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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. FOX NEWS: South Dakota Gov. Noem to sign bill limiting girls' sports to biological females“South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem said she would sign a bill limiting female teams and sports at public schools to students who are biologically female after the bill passed the South Dakota Senate 20-15 on Monday. ‘In South Dakota, we're celebrating #InternationalWomensDay by defending women's sports! I'm excited to sign this bill very soon,’ Noem wrote on Twitter on Monday.”
2. TAKE ACTION: Ask your elected officials to Save Women's Sports in NCDuring their Spring 2019 meeting, the North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA) changed their original policy that required an athlete participate in sports based on the sex noted on the student's certificate of birth. They instead voted to allow students to participate based on their preferred gender identity, which a student identifies by submitting a "Gender Identity Request" form. Girls deserve equal opportunities to experience the thrill of victory. But allowing biologically-born males to complete such a form and compete in girls' sports disadvantages girls and destroys their athletic opportunity. The science is clear: biological males are generally bigger, faster, and stronger. Biological males have natural advantages too: greater lean muscle, larger individual muscle fibers, larger hearts, increased blood flow, higher ability to take in and use oxygen, lower body fat, less joint stress, and more. These lead to unfair advantages as it relates to strength, speed, power, and performance. No amount of hormone therapy can undo all those advantages either. According to a recent 2020 poll, 75.46% of North Carolinians agree: allowing biological males to compete in women's sports is unfair. It hurts girls—on and off athletic fields—when biological males participate in women's sports. If you agree, would you take a minute and use this click-to-contact tool to ask your elected officials to SUPPORT Save Women's Sports legislation in North Carolina?   
3. TAKE ACTION: NC Values launches online click-to-contact toolkit to help supporters ask officials in 46 cities and counties to oppose SOGI ordinancesBecause North Carolina’s law protecting our freedoms to live out our religious faith, speak freely our religious beliefs, and associate with people who share our values (HB2 and HB142) expired on December 1 and the state legislature failed to enact a permanent solution, LGBTQ+ activist groups have launched a campaign to pressure local governments across the state into considering local sexual orientation and gender identity ("SOGI") ordinances that undermine religious liberty. Thus far, they have targeted 24 cities and 5 counties across NC (5 of which passed a SOGI in cities and 1 in a county). In addition to expected progressive cities like Asheville and Chapel Hill, they have also targeted places like like Black Mountain, Hendersonville, and Weaverville. We believe the best way to stop these ordinances is for your local officials to HEAR FROM YOU FIRST!
4. THE DAILY SIGNAL: Biden’s Coronavirus Stimulus Bill: A $1.9 Trillion Disaster"President Joe Biden has signed his $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan into law. Though regularly billed as “the COVID-19 relief bill,” Democrats’ legislation is not focused on reducing the spread of the disease. Instead, it is stuffed with a wish list of progressive policies that have nothing to do with the pandemic. In fact, less than 10% of the bill’s spending will be dedicated to public health. The vast majority will go to special interest payoffs and other wasteful spending that will do little to reduce the spread of COVID-19 or help the economy recover. For example, nearly $90 billion is earmarked for a taxpayer-funded bailout of union pension plans that were massively underfunded long before COVID-19. This union bailout gets about twice as much funding as COVID-19 testing and contact tracing."
5. NORTH STATE JOURNAL: School reopening bill sent to and signed by Gov. Cooper“Over the course of the pandemic, Cooper had acted unilaterally to close schools and add restrictions using executive orders. When asked why he was not issuing an executive order on schools, the governor answered that ‘we need to do this in a collaborative way.’ The agreement between lawmakers and the governor resulted in Senate Bill 220, which is similar to the earlier reopening school bill, Senate Bill 37, however, this version contains additional language preserving the governor’s powers to order closures or increased restrictions but only on a district-by-district basis. The Senate unanimously passed the measure on Mar. 10 and sent it to the House the same day. The morning of Mar. 11, the House voted unanimously, 119-0, to pass the bill and send it to the governor who signed it the same day.”
 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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