Calley Mangum | September 15, 2021 | SHARE: 
The First Amendment of our Constitution grants every American the right to live out his or her faith without fear of governmental interference. Yet, lately this has not been the case. In the Winter 2021 edition of Family North Carolina magazine, we included a quote from U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito on our “etcetera” page where he warned, “Religious liberty is in danger of becoming a second-class right.”
One does not need to look very far to see that attacks on people of faith have skyrocketed nationwide. Even more concerning, an increasing number of judges, lawmakers, and those in power are preemptively siding against religious liberty before attacks even occur. From several state governors treating houses of worship differently from other large-scale gathering places under COVID-19 restrictions, to Congress’s “Equality Act,” which would force acceptance of sexual orientation and gender identity ideology without any protections for people of faith, to the U.S. Supreme Court’s failure to take up the case of Washington State florist Barronelle Stutzman earlier this summer…our nation is becoming more hostile than ever towards those who desire to hold fast and live according to their religious beliefs.
For us at NC Family, and for our close friends at Alliance Defending Freedom, this means we must work harder than ever to prevent people of faith from becoming second-class citizens. In “Religious Liberty: First or Fading Freedom?” legal counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom’s Center of Legislative Advocacy, Greg Chafuen, dives into what religious liberties our law and Constitution grant us, and outlines the various challenges this First Freedom faces right now in our nation.
If the First Amendment is a law we must vigorously defend, then the ruling of Roe v. Wade is one we must zealously seek to overturn. The lie that abortion is “safe and rare” has been tossed around for decades, but our friends at Americans United for Life have spent years compiling data on the abortion industry to show the truth. In their “Unsafe 2020” Report, they expose the horrors of malpractice, health code violations, and more within each state’s abortion industry. Julie Tisdale summarizes AUL’s report as it pertains to North Carolina in “‘Rare,’ ‘Safe,’ and Other Lies About Abortion.”
Finally, our state rests on the precipice of the biggest gambling expansion we have ever seen. Sports betting, more casinos, and other disastrous gambling practices have never been so close to becoming a reality. In “Teetering on the Edge: Gambling in NC,” Chris Derrick reviews the slew of gambling proposals up for consideration at the North Carolina General Assembly and beyond, and how this could impact vulnerable communities and individuals in disastrous ways.
We hope you enjoy this issue of Family North Carolina magazine! Please feel free to share this issue with your friends and family, and you are welcome to contact NC Family to request some extra copies to pass out in your communities.
Calley Mangum is the Communications Director for the North Carolina Family Policy Council and is Editor of Family North Carolina.
