing inappropriate material in schools and libraries in North Carolina. Their website lists books by county and school, serving as a tremendous resource for parents, pro-family advocates and legislators. NC Values Coalition is proud to partner with PEP in expanding their book list around the state by asking you to consider volunteering to help identify inappropriate materials in your county’s school libraries. We are happy to have had Michele Morrow from PEP present at both of last week’s Mama Bear Workshops to inform our attendees about their mission, and what can be done to combat inappropriate, harmful materials.
The PEP website maintains a repository of books that have been reviewed and rated based on content and a list of 22 NC school districts so far (be forewarned: the books are graphic). PEP is hoping you will help them expand their reach across the state by joining their effort.
If you are interested, please email [email protected] for more information.
Read more: https://www.pavementeducationproject.com
3. FOX CAROLINA: S.C. Supreme Court: Fetal heartbeat law is constitutional
“On Wednesday the South Carolina Supreme Court published its ruling on the state’s Fetal Heartbeat Protection from Abortion Act, which outlaws abortions once a heartbeat is detected – around six weeks into a pregnancy.
The Supreme Court opined that the law, which is one of the most restrictive in the country, is constitutional in a 4-1 decision.”
Read more: https://www.foxcarolina.com/2023/08/23/sc-supreme-court-fetal-heartbeat-law-is-constitutional/
Tomorrow, pro-life speaker and activist Seth Gruber will be doing a documentary with our friend Pastor John Amanchukwu on abortion and critical race theory. They will be at the Raleigh Love Life prayer walk on Saturday. We want to help get the word out and ensure they have a big crowd. It is going to be an amazing time of education, prayer and worship.
If you’re interested in joining them, click here, and select “Week 29.” Tomorrow, pro-lifers will be meeting at 3501 Horton Street, Raleigh, NC 27607 at 8:45AM. The walk goes from 9-11.
4. LIFE SITE NEWS: Federal court rules Alabama can protect children from transgender surgeries, drugs
“Alabama can protect gender-confused children from harmful surgical and chemical interventions while a court case unfolds, a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Monday.
The decision allows the state’s Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act to remain in place. The act outlaws ‘prescribing or administering’ hormones and puberty blockers to gender-confused minors under age 19 and also bans sterilizing ‘sex change’ surgeries and other procedures to remove ‘healthy or non-diseased body part[s] or tissue’ of a child, as previously reported by LifeSiteNews.”
5. CAROLINA JOURNAL: Fight against abortion pill lawsuit cites federal ‘major questions doctrine’
“State legislative leaders’ latest court filing in a legal battle over abortion pill restrictions cites the “major questions doctrine.” That’s a principle in federal legal arguments that Congress does not delegate issues of major political or economic significance to administrative agencies.”
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
