NationBuilder

1. CAROLINA JOURNAL: Tentative budget deal reached with legislative Democrats, not governor

"Sources connected to the North Carolina House and the North Carolina Senate confirmed to CJ that they have firm commitments from enough Democrats in both chambers of the General Assembly to pass a final compromise with enough votes that Gov. Roy Cooper will either have to sign the budget or allow it to become law without his signature."

2. MOHLER: Will the last conservative please turn out the lights?

"Fox News reported the story as if it made perfect sense—just a routine news account of a political happening. But this political event was actually a moral earthquake disguised as a social celebration. The festivities were held at Mar-a-Lago and among the “high-profile group of attendees” were none other than former President Donald Trump and former First Lady Melania Trump. The event may be remembered as a milestone in the death of American conservatism.

Mrs. Trump was actually a featured honoree at the event, billed as the Log Cabin Republicans “Spirit of Lincoln Gala.” The central purpose of the Log Cabin Republicans is to advance the LGBTQ movement within the Republican Party. As Fox reported that the Republican National Committee announced at the gala the formation of its first RNC Pride Coalition, “partnering with the Log Cabin Republicans to invest and mobilize LGBTQ communities ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.”

Log Cabin president Charles Moran told Fox News, “When LGBT conservatives are included in Republican campaigns, we win." LGBT conservatives? That makes sense only if conservatism now means nothing more than dismantling human civilization more slowly than the left demands.

We now see two rival visions of “conservatism” in the United States. The Log Cabin version, representing moral liberalism, just wants a more orderly transition to a new ideological age. True conservatism, based in the impulse to conserve the truths, traditions, and principles that are necessary for human happiness and lasting civilization, is committed to a metaphysical vision that acknowledges that sex and marriage are not plastic realities to be reshaped at will."

Also check out Tony Perkin's take here.

3. THE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER: CMS suspends principal, assistant after reported campus sexual assault

"Two top administrators at a Charlotte high school have been suspended with pay after a female student faced punishment after reporting to school officials she was sexually assaulted in a bathroom on campus."

For more on the story, see this WBTV report on a student's first-hand account: "Chamlagai went to Weston and told her what happened.
Weston, Chamlagai said, immediately went from making her coffee to getting on the phone, calling the school’s two assistant principals and reaching out to other Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools officials.

The male student was called in to be interviewed and Chamlagai said she spent hours sitting in the office.

And then, after just a few hours, Weston and the other administrators decided nothing happened."

"As stunned as Chamlagai was by the quick dismissal of her report, she was petrified by what happened next.

'I was sitting in the principal’s room, like, facing a wall, she was like ‘don’t text your friends, don’t text your family, no one should know what happened,’' Chamlagai recalled.
She said the assistant principal gave her a form to sign, which Chamlagai referred to as a non-disclosure agreement.

The agreement, Chamlagai said, included ten bullet points. The main one that still sticks out to her today is that she would not be able to speak about her reported sexual assault until she graduated."

4. N&O: NC House Speaker Tim Moore won’t run for Congress, seeking another term as speaker

"North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore will not run for Congress in 2022 — the first major fallout from U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn’s decision to switch congressional districts. Rep. Jason Saine, a Lincolnton Republican and chair of the powerful Appropriations Committee, said Moore “will seek re-election as speaker,” in a text message to The News & Observer on Thursday night.

5. DEVOS: The next battle in the war for parents' rights in education is a line politicians dare not cross

"Because wokeness is the left’s religion, "banning" critical race theory or the 1619 Project won’t fix the problem. The liberal education establishment will simply rename, rebrand, or repackage these insidious ideas to get around so-called bans.

Instead, we must equip parents themselves with the tools to hold schools accountable for their programming decisions—to be able to see what is being taught and differentiate between activist and academically oriented schools before they have to make an enrollment decision. Schools, in turn, will find themselves under a meaningful spotlight for the first time, and those who don’t want to alienate prospective parents (and the substantial formula funding that comes with their kids’ enrollment) may finally have an incentive to veer away from political extremism on their own."

On a related note, check out this article from The College Fix entitled "Yes, CRT is taught in K-12 schools," which lists examples of CRT across states and localities.

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

1. CAROLINA JOURNAL: Tentative budget deal reached with legislative Democrats, not governor

2. MOHLER: Will the last conservative please turn out the lights?

3. THE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER: CMS suspends principal, assistant after reported campus sexual assault

4. N&O: NC House Speaker Tim Moore won’t run for Congress, seeking another term as speaker

5. DEVOS: The next battle in the war for parents' rights in education is a line politicians dare not cross

WEEKLY PRAYER: FAMILY