Dear 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.



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! <[link removed]>







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1. NC VALUES: iVoterGuide releases 2023 school board elections guide for Asheboro, Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Mooresville, and Roanoke Rapids races 



At a time when school boards across North Carolina are putting political agendas over education, we need to pay attention to school board races and make informed, careful decisions about candidates. School board races have notoriously low turnout rates, and we can make a great impact by voting and promoting conservative candidates.



We have partnered with iVoterGuide to release a voter guide for important school board races in Asheboro, Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Mooresville, and Roanoke Rapids. To see how conservative your candidates ranked, check out the guide at [link removed] <[link removed]>





Also check out one of our endorsements in the races: Theresa Knight <[link removed]> for Mooresville Graded School District.



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2. LIFE SITE NEWS: Abortions Drop 30% in North Carolina as Pro-Life Law is Saving Babies’ Lives



"NC Values Coalition Executive Director Tami Fitzgerald told LifeNews: 'It is great news that the lives of more innocent unborn children are being saved and that the new law appears to be working to keep North Carolina from being a destination for abortion. With increased resources for pregnant women provided by the Care for Women, Children, and Families Act and increased funding to Pregnancy Care Centers, women have more support than ever and a safety-net of care to help them choose life.'"



Read more: [link removed]



For more on this story, check out our press statement <[link removed]>, and these stories in AP News <[link removed]> and WRAL <[link removed]>.







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3. ABC11: Transgender North Carolinians file lawsuit challenging gender-affirming care ban for minors



"'This legal challenge is based both on outdated research and faulty constitutional arguments and constitutes an attack on the people of North Carolina who have passed a law protecting children from mutilation of their bodies and a lifetime of medical and mental problems,' said Tami Fitzgerald, Executive Director of the NC Values Coalition. 'The plaintiffs ignore the growing body of evidence showing that these treatments are, in fact, experimental which is why numerous countries in Europe—Sweden, England, Finland, Norway, France—have either banned or severely restricted these treatments for minors.



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4. NEWS & OBSERVER: LGBTQ rights group says NC’s new Parents’ Bill of Rights violates federal law



"But the N.C. Values Coalition says the Parents’ Bill of Rights is in total compliance with Title IX.



'Anti-parental rights groups seek to distort the facts and misstate the law trying to deny parents their fundamental right to oversee the education and upbringing of their children,' Tami Fitzgerald, executive director of the N.C. Values Coalition, said in a statement Monday. 'These radical activists continue to try and lure children into questioning their gender resulting in mental illness while keeping parents in the dark, which are classic grooming tactics.'”



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5. NEWSMAX: Planned Parenthood Helps Teens Transition



"Unwilling to wait and now 18, Fred turned to Planned Parenthood for hormones while his parents were out of town in late July. The abortion provider reportedly prescribes hormones to any legal adult without a formal diagnosis of gender dysphoria or a letter from a therapist and requires only a brief consultation about the drugs' effects, which include permanent infertility.



“According to phone tracking data his parents made available to the Free Beacon, Fred arrived at his local Planned Parenthood clinic in Montclair, New Jersey, around 11 a.m. and by 11:39 a.m. they received a text message from CVS that Fred's estrogen prescription was being processed.



'It’s criminal what Planned Parenthoods all over the country are doing,' Fred's mother, a New Jersey pediatrician, told the Free Beacon. 'And most people have no idea this is happening.'"



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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]> <[link removed]>



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Sincerely,





Tami & Team

NC Values



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NC Values Coalition - 9650 Strickland Rd, Suite 103-226, Raleigh, NC 27615-1902, United States

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