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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: Senate confirms Xavier Becerra as Biden's HHS secretary despite GOP opposition“The Senate on Thursday voted to confirm Xavier Becerra as President Biden’s Health and Human Services secretary, delivering the nascent administration another Cabinet member despite nearly unanimous opposition from Republican lawmakers. Becerra, currently California's attorney general, will become the nation's first Latino to lead the Department of Health and Human Services and faces the daunting challenge of leading the administration's response to the coronavirus pandemic. The U.S. surpassed 538,000 deaths on Thursday, the highest in the world. Lawmakers approved Becerra on a 50-49 vote, with Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, the only Republican to support his nomination. Becerra has drawn fire from Republicans for his record on abortion rights, guns and immigration, as well as his support for Medicare-for-all. Conservative groups have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on ad buys in Arizona and West Virginia, trying to pressure moderate Democrats to not support Becerra.”
 2. DAILY WIRE: Senator Grassley, Tillis, and others discuss personal faith at senate hearing on Equality ActNorth Carolina Senator Thom Tillis participated in the first US Senate hearing on the Equality Act. He stated he cannot support the bill in its current form. Tillis, who himself was a coach for a number of years, seeks clarity on how the bill would impact women's sports. Tillis stated: "We have millions of Americans, who are people of faith, who have serious and legitimate issues of conscience. These Americans practice their faith daily, they love their God, their church, and their community, and they strive to live Biblical values. People of faith contribute so much, and we’ve seen so many stories, even in the midst of the pandemic, about the very important role that they play. In our Constitution and our Bill of Rights, it does protect liberties, and if anything, freedom of religion and the free exercise of our faith is the most important and most sacred constitutional right. It’s literally the reason why our nation was founded. The Equality Act would 'deny the religious liberty and freedom of millions of Americans by forcing churches, religious schools, and adoption agencies to violate their sincerely and deeply held religious beliefs. That’s something I can’t support' And it’s something I’d never support." "The Senate Judiciary Committee held its hearing for the Equality Act on Wednesday, including testimonies from citizen witnesses, as well as United States Representatives and Senators. Republican Senator Chuck Grassley (IA), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, discussed his personal religious beliefs in a statement at the hearing. Grassley stated, 'We all agree that everyone should be treated with dignity and respect … We’re all human beings and need to treat each other with kindness and compassion, and for some of ya, it may be sentimental for me to say that my guide is from the Bible. "Love God," that first law. The second law — "love your neighbor as yourself." I question whether that is what this bill truly does. I strongly suspect that it actually would dictate what women, girls, schools, churches, doctors and others must believe,' Grassley continued."
 
3. FOX NEWS: DeSantis condemns critical race theory, says it won't be taught in Florida classrooms"'Teaching kids to hate their country and to hate each other is not worth one red cent of taxpayer money,' Florida governor says." “DeSantis this week proposed to spend $106 million to support civics education in the state after receiving the boost in funding from the coronavirus stimulus package that President Biden signed into law last week. Under the governor's proposal, teachers who get credentialed in teaching civics would get a $3,000 bonus. Some $16.5 million would be devoted to training teachers and principals in civics education. That training would come from civics "coaches," in-person seminars and virtual learning.” 
4. WRAL: Lt. Gov. decries politicization of NC classrooms“Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson said Tuesday that some North Carolina teachers are inserting their political and cultural ideologies into what's being taught in their classrooms, and he wants to put an end to that practice. ‘The classroom should be a place for education, not a place where people's opinions are pushed on our children,’ Robinson said in announcing the creation of the Fairness and Accountability in the Classroom for Teachers and Students task force, or FACTS. ‘We call it indoctrination, but it could be called many things. It could be called politicizing the classroom,’ he said.”
5. TAKE ACTION: 🏃♀️ Save Women's Sports in NC & other important active NC Values campaignsGirls deserve to compete on a level playing field. When we ignore
biological reality, girls get hurt. In athletics, girls are losing
medals, podium spots, public recognition, and opportunities to
compete. Biological males will always have physical advantages over
females—that’s the reason we have girls’ sports. We need legislation
to Save Women’s Sports. According to a recent 2020 poll, 75.46% of
North Carolinians agree: allowing biological males to compete in
women's sports is unfair. If
you're one of them, would you take a minute to ask your elected
officials to SUPPORT Save Women's Sports legislation in North
Carolina?
IMPORTANT: As the above Friday
Five articles indicate (as well as the former couple weeks), there are
a number of fronts where far-left activists are pursuing policies that
are antithetical and hostile to our precious pro-life, pro-family, and
pro-liberty values. News like Becerra's confirmation are tragic, but
rather than allowing it to discourage you, our hope is that you are
instead motivated to take action. It is our hope that
the labor we put into developing these communications and creating
click-to-contact tools equips you to influence the direction our
country is going. We owe our children as
much.
Here are a couple of ways you can help shape their future by defending your values:
 WEEKLY PRAYER: LIBERTYLORD, 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)
Sincerely, North Carolina Values Coalition
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