Good morning,

Can you legislate morality? Michael Quinn Sullivan looks into that question in today's reflection. 

But first, here is the Texas Minute for Friday, Sept. 15, 2023.

– Brandon Waltens

Trump Condemns ‘Shameful’ Impeachment of Ken Paxton as Trial Approaches Ending

• Former President Donald Trump is weighing in as the impeachment trial against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton winds down, calling it “shameful.”
   

• Trump made the comment Wednesday night on Truth Social, his social media platform. He blamed “establishment RINOs” for trying to overturn the election of Paxton, who he called one of the “toughest and best” attorneys general in the country, and replace him with a "Democrat or worse, a RINO."
   

• “Democrats are feeling very good right now as they watch, as usual, the Republicans fight & eat away at each other. It’s a SAD day in the Great State of Texas!” wrote Trump. 
   

• Donald Trump Jr. also chimed in on X, posting that RINO hunting season is coming.
   

• This is not the first time Trump has expressed his support for Paxton. Ahead of the House’s impeachment vote in May, Trump said he would fight any Republican who voted for the impeachment resolution.
   

• Additionally, Trump has called out Gov. Greg Abbott for being “missing in action” as the impeachment has gone forth.
   

• Both the prosecution and defense have rested their case in the Senate’s impeachment trial of Attorney General Ken Paxton, signaling a coming conclusion to the procedure which has lasted for eight days. 
   

• Both sides will be given one hour to present closing arguments when the Senate reconvenes at 9 a.m. today. Senators will then be given the opportunity to deliberate before making their decision. The prosecution needs 21 senators, or a two-thirds majority, to remove Paxton from office.

Conservative Coalition Calls on Congress to Secure the Border

• A coalition of national and state groups are calling on Congress to attach the Secure the Border Act to any spending bill that funds the federal government. Emily Medeiros has the story. 
   

• According to a letter sent to congressional leaders, the groups argue enacting spending agreements without adding House Resolution 2 will “result in the continuation of funding and policies put in place by the disastrous FY2023 omnibus.”
   

• House Resolution 2, also known as the Secure the Borders Act, was passed by the House in May. It is pending in the Senate and is awaiting further consideration. The measure would limit the ability of the Department of Homeland Security to provide parole to illegal aliens, which allows them to enter the United States temporarily.
   

• The legislation would also require DHS to construct at least 900 miles of border wall and physical barriers along the border. 
   

• The coalition notes that since the House passed H.R. 2, U.S. Border Patrol agents have encountered more than one million illegal aliens, which brings the overall total under the Biden administration to more than seven million.

Elon Musk Draws Attention to Border Crisis

• After Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin recently reported on the latest numbers of illegal alien encounters with the U.S. Border Patrol, Elon Musk reposted the report and asked if the public was "aware of the scale of the issue.” Sydnie Henry has the story. 
   

• “Per CBP sources, yesterday alone, Border Patrol apprehended over 7,400 illegal immigrants at the southern border, & when combined with CBP ports of entry, there were over 9,100 migrant encounters in one day,” wrote Melugin. “I’m told CBP released 5,000+ yesterday [with] a notice to appear. As of this morning, CBP had over 21,000 people in custody.”
   

• Indeed, record-breaking numbers of illegal border crossings have been announced for months. This is after the Biden administration dismantled previous border security policies in September 2022, and is still doing nothing to stop the flow of illegal aliens. 
   

• As the federal government refuses to secure the border, citizens are calling on Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to do more to repel illegal crossings. 

Hood County Hires Scandal-Plagued Appraisal District Chief

• Hood County has hired Jeff Law, the scandal-plagued former head of the Tarrant Appraisal District, as its new chief appraiser.
   

• Erin Anderson reports the hiring marks a homecoming for Law, who previously worked as the Hood Central Appraisal District’s chief appraiser for 10 years before moving to the Tarrant County job in 2008.
   

• Law recently resigned as Tarrant’s chief appraiser amid accusations that his leadership failures eroded public confidence in the appraisal district, which sets property values for tax purposes.
   

• After a series of scandals and pressure from local taxing entities for him to be fired, Law resigned from TAD on September 1, saying he was pursuing other employment opportunities. 
   

• He returns to his role as head of HCAD while the agency is dealing with its own public trust issues. Hood County taxing entities recently discovered that the agency had been diverting money budgeted for agency operations to other uses for several years.

Texas Leads the Nation in Challenging Explicit Books

• A new report from the Marxist-led American Library Association shows Texas is outpacing other states in challenging explicit books. Katy Marshall has the details. 
   

• The report, entitled “Mapping Challenges to the Freedom to Read,” states that Texans challenged 2,349 books in 2022—more than any other state in the nation. Florida came in second, with citizens there challenging 991 books.
   

• The library organization also claimed that concerned parents and citizens are a potential threat to librarians. Last month, the Texas State Library and Archives Commission cut ties with the ALA after it was revealed that the organization’s newest president is an outspoken Marxist.
   

• A new state law requires vendors to rate and label books based on sexual content. Vendors that fail to comply cannot sell books to Texas schools.
   

• However, a federal judge said he would block the law from going into effect on September 1 after a coalition of book vendors filed a lawsuit claiming the measure is unconstitutionally vague and overbroad. That case is in the process of being appealed. 

Predators in Government Schools

• Texas Scorecard's latest investigative series looks into the dangers in Texas' government schools. 
    
• Part One: Danger and Corruption exposed long-running patterns in government schools across the state of predators employed by these schools preying on minors while school districts ignored red flags.
   
• Part Two: Students Under Siege examined multiple papers warning about the increasing problem of predators in schools.
   
• Part Three: Familes Waiting for a Hero interviewed multiple attorneys on the accountability gap between government and private schools, with the former enjoying more protections than the latter.
   
• Part Four: Grooming in Plain Sight exposed the connection between sexual material in government schools and the problem of predators.

Friday Reflection:
Legislating Morality

To be accepted in the polite company of the intellectual elite, some pastors have learned to tell a certain lie. It is a lie that allows them to enter the rarified social and political climes into which they would otherwise not be accepted. And it is a lie that, if told quickly enough, won’t be questioned by the flock they fleece on Sundays – and might even be repeated.

That lie, of course, is that “you can’t legislate morality.”

The idea is not just hogwash but bovine excrement. It fails every possible measure of history, rationality, and scripture. But if you listen to the hip pastors on YouTube and TikTok, you’ll find it embedded in the woke view of the world they must adopt if they are to be loved by the god-hating masses whose approval they seem so desperate to earn.

Just as the carefully curated tattoo barely visible from the pulpit signals a pastor’s fashionable lifestyle outside the dreary doldrums of ecclesiastical work, the “legislating” lie serves as a signal that they are comfortable with casual parishioners shoving the Truth of God into a Sunday-sized box.

They won’t actually say that… on the record, at least. So they say, instead, that “morality cannot be legislated.”

It sounds very philosophical, as befitting someone who spent seven years in higher education. It sounds like it might actually be something written by an ancient (non-Christian) philosopher – translated from Greek (of course).

In fact, all law is a matter of morality. The only question is if that law is in keeping with, or foreign to, the moral precepts of holy scripture.

From rape to murder, and fraud to defamation, the law of the land is a reflection of the collective understanding of moral principles of the people who live there. No law has ever been passed or imposed – here or anywhere – that is separate and apart from the moral grounding of the lawgivers.

The decision to deprive a man of his property, deny him his liberty, or deal out his execution is always one based on a moral principle, as is the law that sets forth the consequences for behavior meriting that loss of property, liberty, or life.

Every action a legislative body takes is a moral statement, good or bad. Every single law is a moral declaration.

I will give the devil his due; all well-told lies have a fingerhold on truth. It is true that a law cannot “make” a man moral… but that is never the point.

If all men were moral, we would not need laws. So while passing a law does not make men moral, the law does temper men’s immoral impulses with the threat of judicial consequence in the present.

Romans 13 describes secular government as “an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer.” So, please, will you tell us again about how we don’t legislate morality?

Let me close with a bit of uncomfortable clarity: No one actually believes morality cannot be legislated. They just don’t want legislation based on the morality of God as embodied in the Bible. They want to substitute the morality of God with the whims of men.

Divorcing legislative action from moral principles is the first step down the road to violent serfdom. When we set aside God’s wisdom, we embrace tyrants’ whims.

As a self-governing people, we must each be increasingly diligent in examining all laws existing or proposed in light of the moral principles set forth by God.

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