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.

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1. CELEBRATE LIFE: Sanctity of Life Sunday 2025 is This Weekend

This Sunday is Sanctity of Life Sunday, a day where families and churches across the state join together in serving and celebrating life. Here are some great tools and ideas to join in on the celebration from the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission:

“January 19, 2025 is the annual Sanctity of Life Sunday in Southern Baptist churches. Download a free bulletin insert and prayer guide to help create a culture of life within families in your church. The sanctity of every human life is one of the most important truths we can teach the children in our care. What does it look like practically to create a culture of life within a family? Here are 10 ways you can create a culture of life within your family:

  1. Connect with your local pregnancy resource center (PRC). Ask for a tour, and bring the whole family.
  2. Donate baby items for expecting mothers. Support moms by meeting physical needs.
  3. Fill a baby bottle. Add loose change to donate, and pray together that it would bless both parents and new life.
  4. Memorize Scripture that points to the sanctity of life. Psalm 139 is a great place to start.
  5. Read picture books that are pro-life. Add these books to your library, and read them together.
  6. Talk about your relationship with your children before they were born. Normalize talking about the humanity of children from the moment of conception.
  7. Host a baby shower. Invite your children to celebrate new life with you.
  8. Practice gentleness with babies and respect for the elderly. Cast a vision for your family as protectors of the weak.
  9. Learn with your family about adoption and foster care. Add these words to your family vocabulary, and make sure your children see positive examples of both.
  10. Tell the truth about abortion using age-appropriate language. Our world has sterilized abortion. You can tell the truth about the humanity of the preborn without going into extreme detail. The important thing is making sure you are the source of their information.

Read more: https://erlc.com/resource/sanctity-of-life-sunday-2025-bulletin-insert-and-prayer-guide/

2. AP: Governor Stein Rolls Out Further Abortion Protections Ahead of Next Trump Term

“North Carolina’s Democratic Gov. Josh Stein unveiled new measures on Thursday that extend state protections for certain health care providers and patients’ reproductive health data just a few days before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. Democratic governors—such as New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy’s recent decision to stockpile abortion medication within the state—are taking renewed action to curb possible anti-abortion measures under Trump’s administration.”

With all the serious challenges facing North Carolinians, Gov. Stein’s Executive Order No. 8 entitled “Reproductive Rights” shows front and center just where his priorities lie—with enshrining a culture of death in North Carolina as best he can. Read our press release response to Gov. Stein’s action here.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/north-carolina-abortion-josh-stein-reproductive-rights-34b9bc61db8cea13ddc866221a32e5d5

3. FOX NEWS: Two House Dems Join GOP to Ban Biological Males from Girls’ School Sports

“Two House Democrats have voted alongside Republican lawmakers to ban athletes born male from participating on girls’ school sports teams.

The Protection of Women and Girls In Sports Act, led by Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., would amend federal law to specify that student athletes must participate in school sports teams that coincide with their gender at birth.

Reps. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, and Vicente Gonzales, D-Texas, were the lone Democrats to vote for the bill when it passed 218 to 206. Rep. Don Davis, D-N.C., voted ‘present.’”

Read more: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/two-house-dems-join-gop-ban-biological-males-from-girls-school-sports

4. CAROLINA JOURNAL: McNabb Title IX Hearing at WCU Set for Today

“’It is ironic that a policy passed 50 years ago to protect women from discrimination is being used today on a North Carolina university campus to allow a male to discriminate against a woman who has every right to privacy in a women’s bathroom on a public university campus,’ Tami Fitzgerald, executive director of the NC Values Coalition, told the Carolina Journal.

Last week, US District Court Judge Danny Reeves, in eastern Kentucky, struck down the Biden administration’s rule change that would add sexual orientation and gender identity to Title IX’s protections against discrimination in federally funded schools.”

Read more: https://www.carolinajournal.com/mcnabbs-title-ix-hearing-at-wcu-set-for-friday/

5. AP: Supreme Court Seems Open to Age Checks for Online Porn, Though Some Free-Speech Questions Remain

“The Supreme Court on Wednesday seemed open to a Texas law aimed at blocking kids from seeing online pornography, though the justices could still send it back to a lower court for more consideration of how the age verification measure affects adults’ free-speech rights.

Texas is among more than a dozen states with such laws aimed at blocking young children and teenagers from viewing pornography. The states argue the laws are necessary as online porn, including hardcore obscene material, has become almost instantaneous to access on smartphones online.”

Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton challenges age verification laws for children to access porn sites, like NC’s own law. Please be praying for the Court, and that ultimately they side with protecting children.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-pornography-texas-minors-8aa396102ec0cdf5c86e90c1e573d562

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

Sincerely,

Tami & Team

NC Values