Friend,
Welcome to the Friday Five! Every Friday we share our top articles,
stories, and quotes for you to read and share with your friends and
church families.
During this COVID-19 crisis, the team at NC Values wants to
serve you—our coalition members—impacted by the virus as much as
possible. We are resolved to be praying over you and all
others experiencing the pandemic's impact every monday at 11 am, and
ask that you take a couple minutes to pray for our officials and
neighbors at that time. In addition, we have decided to focus Friday
Five on the latest stories and relief resources from our state and
federal government. We may even provide more than our normal 5
articles to ensure you're up-to-date on the latest ("Friday Five+").
We hope that in addition to staying informed, coalition members
financially and physically impacted by the virus will find tools to
mediate the virus's ongoing impacts.
We encourage you—now more than ever—to be deeply in prayer
for our state, nation, and world. Now is not a time for
partisanship. It is a time for our country to come together
and care for one another. In addition to being deeply in prayer, we
ask you adhere to the directions given at the state and federal level,
practice social distancing, and stay home as much as is physically
possible.
Nonprofits like ours are expected to
experience significant impacts to our fundraising efforts. If you
support our work, would
you consider making a needed $100, $50, $25, $10, or even $5 donation
to ensure we have the resources necessary to remain financially
healthy during these difficult times?
1. NC VALUES: Gov. Cooper
closes businesses, schools, and churches; but not abortion
centers?
Governor Cooper closed our businesses, closed our schools, and
closed our churches, but why are abortion centers open? Contact
Governor Cooper today and ask him to close abortion clinics, and
redirect PPE and other medical equipment to the needed coronavirus
response.
2. VIDEO: Outside Charlotte abortion
clinic
Disturbing news from our friends at Cities4Life Charlotte was
reported this week from outside one of busiest abortion facilities in
the Southeast. They found the clinic still open and performing
abortions despite the CDC guidance that all medical procedures should
be halted to divert needed resources to hospitals. An out-of-state
abortionist traveled into Charlotte to see nearly 45 women in this
tiny clinic where social distancing and heightened healthcare
procedures physically cannot be taking place.
In
the past, this same clinic has been closed by the state after a
surprise inspection found imminent danger to the health, safety and
welfare of the clients. If these workers really cared about the women
they see, wouldn’t they stay home to help stop the spread of the
Coronavirus?
3.
BP NEWS: Moore, other pro-lifers oppose abortion promotion during
pandemic
"Southern Baptist ethicist Russell Moore joined other pro-life
leaders Tuesday (March 24) in urging public health officials to act to
prevent the promotion of abortion during the coronavirus (COVID-19)
pandemic.
Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious
Liberty Commission, and more than 50 other representatives of national
or state organizations called for the action in a letter to Alex Azar,
secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services.
The letter, organized by pro-life group Susan B.
Anthony List, said Planned Parenthood and other organizations are
promoting and performing abortions while other elective procedures are
being delayed. By discontinuing abortions, Planned Parenthood would
make medical equipment that is in limited supply available as the
coronavirus spreads in this country, protect women who may require
care from an overtaxed health-care system after post-abortion
complications and reduce the burden on emergency rooms, according to
the letter."
"In addition to Moore and Dannenfelser, others signing the letter
to Azar were: Carol Tobias, president, National Right to Life; Jeanne
Mancini, president, March for Life; Tony Perkins, president, Family
Research Council; Roland Warren, president, Care Net; Shawn Carney,
president, 40 Days for Life; Brian Fisher, president, Human Coalition;
Donna Harrison, executive director, American Association of Pro-life
Obstetricians and Gynecologists; Frank Pavone, national director,
Priests for Life; Lila Rose, president, Live Action; Kristan Hawkins,
president, Students for Life of America; and Tami
Fitzgerald, executive director, North Carolina Values
Coalition."
4. SBA LIST: The Pro-Life
Response to Coronavirus
The Abortion Lobby is exploiting the #COVID19
pandemic in an attempt to expand its reach—claiming mothers should
have chemical abortions at home & that we have to use aborted baby
parts to find a vaccine.
5. WRAL: Wake joins Triangle neighbors
with stay-at-home order
"A stay-at-home order for Wake County,
including Raleigh and other area towns, takes effect at 5 p.m. Friday
and runs through April 16.
Durham Mayor Steve Schewel initiated the effort across the
Triangle on Wednesday, when he signed a stay-at-home order that starts
Thursday evening. Orange County officials issued an order Thursday
morning that also covers Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough, and
it takes effect Friday evening.
The Durham County Board of Commissioners is scheduled to meet
Friday afternoon and adopt its own stay-at-home order."
Mecklenburg County has also issued a
"stay at home" order. Learn
more here.
+1. WRAL: What's open, closed: NC
schools closed through May 15; more businesses closed
statewide
"Gov. Roy Cooper has expanded the list of
public places ordered to close to prevent the spread of coronavirus,
lowered the limit for the number of people at public gatherings and
extended the closing of public schools through May 15.
His actions follow Wake
County, which announced another layer of guidelines
on Sunday.
Effective March 23, gatherings are to be
limited to no more than 50 people, down from the 100-person cap Cooper
announced a little over a week earlier."
+1. NC: COVID-19 Hope
Hotline
A toll-free Hope Line has been
established for older adults experiencing isolation from social
distancing. Call 1-866-578-4673 or
1-866-578-HOPE.
+1. FOX NEWS: House debates coronavirus
stimulus bill as GOP rep faces backlash over threat to force recorded
vote
ONGOING PRAYER: CORONAVIRUS
LORD, we pray to you regarding the health pandemic facing our
nation and the world. Christ—you are the Great Physician—and we bring
to you a solemn petition in regards to our physical, social, and
economic health.
Protect our bodies and our nation as we combat the coronavirus.
We pray that our leaders in office will be blessed with wisdom to make
decisions in the interest of public health and saving lives. We pray
in particular for the elderly, who are most at risk to experience
complications when infected. We pray for all the medical
professionals on the front-lines of battling this virus.
LORD, protect all of us from infection, and may you work
through your Church in the midst of this crisis to help bring people
to acknowledge you are sovereign and good. We pray deeply that people
will come to salvation, and that our neighbors will spend their time
wisely with their families praising God for our blessings.
We pray that this virus will quickly die out, that our public
efforts—as communities and neighbors—will slow the virus' spread and
impact. LORD, we ask for you to work through those individuals
currently developing a cure, and plead that it may come soon. We also
pray for all those who will be impacted by the economic fallout of the
measures taken to combat the viruses. Be with individuals nearing
retirement who will have their savings ravaged; be with small business
owners and employees—particularly those in recreation, dining,
part-time employment, and vacation industries—who may face bankruptcy
and financial stress related to economic decline; be with our nation
as a whole, as it sets itself on the difficult path of recovering
physically and economically from this virus.
LORD, we acknowledge you are good, and that your provision for
your children is unquestionable. May your inspired words remind us in
this time of panic and anxiety:
"Be not anxious
for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for
your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than the food,
and the body than the raiment? Behold the birds of the heaven, that
they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; and your
heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not ye of much more value than they?
And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit unto the measure
of his life? And why are ye anxious concerning raiment? Consider the
lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they
spin: yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not
arrayed like one of these. But if God doth so clothe the grass of the
field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he
not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Be not therefore
anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or,
Wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the
Gentiles seek; for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of
all these things. But seek ye first his kingdom, and his
righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Be not
therefore anxious for the morrow: for the morrow will be anxious for
itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." (Matthew
6:25-34)
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
|