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. FOX NEWS: North Carolina attorney general won’t defend state restrictions on dispensing abortion pills
“North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein won’t defend state restrictions on dispensing abortion pills that are being challenged in a lawsuit and instead will argue the restrictions are preempted by federal regulations protecting access to the pills, Stein’s office said Monday.”
2. NORTH STATE JOURNAL: Another Parents’ Bill of Rights may be filed in the House
“In an interview with North State Journal on Monday, House Education Committee Chair Rep. John Torbett (R-Gaston) indicated that the House will have some additions to the Senate Bill 49, the Parent’s Bill of Rights. Senate Bill 49 seeks to increase transparency for parents in a number of areas such as the well-being of students and curriculum. It also bars teaching controversial gender ideology and sexuality topics in Kindergarten through fourth grade. Similar to last session’s Parents’ Bill of Rights, the bill appears to be in a time-out in a House committee, however, that may be because the House has designs on a bill of its own according to Torbett, who discussed some possible changes in its own version of the bill or may submit it as a companion bill the existing Senate version.”
Read more: https://nsjonline.com/article/2023/02/another-parents-bill-of-rights-may-be-filed-in-the-house/
3. WASHINGTON EXAMINER: Former employee blows the whistle on transgender clinic: ‘Morally and medically appalling’
“A former healthcare worker said the transgender center she worked for was breaking the promise medical professionals make to their patients to ’do no harm.’ Jamie Reed, ‘queer woman … politically to the left of Bernie Sanders,’ in her words, wrote a revealing piece in the Free Press, raising several concerns about her four years working for the Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. Reed said that, among other problems, the clinic didn’t have “formal protocols” for how to treat children suffering from gender dysphoria.”
4. CAROLINA JOURNAL: New generation of leaders at UNC values thought diversity
“The morning after Donald Trump was elected president, I was sitting in the office of Carol Folt, the then-chancellor of UNC-Chapel Hill, along with the school’s top academic officer, Provost Jim Dean, to discuss my concern that UNC had fostered an oppressive monoculture that was undermining critical thinking on campus. The timing was serendipitous, as we did not yet realize the magnitude of the meltdown occurring on campus as we spoke — professors were cancelling classes, postponing exams and otherwise coddling students suffering from ‘severe emotional distress.’ In many cases it was the professors who were the ones incapacitated by the election outcome.”
Read more: https://www.carolinajournal.com/opinion/new-generation-of-leaders-at-unc-values-thought-diversity/
5. CHARLOTTE AT SIX: Gay-Book Session Upsets Some CMS Parents
“A controversial story-time is planned for this Thursday at a Charlotte high school. Some parents are upset that suggestive stories about gay and transgender kidswill be read out-loud at Palisades high. Mark Garrison has been looking into the books….and what’s in.”
Read more: https://omny.fm/shows/charlotte-at-six-1/gay-book-session-upsets-some-cms-parents
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
Your Content Goes Here
