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 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.
 1. NC VALUES VOICE: Live with Kevin BroyhillEarlier this week we had another episode
of “The NC Values Voice”, a weekly 30-minute interview by Executive
Director, Tami Fitzgerald, with a special guest. The NC Values Voice
aired on Facebook Live and www.ncvalues.org/voice
on Wednesday night at 7:30pm. Our goal with these programs is to
inform and motivate our statewide coalition members with current,
relevant information.
This week's program featured pastor Kevin
Broyhill, who discussed North Carolina's planned reopening and the
path adopted by Calvary Baptist of King, NC.
 2. DAILY SIGNAL: I’m an ER Physician. Here’s Why Abortion Isn’t an ‘Essential Health Service.’"Although we appear to be “flattening the
curve” of the COVID-19 pandemic, with governors slowly lifting
stay-at-home orders and hospitals beginning to schedule surgeries
again, infection spikes in certain regions remain a
possibility.
Throughout the coming months, we need to focus as a society on medical care that will not only help us survive but thrive. Working in emergency rooms as an emergency medicine physician of more than 20 years, I’m particularly concerned that abortion activists have been promoting and advocating abortion as an 'essential health service.'" North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper has allowed abortion clinics to remain open and to perform abortions, although he has shut down all other elective medical procedures as a way to assist medical treatment for the COVID-19 virus. He obviously considers abortions “essential services”, although all other elective medical treatments such as knee replacements, colonoscopies, and dental surgeries are not. Governor Cooper’s allegiance to the abortion industry shows he has no regard for the humanity of unborn children.
 
3. NATIONAL REVIEW: Attorneys for Conn. High School Runners Ask Judge to Recuse after He Forbids Them from Describing Trans Athletes as ‘Male’"Attorneys representing three female high school track
athletes in their effort to bar biological males from competing
against them filed a motion on Saturday calling for the presiding
judge to recuse himself after he forbid the attorneys from referring
to the transgender athletes at issue as “males.”
The ADF filed suit in February against the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC) on behalf of three girls — Selina Soule, Alana Smith, and Chelsea Mitchell. The suit challenges the CIAC policy allowing students to compete in the division that accords with their gender identity on the grounds that it disadvantages women in violation of the Title IX prohibition against discrimination on the “basis of sex.” During an April 16 conference call, Judge Robert Chatigny chastised the ADF attorneys for referring to the male athletes seeking to compete in the women’s division as “males,” according to a transcript of the call obtained by National Review." The North Carolina High School Athletic Association adopted a new rule last year that allows boys to compete on girls’ sports teams in high schools across North Carolina. This Connecticut lawsuit will have implications for whether NC’s transgender athletic competition rule violates the rights of female athletes by forcing them to compete with males, who have greater strength according to science. 
4. AP NEWS: Lawsuit filed to block N.C. governor orders on churches"Conservative Christian leaders sued Gov. Roy Cooper on
Thursday, asking a court to throw out his restrictions on indoor
religious services in North Carolina during the COVID-19 pandemic.
They argued the limits, initiated by Cooper with health in mind,
violate their rights to worship freely.
Two Baptist churches, a minister and a Christian revival group filed the federal lawsuit seeking to immediately block enforcement of rules covering religious services within the Democratic governor’s executive orders. The latest order still largely prevents most faith organizations from holding indoor services attended by more than 10 people."
5. FOX NEWS: Sen. Burr steps aside as Intelligence Committee chairman amid stock sale investigation"Republican Sen. Richard Burr has stepped aside as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee amid an investigation into his stock sales during the early stages of the coronavirus outbreak. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced the development in a brief statement Thursday, saying: 'Senator Burr contacted me this morning to inform me of his decision to step aside as Chairman of the Intelligence Committee during the pendency of the investigation. We agreed that this decision would be in the best interests of the committee and will be effective at the end of the day tomorrow.' Later, Burr confirmed that he would be stepping aside."
 WEEKLY PRAYER: FAMILYLORD, 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
Sincerely, North Carolina Values Coalition
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