NationBuilder

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. NC VALUES: Join us for our Celebration Livestream Event on October 3rd.

Our Celebration of Carolina Values event in Raleigh is an important time where we get to celebrate all the hard work our coalition has done throughout the year (and this year, there is plenty for us to celebrate!).

We're also blessed to hear from some incredible heroes and heroines whose stories model the championing of your Carolina values. This year, we get to hear from 12x All-American swimmer Riley Gaines, who experienced the injustice firsthand of allowing men in women's sports. We’ll also be joined by Payton McNabb, a high school volleyball player in Cherokee, NC who was injured when a trans identifying biological male volleyball player spiked a ball in her face causing long-term neurological issues.

On October 3rd, 2023, we hope you consider virtually joining us and Riley, and many others for our Celebration of NC Values Livestream event.

Livestream begins at 6:30pm, and can be watched at ncvalues.org/live.

2. ABC11: WCPSS works to implement parents' bill of rights as board members vow to have ongoing conversations

"'The parents have the rights to oversee the upbringing of their children. What's dangerous is when schools and teachers put themselves in the place of parents and try to get between parents and their children,' said Tami Fitzgerald with NC Values Coalition. 'We will be watching. We're already getting stories from different counties around the state. One county refused to or was about to adopt a policy that wouldn't require the schools to notify the parents about a pronoun change. It's right there in the law in black and white.'"

Brunswick, Transylvania, Henderson, and Columbus counties are among some of the many others having related conversations over complying to the recent parental rights legislation.

3. CAROLINA JOURNAL: New age-verification law for online porn will protect NC children

"Children in North Carolina are being targeted by the porn industry on a daily basis. The NC General Assembly has passed several pieces of good legislation that address obscene materials children are allowed to access in schools and at public venues. One piece of legislation that passed recently is a bill addressing pornographic materials children are exposed to on their phones. Every day, tens of thousands of children across North Carolina access internet pornography without restrictions."

For more on this story, check out these articles from the Center Square, North State Journal, and our recent press release.

4. NC NEWSLINE: North Carolina’s new abortion law is back in federal court

"Under the state’s new abortion law, doctors are not allowed to prescribe abortion pills before a patient’s embryo is visible on an ultrasound, which happens at about five or six weeks. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic and Dr. Beverly Gray, a Duke Ob/Gyn, are asking a federal court judge to put a freeze on that provision of the law and on another that requires abortions after 12 weeks gestation be performed in hospitals rather than clinics."

5. NOTTHEBEE: If you need some fire in your belly, watch this North Carolina mom go nuclear on her school board at a level we didn't know existed 🔥

“There is one goal, and one goal alone in the education system: To prepare children to enter careers to be productive members of society. It is not a counseling session, it is not a help self area, it is not a area to find yourself, and we should not be led by the children!”

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

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.

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Sincerely,

Tami & Team
NC Values