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. MARCH FOR LIFE: National March for Life D.C. event starts shortly!
Even with the wonderful blessing of Roe v. Wade being overturned, which allows more freedom at the state level to enact pro-life laws, the necessary work to build a culture of life in the United States of America is not finished. Rather, it is focused differently. Sadly, the number of abortions annually is still well over 900,000 each year, and that number is expected to decrease only by roughly 200,000 each year in a post-Roe America. Many national legislative battles loom, including even keeping longstanding Hyde protections, which limit government funding for abortion on annual appropriation bills. Lastly, our most important work is changing hearts and minds.
That’s why this year we’ll be marching in the annual March for Life in D.C. The goal of the national March for Life is to not only change laws at the state and federal level, but to change the culture to ultimately make abortion unthinkable.
If you are unable to join us in D.C., we encourage you to join in virtually at the #WhyWeMarch livestream on the March for Life website, Youtube, or Facebook pages.
Watch the 2024 March for Life live here as well:
The Rally will begin at 12 pm ET TODAY on the National Mall. The March for Life will begin immediately following the Rally – usually around 1 p.m.
Read more: https://marchforlife.org/national-march-for-life/
2. NC VALUES: Letter to Congressional Leadership Encouraging Passage of the Families’ Rights and Responsibilities Act
Local, state, and federal government policies are imposing ideologies that divide children by race and promote the falsehood that a boy can become a girl or vice-versa. Some schools are treating children as if they are the opposite sex without the permission of parents. Medical professionals are performing harmful experiments on children who are emotionally distressed about their bodies. To protect children, parents need laws that protect their rights.
That’s why we’ve joined with Alliance Defending Freedom and other like-minded organizations to urge congressional leadership to pass the Families’ Rights and Responsibilities Act. We’re grateful to Rep. Virginia Foxx for being a lead sponsor on the bill.
Read our letter: https://ncvalues.org/letter-to-congressional-leadership-encouraging-passage-of-the-families-rights-and-responsibilities-act/
3. NATIONAL REVIEW: The Biden Administration Is Continuing Its Relentless Push for Abortion
“Recent developments in ongoing litigation demonstrate two major points in the national debate over abortion policy and women’s health. First, the Biden administration’s contempt for the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization is nearly boundless. Second, the Clinton-era canard that pro-abortion advocates want to keep abortion ‘safe, legal, and rare’ can be dispensed with forever. Example No. 1 is the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit’s recent ruling that the Biden administration cannot use the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act to force emergency-room doctors to perform abortions.”
4. DAILY SIGNAL: ‘The Lost Boys’: Documentary Looks at Adverse Effects of Transgenderism on Young Men
“A new documentary is exposing the horrors that the transgender movement wreaks upon men, as well as the social and medical-industrial conditions that have led to those horrors. The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network released The Lost Boys: Searching for Manhood this week, featuring interviews with numerous men in both the U.S. and the U.K. who have undergone gender-transition procedures and with leading psychologists in the field of gender dysphoria.”
Read more: https://www.dailysignal.com/2024/01/17/lost-boys-documentary-looks-impact-transgenderism-young-men/
5. WASHINGTON TIMES: Almost two-thirds of Americans approve pro-life sidewalk counselors at abortion clinics, poll finds
“Nearly two-thirds of Americans say local governments should not be able to bar pro-life pregnancy counselors from offering assistance on sidewalks near abortion clinics, according to a survey from the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.”
Read more: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2024/jan/16/almost-two-thirds-of-americans-approve-pro-life-si/
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
Tami & Team
NC Values
