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. <[link removed]>
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. NBC NEWS: LGBTQ rights fight reignited 4 years after N.C.'s 'bathroom bill' controversy
“Proponents of HB 142 are also marshaling their forces: In a November opinion piece in the North State Journal <[link removed]>, Tami Fitzgerald, leader of the North Carolina Family Values Coalition, accused LGBTQ groups of trying to ‘reboot the divisive and tired debate on HB2’ when the state was at its most vulnerable.
The conservative Christian organization opposes any new ordinances and is urging the General Assembly to make HB 142’s ban on local anti-discrimination laws permanent when it convenes in January.
According to Fitzgerald, such laws are ‘a Trojan horse to weaponize hate and hostility toward small-business owners and private citizens with sincerely held religious beliefs.’
These laws, she wrote, ‘coerce uniformity of thought and speech on beliefs about marriage, sex and what it means to be male and female’ and ‘take away free speech and religious freedom for a vast number of Americans.’”
Also make sure to check out this article by David Larson released this week in the North State Journal. David provides an excellent summary of the issue. <[link removed]>
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2. NORTH STATE JOURNAL: Gov. Roy Cooper announces statewide curfew
"Gov. Roy Cooper on Tuesday announced what he called a 'modified stay-at-home order' that will take effect on Friday, Dec. 11.
'We already have strong safety protocols and capacity limitations in place – including a statewide mask requirement. With this additional action beginning Friday, we hope to get these numbers down,' Gov. Cooper said from the Emergency Operations Center in Raleigh. 'Our new modified stay-at-home order aims to limit gatherings and get people home where they are safer, especially during the holidays. It’s also a reminder that we must be vigilant the rest of the day – wearing a face mask when we are with people we don’t live with, keeping a safe distance from others and washing our hands a lot.'
Under the order, North Carolinians are required to stay at home and travel only for work or to obtain essential goods or services during the hours of 10:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. through Jan. 8, 2021. Worship, religious, and spiritual gatherings, funeral ceremonies, wedding ceremonies, and other activities constituting the exercise of First Amendment rights continue to remain exempt from the order.
The order does not apply to retail businesses that sell groceries, medication, fuel, or health care supplies."
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3. DAILY WIRE: ‘We’re Not Ready’: Pastor Andrew Brunson Predicts Worsening Religious Persecution In U.S. Regardless Of Election Outcome
"Pastor Andrew Brunson soberly predicted on Sunday that Christians in the United States will face increasing hostility regardless of whether President Donald Trump prevails in his legal battles regarding the presidential election.
Brunson, who was an American missionary to Turkey for 25 years until he was unjustly imprisoned by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2016, owes his freedom in part to the hardline diplomatic measures that the Trump administration took against Turkey on his behalf."
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4. THE FEDERALIST: Lincoln Project Fights To Give Democrats Unlimited Federal Control Through Georgia
"Who would guess that the state of Georgia would become the new epicenter of the 2020 election? A deluge of national political interests have descended upon those sleepy southern hills, as each party fights for the votes that will determine control of the U.S. Senate.
Among those partisans is a group known as The Lincoln Project. This band of former Republican campaign managers and consultants worked to deny Republican Donald Trump a second term of office.
These Lincoln Project “Republicans” will now fight tooth and nail to give Democrats control of the Senate, House, and presidency all at once. If they succeed, this would remove the effective restraint of principled Republican opposition necessary in a two-party system. It will clear the path for the left to remake the country in its own image. The stakes could hardly be higher."
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5. REASON: Lawyer Speech Code Blocked on First Amendment Grounds
A huge victory for free speech. This is the same rule that the North Carolina State Bar is trying to impose for attorneys here.
“The irony cannot be missed that attorneys, those who are most educated and encouraged to engage in dialogue about our freedoms, are the very ones here who are forced to limit their words to those that do not ‘manifest bias or prejudice.’”
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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]>
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Sincerely,
North Carolina Values Coalition
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NC Values Coalition - 9650 Strickland Rd, Suite 103-226, Raleigh, NC 27615-1902, United States
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