Be Careful What You're Thankful For
Quick Note: There are a lot of worthy organizations seeking your donations this time of year, and we also greatly appreciate your financial support. We will be sending our donation mailer on Monday, December 8th, so watch for it to show up in your mailbox sometime that week. It will give you a chance to donate to North Dakota Family Alliance and help support the work we undertake in the halls of Bismarck and across ND, protecting your deeply held values. Remember to look for our logo with the blue state outline and Bison inside to make sure your dollars stay in North Dakota!
A week from today is already Thanksgiving. I’m not sure if that brings warm feelings or dread of the holiday season, but let’s talk about giving thanks right now.
I am personally thankful for many things. First and foremost, I am thankful for salvation in Christ. I am very thankful for a loving wife, amazing kids, and for living in this wonderful state. I am also thankful for Godly men and women who serve us in the state legislature and Congress. I am thankful for our Legislative Academy that helps train ND legislators on how to best integrate their faith and values into their political life. And I am very thankful for you, our faithful ministry partners around the state.
As Americans, we have a lot to be thankful for as well. We live in a country founded on Biblical principles, which is a huge blessing. We have a society where hard work produces commensurate rewards, virtually unrestricted religious freedom exists, respectful dialogue happens around contentious issues, Christianity is respected by nearly all, and societal norms have been shifting more toward Biblical values over the past decades.
Really? Reread that last sentence. In a limited sense, perhaps all those aforementioned items exist in some form, and we should certainly thank God for them. However, many of those statements are already mostly untrue, and the others are slipping away at an ever-increasing rate. The ending to “I am thankful for...” on these issues could soon become moot. They could be gone far faster than you or I can imagine.
We see girls on sports teams competing with boys who “identify as a girl,” and these same boys identifying as girls are casually pushing their way into the opposite sex’s locker room facilities. The news broadcasts almost daily how another company, public figure, church, or other entity has sacrificed Biblical values on the altar of political correctness. We see bakers, photographers, florists, retailers (e.g., Hobby Lobby), and other business owners having to fight all the way to the Supreme Court to defend their religious freedoms, and I’ve personally heard from business leaders right here in our state about the pressure on them to capitulate to the “new order”.
Hard work no longer guarantees commensurate rewards you can keep. The Left and the Right bicker on seemingly every issue. Chemical abortions via Mifepristone and misoprostol are more common than ever and are happening under our noses at an alarming rate. This is sadly even true within our own state, which has banned abortion in nearly all circumstances (although our current law is in limbo as we await a final judgement from the ND Supreme Court).
Why am I giving you this litany of things that are going wrong? For three reasons. First, I want to highlight that the freedoms we still possess in these areas are a precious thing, and once they’re gone, they’re gone for good. In other words, be thankful for what you have.
Second, I want you to be painfully aware that we are not going in the right direction on these issues as a nation. Further, we may live in what is overall a conservative and bible-honoring state, but we are not insulated from these issues. We see them every day in our work – they’re coming, or in some cases, they are already here.
Finally, I want to ask for your help in upholding these fundamental beliefs and values that make us who we are as God-honoring North Dakotans. In the next few weeks, you will be getting a letter talking about our organization’s need for funding, where we will also give you the details on our dollar-for-dollar match for all year-end giving. We exist 100% from your generous donations, and we want to keep it that way, so that we are accountable solely to you and your Biblical beliefs. I would ask you to please consider donating as you see these requests. If you’re interested in giving early, you can click the “donate” box or mail a check to our address, both shown below (1:1 match will still be applied to your gift). We thank you for considering us for your year-end giving this year!