Friend,
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. <[link removed]>
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1. NORTH STATE JOURNAL: Budd powers to front of Republican US Senate primary
“Two weeks ago, the North Carolina Values Coalition released a poll showing him ahead by three points. Subsequently, the organization endorsed Budd.
‘The GOP primary is now a two-man race, and the choice is between a Republican who barely tolerates pro-life, pro-family evangelicals and Catholics in the conservative movement because he needs their votes, and a Republican who has attended seminary and believes in and actively advocates for policies that back the pro-life, pro-family biblical worldview of Christians,’ the group’s executive director, Tami Fitzerald, said in a statement.”
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2. THE DAILY SIGNAL: Sex-Change Surgeries for Kids: A-OK With Biden
"The Biden administration recently sent a letter to the attorney general of each state, warning the top law enforcement officials that they could be violating civil rights law if they don’t comply with “gender-affirming care” procedures for children.
But just what is this gender-affirming care promoted by President Joe Biden, and how does it affect kids?
Jay Richards, a senior research fellow at The Heritage Foundation’s DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society, says the term is a euphemism for giving hormones to children and, in many cases, performing irreversible surgery on them. (The Daily Signal is Heritage’s multimedia news organization.)
These hormones and surgeries have long-term consequences for a child."
Some states have been listening to the President. As Fox News reports <[link removed]>: "Public schools in Washington state and Oregon are teaching topics related to gender identity to children as young as 5 <[link removed]>."
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3. THE FEDERALIST: It’s Because Of The Resurrection That The Culture War Matters
"Gone are the days when politics focused mostly on arguments about defense budgets, tax cuts, or the gold standard. Today, it seems like each new hot-button political issue is infused with more and more spiritual significance — and spiritual threat.
Left and right aren’t just debating whether kids would benefit from government-subsidized preschool; they’re waging a war over whether children should be groomed to hate their divinely designed bodies and biological telos and reject both for deceitful promises that mutilating their organs will bring self-satisfaction."
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4. AXIOS: Oklahoma governor signs bill making nearly all abortions illegal
"Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) on Tuesday signed into law a bill that makes providing an abortion a felony.
Driving the news: The legislation bans all abortions unless they're necessary to save a pregnant person's life. A person found guilty of providing an abortion would face up to 10 years in prison and a fine up to $100,000."
As NPR reports <[link removed]>, just two days after Oklahoma signed the bill into law, "Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed a bill that bans mostabortions after 15 weeks <[link removed]>,making Florida the latest state to restrict access to the medical procedure.
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5. DAILY SIGNAL: It’s Not a ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Law. It’s an Anti-Indoctrination Law.
"One billboard features the text 'Come to the city where you can say whatever you want,' surrounded by the word 'gay' in bright, colorful letters. Another billboard reads: 'People say a lot of ridiculous things in New York. "Don’t Say Gay" isn’t one of them.'
It’s comical how one-dimensional this line of attack is. In a childish criticism of genuine parental concern, woke activists accuse anyone in favor of the new Florida law of trying to ban the word 'gay' from the collective vocabulary.
More insidiously, they claim that trying to ban classroom instruction of LGBT topics to young kids in kindergarten through third grade is the same as banning gay people from existing at all.
That’s a lie.
Americans concerned with LGBT indoctrination in schools don’t want to ban gays from existing or saying the word 'gay.' Their concern lies squarely with activists in classrooms grooming children."
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WEEKLY PRAYER: FAMILY
LORD, we cry out to you as Father. You are a model of the love, mercy, and authority of the perfect parent. We thank you for modeling for us what every parent should strive for, and for creating this wonderful institution called family.
LORD, we thank you for creating us with a basic nature designed to not be alone. You made us to desire the intimacy of relationships, and it is here where we experience joys indescribable: the joys of marriage, the joys of having children; the joys of seeing our children have children. What a blessing and mercy you gave us in the family! In it we find our first teachers, our first guardians, and our first authorities.
LORD, we recognize how deeply you love your children, and how deeply it pains you when they go astray. Alongside our adoration and thanksgiving, we pray in confession—as individuals and as members of larger communities—over any sins we may have committed that undermine your beloved institution. Forgive us when we endanger your institution through selfishness and arrogance. Forgive our communities and nation for attempting to redefine some of the most basic and deepest parts of being human—being made male and female, having lifelong marriage vows and responsibilities, and having parental rights over educating one's children.
"Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." (Colossians 3:12-17)
Amen
Will you chip in $100, $50, $25, or even $10 to help the NC Values Coalition continue to fight for your rights? You can donate by clicking here. <[link removed]>
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Sincerely,
North Carolina Values Coalition
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NC Values Coalition - 9650 Strickland Rd, Suite 103-226, Raleigh, NC 27615-1902, United States
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