Truth for our times: Religious Liberty Concerns, Virginia Dare & Modern Christianity | Eastern NC Now

Governor Stein’s Budget Raises Serious Religious Liberty Concerns for Christian Schools

Governor Josh Stein’s proposed state budget includes a provision that should concern Christian parents, pastors, and school leaders throughout North Carolina.

Buried in the Governor’s budget recommendations is language addressing private schools that enroll Opportunity Scholarship students. The proposal would require participating nonpublic schools not to discriminate on the basis of several categories, including sexual orientation.

On the surface, some may hear that and dismiss it as harmless. But for Christian schools that uphold biblical teaching on marriage, human sexuality, and identity, this provision could pose serious problems.

Virginia Dare, Motherhood, and the God Who Is There

Mother’s Day is a time to honor the women whose love, sacrifice, prayers, and quiet endurance shape the world in ways they may never fully see. Scripture says, “Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her” (Proverbs 31:28). Yet sometimes a mother’s influence extends beyond her household and becomes part of a people’s memory.

North Carolina has such a mother in Eleanor Dare, and such a child in Virginia Dare.

What So Much of Modern Christianity Misses

Jesus begins the Sermon on the Mount with a statement that runs directly counter to modern thinking:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3).

At first glance, those words sound strange. We do not normally associate blessing with poverty. We associate it with strength, confidence, success, self-esteem, and self-sufficiency. Yet Jesus opens His description of the Christian life not with triumph but with bankruptcy. Not material bankruptcy, but spiritual.

Rev. Mark Creech is a longtime pastor and former executive director of the Christian Action League of North Carolina. He now writes and speaks on issues of faith and culture and serves as Director of Government Relations for Return America.