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.
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?
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.
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. When faced with my own
unwanted pregnancy before entering medical school, I chose
abortion.
Abortions, I soon discovered, can be very profitable. 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.”
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.
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 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 for the full sermon.)”
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.
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.
Sincerely,
North Carolina Values Coalition
|