Good morning,

Despite what hip pastors on TikTok might try to suggest, Jesus wasn't a woke anti-capitalist. He was comfortable around wealth generated by hard work but condemned those who profited from political power. The difference is really important.

More on that at the end of today's Texas Minute.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan
Friday, August 11, 2023 

Chip Roy Wants to Defund Biden’s DHS

• More than a dozen members of Texas’ Republican delegation to the U.S. House are asking their colleagues to withhold funding for the Department of Homeland Security because of the agency’s failure to strengthen the U.S.-Mexico border. Soli Rice reports that this effort is being led by U.S. Rep. Chip Roy.
         
• Of Texas’ 25 Republican members of Congress, 15 signed the letter, including Roy, Brian Babin, Wesley Hunt, Keith Self, Randy Weber, Beth Van Duyne, Nathaniel Morgan, Michael Burgess, Michael Cloud, Lance Gooden, Troy Nehls, Pete Sessions, Ronny Jackson, Pat Fallon, and Morgan Luttrell.
       
• Those who did not sign were Dan Crenshaw, Kay Granger, Tony Gonzales, August Pfluger, Jake Ellzey, Michael McCaul, Monica De La Cruz, Roger Williams, John Carter, and Jodey Arrington.
       
• Meanwhile, Democrat politicians visited Eagle Pass to call for the removal of the border buoy barrier and blamed them for two deaths. But as Valerie Muñoz reports, the state's "border czar" – Mike Banks – has said the devices are actually saving lives.

Austin ISD Buses Kids, Families, Staff to LGBT Parade

• The Austin Independent School District announced it will use taxpayer funds to transport children, their families, and staff to the “Austin Pride Parade” on August 12. Matthew DeLaCruz has the details. 

        
• In addition to providing transportation, AISD is promoting the parade's radical LGBT political and social agenda.
      
• “As a member of the House Public Education committee, I heard all session how ‘underfunded’ public schools were,” wrote State Rep. Brian Harrison (R–Midlothian) on social media. “Since Austin ISD has enough [money] to shuttle kids to and from the Austin Pride Parade, I can assume they are ‘fully funded.’”
       
• “When people ask why they should support school choice, this is a good place to start,” said Brady Gray, president of Texas Family Project.

Prosper ISD Bus Driver ‘Lost’ for Hours with Elementary Students on Board

• A bus driver for scandal-plagued Prosper Independent School District got “lost” earlier this week with several young students on board, leaving parents waiting hours for their children with no communication from the district. 
    
• As Erin Anderson reports, one mom tracked down the lost bus, stopped it, and called the police. She described the bus as “going around in circles” while the kids were “sweltering” inside.
       
• The children on the bus reportedly told the driver several times she was going in circles and tried to show her what streets to turn on, but the driver ignored them and never called for help.
      
• Last year, Prosper ISD covered up a school bus driver molesting children on one of their buses. That situation is now the subject of a civil lawsuit against the district.

Houston Mayor and ISD Superintendent Clash

• Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner is criticizing Houston ISD Superintendent Mike Miles for closing school libraries in exchange for new facilities. Micah Rice has the story.  

       
• In June, the Texas Education Agency officially took over the Houston Independent School District after Houston schools repeatedly failed their state evaluations. Since the takeover, the TEA has installed Mike Miles as the temporary Houston ISD superintendent.
      
• Miles initially focused on restructuring departments and cutting positions to increase pay for remaining teachers.
      

• Now, the most recent—and controversial—move by Miles has been to remove libraries from certain schools in exchange for “Team Centers,” which are disciplinary centers that allow students to continue learning under supervision through Zoom schooling.
       

• “I’d rather have a high-quality teacher getting paid a lot, than have a librarian doing what, checking out books?” – Mike Miles

Olcott, Rogers Set for House District 60 Rematch

• The co-founder of Parker County Conservatives, Mike Olcott, will be challenging incumbent State Rep. Glenn Rogers of Graford for House District 60. As Sydnie Henry notes, this will be a rematch from their close 2022 election that saw Rogers win by just 300 votes.
        
• Also in the race is Brandon Hall, who announced his bid against Rogers last month.“I’m running because residents of House District 60 deserve a Representative who will truly represent them rather than the uniparty in Austin,” explained Olcott in his announcement.
        
• “Voters are fed up with an open border and skyrocketing property taxes. I will work to deliver real results, not campaign rhetoric.”

Three Republicans Seek to Replace Raney

• With State Rep. John Raney (R-College Station) not seeking re-election, Emily Medeiros reports three Republicans have already announced their intentions to seek the party's nomination. 
    
• The candidates include former State Rep. Fred Brown, who held the seat from 1999 until 2011, as well as local businessman Larry Hodges, and former Brazos County Sheriff Chris Kirk. 

📺 WATCH: Election Chaos in Texas’ Largest County

• On this week's edition of The Headline with Brandon Waltens, Alexandra Mealer discusses her lawsuit fighting the election irregularities in Harris County.
      
• Meanwhile, attorney Tony McDonald stops in to explain the latest actions in the impeachment trial of AG Ken Paxton. 
      
• You can watch The Headline on the Apple TV or Roku apps, on an iOS or Android phone, or on the Texas Scorecard YouTube channel.

Friday Reflection:
Jesus, Wealth, and Power

It’s become all the rage in Christian circles to present the Messiah as a woke social justice warrior. To lean into this crowd-friendly lie, pastors routinely misquote Scripture and take words out of context to show Jesus as a card-carrying Marxist. It certainly appeals to our self-centered sense of greed, but it rejects the real life of Jesus.

One can only make the case that Jesus was opposed to wealth by completely and willfully ignoring both of the words of the Bible and the reality of the era in which He lived.

To make their case, the Woke Jesus crowd shoves a well-known story out of context by ignoring a simple word. The story you hear is that a rich young man approached Jesus and was told he had to give away everything to go to heaven… OK, you know the rest.

One word, often ignored, provides crucial context. That word is “ruler.” The Bible describes the young man as a “rich young ruler.” This is critical. This wasn’t the son of a businessman; no, this is someone whose family profited off the governing mistreatment of the people at the Temple – the place where Jesus would later overturn the tables of those men preying on the people with the full approval of the governing elite.

For a modern approximation, think of Hunter Biden. You know… a guy who has no marketable skills or talent, yet whose family is insanely wealthy because daddy has been immorally amassing wealth through political largesse his entire adult life.

Like Hunter Biden, wealth and political status were intertwined for the rich young man in the New Testament story. This young man wasn’t a ruler because he was rich, he was rich because he was from a family of self-serving rulers. Self-serving? He was told to give away everything that served him and his lifestyle, and he apparently chose not to.

For those who push the “Jesus hates wealth” line, there is also the subtle problem of geographic context.

On this count, I highly recommend Jerry Bower’s excellent book, “The Maker Versus the Takers: What Jesus Really Said About Social Justice and Economics.” In it, Bower explains that Jesus’ condemnations of wealth come only in southern Israel – in the environs of the capital city, Jerusalem. There, all the personal wealth is concentrated in the political leaders. Like Washington, DC, Jerusalem was a company town – and the business was fleecing the citizenry.

As Bower notes, Jesus only criticizes wealth when He is in and around Jerusalem – and not around the centers of trade and industry.

Consider the city of Zippori, in northern Israel. Archeological ruins dating to the 200 years before and after Jesus’ birth show a very wealthy city – rivaling Jerusalem and most anywhere else in the Roman empire. It is just a few miles from Nazareth, but Jesus never criticizes the wealth there.

Lastly, we also know also that Jesus was surrounded and supported by some very wealthy people. The sisters Mary and Maratha were exceedingly wealthy – owning a home that could accommodate Jesus and the disciples, for example. Toward the end of the Gospels, we find this same Mary owning perfume worth a year’s salary. This wealthy, influential woman was later allowed to be a witness to His resurrection.

Again and again we find Jesus was surrounded by, and comfortable with, wealth – but it was wealth generated by people who worked hard and served others. His condemnations of wealth were universally directed at the ill-gotten gains of people abusing their positions of trust and power.

Like Jesus, we must absolutely condemn those men and women today who use the power of government to enrich themselves. But also like Jesus, we should celebrate those who have done well by providing goods and services valuable to their peers.

Now Available: 'Reflections on Life & Liberty'

• The book comes in three formats: hardcover, paperback, and digital download. For now, "Reflections on Life & Liberty" is only available at Amazon.