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]>

If you enjoy receiving these emails every week, would you consider making a $100, $50, $25, $10, or even $5 donation towards our ability to create them? <[link removed]>

<[link removed]>



<[link removed]>

1. NC VALUES: Early voting is officially underway 


We wanted to make sure you were aware that February 13th was the first day of early voting. There’s still time to vote early now, but February 29th—the last day for early voting—is coming up.

In order to simplify your voting experience, we have two tools we wanted you to check out:



- NC Values Find My Voting Site App: We've created an app on our website that allows you to enter your registered voting address, and find the early or election day voting site nearest you on Google maps. In addition to voting dates and hours, the tool will also give you information on your ballot's candidates, as well as other helpful voting resources.
- NC Values Sponsored iVoterGuide: For this NC primary election, we've sponsored the independent 3rd-party iVoterGuide's NC Republican Primary Voter Guide. The guide uses a combination of donation history, questionnaires, background analysis, and panel review to determine a candidate's affinity with your values. Simply enter your zip code and get the iVoterGuide rankings on candidates specific to your ballot.



<[link removed]>





<[link removed]>

2. USA TODAY: “The abortion industry isn't willing to prioritize patient safety.”


"I’ve killed more people than Ted Bundy.
Coming to terms with the fact that I was a professional mass murderer was devastating, but it compelled me to speak the truth.

I began my medical career believing the modern clichés that women must have total control over our bodies, and that it’s irresponsible and unethical to bring unwanted children into an overpopulated world. During my OB-GYN residency in Florida in the late 1970s, I went above and beyond the usual first-trimester abortion requirement and asked to learn to perform second-trimester dismemberment abortions <[link removed]>. When faced with my own unwanted pregnancy before entering medical school, I chose abortion.

Abortions, I soon discovered, can be very profitable <[link removed]>. When I got my medical license in Florida in 1978, I moonlighted as an abortionist on the weekends, making more money than I would have made working in the emergency room. I was amazed by the perfect little fingers and toes but treated fetal remains like any other medical specimen — with no emotion. I even performed abortions while I was pregnant. The difference was clear to me at the time: My baby was wanted; my patients' babies weren't. I saw no contradiction in that.”





<[link removed]>









<[link removed]>
3. ABC11: Baby Michael murder arrest - New details to be released Friday in cold case dating back to 1999


"Twenty-one years after a newborn was wrapped in a plastic bag and tossed out of moving vehicle in Cumberland County, the baby's mother is behind bars.

Cumberland County Sheriff's Office announced Thursday that they'd made a break in the cold case of ‘Baby Michael.’"

This case and others led to NC’s Safe Surrender law <[link removed]>.



<[link removed]>





<[link removed]>

4. THE STREAM: EvangelicaLGBTQ: Gay Activism vs. the Church’s Quiet Resignation


“When a liberal church goes pro-gay, we yawn. When an Assemblies of God congregation announces it’s “gay affirming,” we wake up.

Hopefully.

Last Sunday, Rev. Dan Matlock, lead pastor of Eikon Church <[link removed]> in Kyle, Texas, informed his congregation from the pulpit that Eikon was now “a fully inclusive church for the LGBTQ community … that means they can serve in any and every capacity in the church from a greeter in the parking lot to a pastor on staff.” (Click here <[link removed]> for the full sermon.)”

<[link removed]>






<[link removed]>



5. NC VALUES: We proudly endorse Dan Forest for NC Governor. 

The NC Values Coalition wholeheartedly endorses Dan Forest for Governor.

Want to vote for candidates like Dan Forest who support life, religious liberty, and family values? Use our NC Values “Find My Voting Site” tool by entering your registered voting address to easily find your nearest voting location here <[link removed]>.

<[link removed]>















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, $10, or even $5 to help the NC Values Coalition continue to fight for your rights? You can donate by clicking here. <[link removed]>



Sincerely,

North Carolina Values Coalition

<[link removed]> <[link removed]>



-=-=-
NC Values Coalition - 9650 Strickland Rd, Suite 103-226, Raleigh, NC 27615-1902, United States
This email was sent to [email protected]. To stop receiving emails: [link removed]
-=-=-

Created with NationBuilder - [link removed]