2. HERITAGE: The Education Freedom Report Card
We wanted to share with you a great
resource from the Heritage Foundation: The Education Freedom Report
Card. It informs parents of how their state ranks in empowering
parents and enabling school choice.
North Carolina came in
16th. However, once the full funding for the Opportunity
Scholarship program (which passed initial votes in the General
Assembly last week) is signed into law and goes into effect, the
State’s ranking should go up quite a bit.
"In 1940, British Prime Minister Winston
Churchill wrote to his Australian counterpart, Robert Menzies, that
'success always demands a greater effort.' America is—mercifully—not
engaged in a global conflict, but the country remains absorbed in a
longstanding struggle to prepare the next generation to be informed,
engaged citizens. K–12 students in the U.S. have chronically low
reading and math scores and whistleblowers continue to uncover
ideological attempts among educators and interest groups, such as
unions, to discredit America’s founding ideals of freedom and equality
under the law. The longstanding achievement gap between students at
the top and bottom of the income distribution remains a significant
indicator of the U.S. Department of Education’s failure to meet the
needs of a diverse student body nationwide.
Fortunately, state officials across the
country are creating, sharpening, and expanding innovative options for
elementary and secondary school students and their families."
Read more: https://www.heritage.org/educationreportcard/index.html
3. VOTE: Absentee ballots will be
arriving soon
Today marks the deadline for counties to
distribute absentee ballots to military and overseas citizen voters
who have requested them.
"A spokesman for the North Carolina State
Election Board (NCSBE) told Carolina Journal in an email Tuesday that
everything has been going as planned as the new deadline of Friday,
Sept. 20, is quickly approaching for the state’s 100 counties to mail
out absentee ballots to eligible military and overseas citizens who
requested them. The new schedule ensures that North Carolina will meet
the federal law requirement to distribute ballots to voters under the
Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) by the
45th day before the election on Sept. 21."
Absentee ballots will be distributed to
all other voters on September 24th.
If you are one of the more than 166,000
voters who have requested absentee ballots, we wanted to keep you
updated about your incoming mailer. We also invite you to check out a
number of resources we put together that help you to find which
candidates share your values: https://ncvalues.org/vote/
Read more: https://www.carolinajournal.com/new-deadline-for-nc-counties-to-send-absentee-ballots-to-military-and-overseas-citizens-fast-approaching/
4. NC VALUES:🏡 Help us write our
neighbors
Did you know that 1 in 3 Christians don’t
vote?
That’s about 25 million
people!
For months, our grassroots team has been
busy across the state hosting “Write Now” campaigns to try and change
that awful statistic.
In cities like Statesville, Charlotte,
Kannapolis, Rocky Mount, and more, our grassroots coordinators and
supporters have been meeting in homes and churches to reach out to
neighbors and encourage them to vote. These “Write Now” writing events
equip individuals to send personalized hand written notes to North
Carolina Christians unlikely to vote in the upcoming election.
We invite you to join us for these
important get-out-the-vote events!
Read more: https://ncvalues.org/writing-our-neighbors/
5. YOU'RE INVITED: Arise from Ash:
Purpose Birthed from Pain, featuring Ashley Shuell
We wanted to invite you to a special
event sponsored by Raleigh 40 Days for Life, St. Joseph's, and Our
Lady of Lourdes, featuring Ashley
Shuell:
"Looking for love in all the wrong
places, wounded and insecure, Ashley made a mistake in her choices. In
paralyzing fear, she succumbed to the lie that abortion was her only
option. That encounter, and the pain that came with it, has driven her
to become a voice for the unborn and the mothers who have lost them.
Listen as she tells her anointed testimony, in her own words and with
her own voice, amplifying God's faithful and redemptive love that
healed her broken heart and birthed purpose from her pain."
The event will be on Thursday,
October 3rd, from 7-8:15pm, and located at Our Lady of Lourdes
Catholic Church's Fallon Center (2710 Overbrook Drive, Raleigh
NC).
We hope you consider joining them and
hearing Ashley's amazing story!
weekly prayer: freedom
LORD, you have blessed us with a
spiritual liberty that is so wonderful and beyond description, that it
can only be understood through experiencing a life-giving relationship
with Christ. However, we also recognize that in your grace, you have
blessed our country with a political liberty that enables us to openly
proclaim the experience of a life lived in the freedom of the
Gospel.
LORD, as individuals and as a nation,
may we never take the inalienable right of religious freedom for
granted. Right now our country has faced a rapid increase in the
number of attacks made against this cherished right. We have seen
groups across our public arena increase in boldness and frequency
their smears against religious liberty. They claim it is bigotry, when
we know it is the security of the greatest of all possible
loves.
Be with your people and our country
as it continues to protect the constitutional right protected by our
nation’s Founders. Be with legislators and the Supreme Court, as they
determine through their actions the protection of this particular and
fundamental freedom.
“It was for freedom that Christ set
us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a
yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5:1)
“For you were called to freedom,
brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the
flesh, but through love serve one another.” (Galatians 5:13)
“Act as free men, and do not use your
freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bondslaves of God.” (1
Peter 2:16)
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.
Sincerely,
Tami & Team
NC Values
