North Carolina

.As part of Elevation Church’s fifth anniversary celebration, the Charlotte, N.C.-based megachurch will release an album of worship songs performed live and recorded by its members and staff next week.

For The Honor is the church’s fourth music album and is a combination of new and favorite songs all written by the Elevation worship staff. Chris Brown, one of Elevation’s worship leaders, told The Christian Post Tuesday, that Senior Pastor Steven Furtick brought him on board the original worship team almost five years ago.

Brown said that Furtick’s vision was to write songs for the church based on “what our church is walking through.” more >>

A North Carolina task force formed by the governor will discuss early next month the possibility of being the first state to compensate victims of forced sterilization programs – programs that seemed to target the poor and disadvantaged, especially in the black population – which were conducted in the U.S. as recently as the late 1970s.

Between 1907 and 1979, 33 states had programs of forced sterilization. While many of those states have officially apologized to the victims of those programs, North Carolina is the first and only state to take steps toward compensation for those victims.

In March of this year, North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue formed a task force, the North Carolina Justice for Sterilization Victims Foundation, to make a recommendation for the possible compensation of those who were forcibly sterilized under the North Carolina Eugenics Board program. The task force has held, and will continue to hold, public hearings on the matter. Its next meeting will be held Dec. 6 and its final report is due Feb. 1, 2012. more >>

The Forsyth County Board of Commissioners has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to trump a ruling that forbids its members from mentioning Jesus in prayers that precede their meetings.

“We’re confident the court will take a real interest in this case, and that opinion, I think, is shared by constitutional law scholars and litigators around the country,” Mike Johnson, a lawyer of Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative legal organization representing county commissioners, said Friday.

“There are many people watching this one closely,” Winston-Salem News quoted Johnson as saying, a day after the Board appealed to the court to overturn a July ruling by the 4th District Court of Appeals that banned prayers in the name of a single deity before government meetings. more >>

A federal judge blocked parts of a North Carolina Fetal Pain law mandating abortion providers to give patients an ultrasound image of their unborn child, describe the fetus’ features and allow women the opportunity to hear the fetus’ heartbeat.

Judge Catherin Eagles struck down the mandate on the eve of its implementation Wednesday, stating in her opinion that state legislators did not adequately explain why the measures would dissuade a patient from seeking an abortion.

Abortion proponents praised Eagles’ decision. Katy Parker, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina Legal Foundation, told The Associated Press. “If the ultrasound requirements were put into effect, this law would place doctors in a murky legal situation and inflict unnecessary harm on women." more >>

Anne Graham Lotz carved out a personal path to preaching the gospel that was based simply on her desire to know God, the 63-year-old evangelical told National Public Radio in an interview. She also discussed her relationship with her father, the Rev. Billy Graham, and why she is happy her brother leads his ministry.

In an interview with NPR's Guy Raz, Lotz, the founder of AnGel Ministries, said: "It was when my children were 5, 3 and 10 months old that I just felt the desperate need to get to know God through the pages of my Bible. And as a result, I started a Bible class in my city for the primary purpose of being in it."

After teaching Bible classes, Lotz felt God's direction to turn her class over to someone else and to spread His message around the world. more >>

In an effort to protect young people from increasingly aggressive alcohol marketing, which is permeating not only convenience stores but also fast food restaurants, one group is calling for change through appeals and resolutions.

The American Council on Alcohol Problems, which meets annually to discuss ways to curb alcohol and drug consumption throughout the nation, issued several resolutions on the matter of underage drinking, fast food alcohol and privatized liquor sales during their 2011 conference in Raleigh, N.C., Sept. 19-21.

Their first matter of business dealt with “alcopops,” or brightly-packaged, sweet and fruity drinks that were classified in most states as malt beverages, but actually had alcoholic content. more >>