Dear Jack,

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. CAROLINA JOURNAL: Ashley Vaughan: Setting the Record Straight on Randolph County's Library Board

Op-Ed from our Press Director, Ashley Vaughan: “Last Monday night, the Randolph County Commissioners took a bold step: They voted to dissolve the library board after it failed to address parental concerns over the book ‘Call Me Max’ being included in the children’s section of the library. ‘Call Me Max,’ recommended for 5-9 year olds, teaches children that their parents may be wrong about their gender, and that their gender is actually whatever they feel it is.

At the Monday night meeting, attended by over 200 people, much of the public debate was driven by a fundamental misunderstanding of the vote itself.”

Read more: https://www.carolinajournal.com/opinion/setting-the-record-straight-on-randolph-countys-library-board/

Also check out this article from The Blaze and the Washington Post:

2. DAILY WIRE: House Passes Nationwide Ban On Trans Procedures For Gender-Confused Children

"The House on Wednesday approved a bill that would prohibit doctors across the country from performing transgender surgeries on minors or giving gender-confused kids puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones.

The legislation, introduced by outgoing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), passed 216-211. Under Greene’s proposal, doctors who provide transgender procedures to children could face steep fines or up to 10 years in prison."

Read more: https://www.dailywire.com/news/house-passes-nationwide-ban-on-trans-procedures-for-gender-confused-children

3. WASHINGTON STAND: Chick-fil-A Doubles Down, Keeps DEI on the Menu

"It’s one thing to catch a local Chick-fil-A rebelling against Christian values — and quite another for headquarters to defend it. After this month’s revelation that an Orem, Utah location was publicly supporting same-sex marriage in a congratulatory post on Facebook (a post that’s still there), several disappointed customers reached out to corporate, hoping for an apology — or at least clarity — on what they saw as a public departure from the chain’s longtime beliefs."

Read more: https://washingtonstand.com/article/chickfila-doubles-down-on-wokeism-keeps-dei-on-the-menu-

4. WSJ: The Chinese Billionaires Having Dozens of U.S.-Born Babies Via Surrogate

"Videogame executive Xu Bo, said to have more than 100 children, and other elites build mega-families, testing citizenship laws and drawing on nannies, IVF and legal firms set up to help them"

Read more: https://www.wsj.com/us-news/chinese-billionaires-surrogacy-pregnancy-7fdfc0c3

5. WORLD: North Carolina School Censors Student Rock Art

"Gabby Stout, a junior at Ardrey Kell High School in Charlotte, N.C., wanted to honor Charlie Kirk following his Sept. 10 assassination. So she painted her school’s 'spirit rock,' a large outdoor rock students are permitted to decorate with murals and messages.

Just hours later, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education officials apparently had the rock painted over.

In the following days, school officials accused Stout of vandalism and said they launched a criminal investigation of the matter. Even after school officials dropped the investigation, they never publicly cleared Stout’s name."

Read more: https://wng.org/roundups/north-carolina-school-censors-student-rock-art-1765917849

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

Sincerely,

Tami & Team

NC Values