1. NC VALUES: Celebration of Carolina Values event rebroadcast video
2. NC VALUES: One-Stop early voting in NC has begun. Go out and vote your values!
3. UNC-TV: NC Gubernatorial debate video
4. FOX NEWS: Amy Coney Barrett answers questions at confirmation hearing without notes holds up blank notepad
"'You know most of us have multiple notebooks and notes and books and things like that in front of us,' Cornyn said. 'Can you hold up what you’ve been referring to in answering our questions?'
5. NC STATE BAR COUNCIL: The Council will be meeting next week to consider adopting a SOGI requirement that would be disastrous to the religious liberty of NC lawyers
The North Carolina State Bar Council is meeting at 9:00 am next Friday to consider amending the Preamble to their Rules of Professional Responsibility to include Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity as protected classes that constrain the speech of licensed attorneys not only in their professional lives, but in their personal lives.
Such an addition to the organization that oversees bar licensing of NC lawyers would be a big blow to religious liberty and the consciences of pro-values attorneys across our state. As our executive director Tami Fitzgerald notes in her letter to the organization—and who herself is a practicing attorney who would be impacted by the change—"In summary, the proposed amendment to the Preamble and the proposed comments are unconstitutional violations of First Amendment rights that every citizen of the United States holds, including licensed attorneys. This committee should reject the requested amendments" (read the rest of Tami's letter summarizing the danger of the SOGI change here, as well as a second letter she filed with the Council with NC Family Policy Council here).
We encourage you to tune in here to the livestream of their meeting, and to keep this issue in your prayers.
WEEKLY PRAYER: LIBERTY
LORD, 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)
Amen
Sincerely,
North Carolina Values Coalition
