Good morning,

Sin makes it all too easy to regard our "enemies" as something less than they are. A trip to Washington, D.C. this week reminded me of that painful fact, which I reflect on below.

But first, this is the Texas Minute for Friday, February 2, 2024.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Illegal Aliens Still Crossing Near Eagle Pass

• While Shelby Park is still under Texas' control and no longer a hot spot for illegal border crossings in Eagle Pass, illegal aliens are still crossing in the general area—but not in the numbers seen in recent months. Will Biagini has the story.
    
• Video footage from earlier this week shows Border Patrol agents capturing four men from Mexico as they attempted to evade law enforcement after crossing the border near Eagle Pass.
       
• “While Shelby Park is fortified, the outskirts are not and small groups continue to cross in and around Eagle Pass,” wrote News Nation correspondent Ali Bradley on X.
       
• The overall reduced flow of illegal aliens may not be what it appears.
     
• Todd Bensman of the Center for Immigration Studies theorizes the plummeting numbers suggest the possibility that President Joe Biden has quietly struck a temporary deal with Mexico's president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, to aid Biden in his re-election campaign.
      
• Bensmen says that in recent weeks, would-be border jumpers have been rounded up in Mexico's northern border and shipped south by Mexican officials.

Attorney General Paxton Sues Five Cities for Ignoring Texas’ Law

• Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is going after five Texas cities for adopting policies he says violate the state’s drug laws as it relates to possession and distribution. Luca Cacciatore reports Austin, San Marcos, Killeen, Denton, and Elgin are being sued by the A.G. for violating state law.
    
• Specifically, cities are prohibited from adopting policies that result in not enforcing the state's drug laws. Meanwhile, the Texas Constitution prohibits municipalities from adopting ordinances inconsistent with laws enacted by the Texas Legislature.
      
• “I will not stand idly by as cities run by pro-crime extremists deliberately violate Texas law and promote the use of illicit drugs that harm our communities,” said Paxton.

Llano High School Claims Review of Sexually Explicit Books Will Take Years

• As parents fight to get inappropriate books removed from school library shelves, Llano High is telling a local mother that it will take a month to review each book she challenges under the school’s reconsideration process. Sydnie Henry has the details.
    
• Bonnie Wallace described the timeline as "mind boggling." She is planning to submit nearly 200 books for review in Llano under the state's new READER Act. That law, which was passed last year, was designed to stop schools from offering sexually explicit, harmful, pervasively vulgar, or educationally unsuitable books in the libraries.

Plano Teacher Charged with Grooming Student for Sex

• A private school teacher in Plano has been arrested and accused of using a messaging app to groom a 15-year-old student for sex. Erin Anderson reports the suspect, Jacob Thomas Allred, taught 9th grade at Great Lakes Academy in Plano. The school specializes in serving students with learning disabilities.
    
• The Plano Police Department said they had received an allegation against Allred on January 8, after the victim told her parents about the teacher's behavior. The student said Allred sent her explicit messages using the Discord messaging app.
      
• According to the school, Allred has resigned.
      
• Both private and government schools are required to notify the state within seven business days if an educator resigns or is terminated following an incident of misconduct. 

Corpus Christi Venue to Host Drag Show Targeting Children

• A drag show targeting children is scheduled for today in downtown Corpus Christi at the House of Rock. Emily Medeiros reports the event features performers known for presenting highly explicit material.
    
• Originally billed publicly as a "family friendly" event, that language was removed from flyers, but the venue has confirmed it is still welcoming children.
       
• Brady Gray of the Texas Family Project said his organization has launched action alerts about the drag show. Earlier this month, a drag show slated to target children in Midland was canceled at the last minute due to community pressure.

Harris County Toll Road Chief Gets 40% Pay Raise

• Even notoriously liberal Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo thinks a massive pay raise for the local toll authority chief is “insanely icky.” Charles Blain has the details.
    
• Harris County Commissioners voted this week to increase the annual salary of Robert Trevino, the executive director of the county's toll road authority, from $350,000 to $485,000.

Friday Reflection
The Image of God

I have seen more than my fair share of real-life horror. In my younger days, I became acquainted with the depravity humans can inflict upon each other in the commission of crime, the throes of misplaced passion, or just the stupidity of thoughtless action. Such is the fallen condition of our souls.

Sin blinds us to many things, but perhaps most especially to the truth about who God’s Word says we are.

Earlier this week, I was invited to the Embassy of Israel in Washington, D.C. for a presentation on the October 7 surprise attack launched by Hamas.

The raw footage—filmed by the Hamas terrorists themselves, captured by CCTV, or recorded in real-time by the victims—is in a category of horror all its own.

Despite the earlier claims from the anti-Semitic left and parroted by academics and media lapdogs, we all know that civilians were attacked on the Jewish Sabbath without provocation simply for being Jewish.

That is not the horror of which I write today.

Several hundred hostages, including children, were taken that day and dragged into Gaza. Many had unspeakable acts done to them, either while alive or to their remains after death. Many are still being held prisoner.

That is not the horror of which I write.

There will be the reflexive “what-about-ism” from those who view Israel’s existence as a horror all its own or are sickened by the nation’s overwhelming response to the attack.

That is not the horror of which I write.

I will leave the moral equivocation and rationalizations to others. For me, the atrocities of October 7 cannot be justified by the past or made retroactively moral by the present.

With each moment of the presentation, I felt my anger and bile rise in righteous fury. As we watched the depravities play out on the screen, I know many of us in the room could only see those Palestinians as “animals,” beheading corpses and harming children.

Frankly, October 7th should be a reminder of the horrible fact that each of us is infected with the same disease that puts us in danger of becoming that same kind of animal. Each and every one of us.

Just as the Hamas terrorists constantly referred to the Israeli civilians they gunned down at the Nova music festival as “dogs,” we must struggle against the sinful urge to see the terrorists as less than what they are.

The victims were not soulless dogs, but neither were the perpetrators thoughtless animals. The victims had no choice; the perpetrators did.

That thought should haunt us.

The Bible’s first description of mankind is a moral one, found in Genesis 1:27, “So God created man in His own image.”

This is an inconvenient truth. Whatever else we might want to believe, the most innocent of butchered children and the most depraved of terroristic butchers share this characteristic: both were created in the image of God.

Sin has distorted that image like a fractured mirror, but the image remains. It is up to us to look for it.

Nations and individuals alike have the right to protect themselves and—yes—to conduct war, exact retribution for offenses, and establish a deterrent against future aggression. Property rights and borders must be defended and even defended aggressively. Israel has that right, so does America, so do you and I.

But even as we stand ready to do rough and unpleasant things, we must do so with the sad knowledge that our enemy is still an image bearer of God. No matter how righteous or justified our actions might be, that truth must exist alongside it.

Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all consider the Book of Genesis to be Holy Scripture. While our differences in theology and ideology won’t be reconciled with a return to the first chapter of Genesis, perhaps it can at least inform how we choose to deal with those we consider our enemies.

Quote-Unquote

"Good and decent people must not close their eyes to evil, must not ignore the suffering of the innocent, and must never remain silent and inactive in times of moral crisis."

– Ronald Reagan