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. SPECTRUM NEWS: Appeals denied
after court approves new redistricting maps for North
Carolina
"A Wake County court approved new
redistricting maps Wednesday for North Carolina’s 2022 elections. But
parties on both sides of the lawsuit appealed within hours of the
ruling. Those appeals were denied late Wednesday by a ruling from the
N.C. Supreme Court.
The court rejected the GOP-drawn
Congressional map, instead choosing a map drawn by the court’s special
masters, who were tasked with analyzing the maps. The court approved
the legislature’s maps for the North Carolina House and Senate that
the General Assembly passed last week.
The General Assembly appealed the new
congressional map. The League of Conservation Voters, one of the
plaintiffs, appealed the North Carolina Senate map. The N.C. Supreme
Court denied the motions to block the Wake County court's decision.
The groups could appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Candidate filing is
scheduled to start Thursday morning at 8 a.m."
2. THE DAILY SIGNAL: Secret
Teacher Portals Reveal ‘Pronoun Surveys,’ ‘Black Lives Matter
Curriculum.’ Here’s What I Found in the Leaked Content.
"At the Santa Barbara Unified School District in California,
teachers are given a plethora of politically radical resources that
they are expected to implement in the classroom, which are now coming
to light.
Christy Lozano, a teacher at the Santa Barbara Unified School
District, has revealed that teachers are expected to access a
password-protected portal for teaching “culturally responsive
material.” She has exposed the far-left content with Laura Ingraham,
and she recently provided me with the materials as well.
The materials are laid out in numerous webpages, each encompassing
a different progressive cause. Some of the category headings include
“Black Lives Matter,” “Bilingual/Multilingual Advocacy Month,” and
“LGBTQIA+ Month.” When I started to dig into the materials, it quickly
became apparent that they were not simply educational tools."
3. NEWS & OBSERVER: NC won’t
show the sex of students on PowerSchool. It’s meant to help
transgender kids.
"A recent change designed to protect the privacy of North
Carolina’s transgender public school students is drawing complaints
from some conservative groups. At the end of January, the state
Department of Public Instruction updated the PowerSchool information
system so that the sex for students is no longer visible unless
schools give users permission to view the records. The change, which
DPI says is based on federal guidance, is meant to protect transgender
students from being outed if the gender they identify with is not the
same as their biological gender."
With all the indoctrination
efforts happening across across, across counties, across the country,
we wanted to make sure you saw an opportunity to be salt and
light.
"Superintendent Catherine Truitt is launching a new
Parent Advisory Commission to elevate the voice of parents in
students’ education. The 48-member advisory board will include six
parents or guardians from each of the state’s eight educational
regions to ensure diverse geographical participation with the
application available for parents today. Members will share their
aspirations for public education in the state and discuss challenges
it faces, helping to put together recommendations for elected
officials and policy makers in North Carolina, while providing direct
feedback to Truitt."
We
want to encourage our coalition members that are parents to apply for
Truitt's parent council. This is an excellent way for her to hear
about our your concerns as it relates to parental rights
issues.
4. SAVE THE DATE: Join us for our
next Parental Rights Coalition
Every month, the NC Values Coalition hosts a Parental Rights
Coalition meeting where we get to hear from various speakers about
ways to combat harmful curriculum and classroom indoctrination.
We would love to invite those interested to join us at our upcoming
meeting in March, which takes place Tuesday, March 22nd at noon. We
will be joined by Katie Gorka, who is the Director of the Center for
Civil Society and the American Dialogue at the Heritage
Foundation.
For those interested in attending, Contact our Reaghan Boerman at
[email protected] for additional
information. Once we have a list of attendees, we will send out a
Teams meeting so we can meet virtually.
5. SCOTUS: Certification granted
in religious liberty case 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis
Earlier this week, the US Supreme Court granted certification to
303 Creative LLC v. Elenis' petition, which is one of the many cases
before the Court that we have filed Amicus Briefs in (to view some of
the others, click
here and select amicus briefs).
The case's petition addresses following question: "Whether applying
a public-accommodation law to compel an artist to speak or stay silent
violates the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment."
To learn more about the case, check out ADF's
summation here.
WEEKLY PRAYER: UKRAINE
Lord Jesus, you are the Prince of Peace. How you care for your
sheep. How you love the widowed and the orphaned! How you condemn the
one who violently widows and orphans!
No principality on earth
could bring about the Shalom of the Kingdom. For no principal could
come down on a cloud, as you one day will. Furthermore, when their
attempts at peacemaking come at the destructive end of the sword, the
scars are the very antithesis of peace.
We love peace, Lord
Jesus. Is it not the very thing we desire most in our hearts? That we
have peace in our lives. Peace from self doubts. Peace from violent
aggressors. Peace from the price of our sin.
We pray for the
peace of Ukraine. We pray for their protection and resilience. We pray
that Ukraine be victorious against the aggressor, that violent bully
named Putin.
What a tragedy before your eyes, Prince Jesus. To
see countries that call one another "brothers," recreate the episode
with Russia as Cain, and Ukraine as Abel.
We pray for the
peace and the people of Ukraine. May our hearts mourn for them, and
our nation help as is most wise and prudent.
"For to
us a child is born, to us a
son is given, and the
government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be
called Wonderful
Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of
Peace." (Isaiah 9:6)
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.
Sincerely,
North Carolina Values Coalition
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