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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. NC VALUES: 🚸 Cooper's so-called emergency.

Earlier this week, Governor Cooper issued a state of emergency plea, opposing school choice and rejecting the idea parents should use their public education tax dollars to fund the school which fits their child.

Democrats are nervous because their grip on public education, which has been weaponized to indoctrinate students, is slipping. They want to control parents’ decisions and deprive struggling families from giving their children more educational opportunities because it threatens their power. Governor Cooper has called a state of emergency, but parents have already done that by demanding school choice and transparency hoping to rescue their children from failing government schools.

2. CAROLINA JOURNAL: School choice offers a brighter future

"The North Carolina General Assembly is about to make all children eligible for the state’s Opportunity Scholarship program. They won’t all receive the same amounts — poor and middle-income families will be eligible for vouchers in the range of $6,500 to $7,200 per student, while upper-income households will receive much less. Nevertheless, both proponents and opponents are quite properly using the term “universal” to describe the policy, which will go into effect for the 2024-25 academic year. School-choice advocates are ecstatic."

3. CBS17: Colleges to be included in bill restricting transgender athletes, Republicans say

"Republican lawmakers have agreed that the final version of a bill blocking transgender athletes from playing on teams based on their gender identity should include college sports, according to Sen. Vickie Sawyer (R-Iredell) who has been one of the leading proponents of the bill."

4. FOX NEWS: South Carolina passes 'heartbeat' abortion bill that limits access to 6 weeks

"The South Carolina legislature passed a six-week 'heartbeat' abortion restriction Tuesday that is set to be signed into law by the governor. The 'Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act' passed in the state Senate on Tuesday after the House passed the bill a week prior. The bill allows abortions up until a fetal heartbeat is detectable, which is at roughly six weeks. Gov. Henry McMaster, R-S.C., vowed to sign the bill.”

5. AP: Nebraska governor signs 12-week abortion ban, limits on gender-affirming care for minors

"North Carolina also recently passed a 12-week abortion ban, among a slew of restrictions enacted in states after the U.S. Supreme Court last year struck down the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that established a nationwide right to abortion. Fourteen states have approved an abortion ban throughout pregnancy. Nebraska’s law also will prevent transgender people under 19 from receiving any gender-confirming surgery. It restricts the use of hormone treatments and puberty blockers in minors, putting the state’s chief medical officer — a political appointee who is an ear, nose and throat doctor — in charge of setting the rules for those therapies. In Nebraska, people younger than 19 are considered minors."

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

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Sincerely,

Tami & Team
NC Values