Good morning,

Context matters, especially in matters of faith. More on that thought to conclude the week.

This is the Texas Minute for Friday, May 3, 2024.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

August Pfluger Prepares Measure Stripping Federal Education Funding From Convicted ‘Rioters’

• A Republican congressman from Texas is preparing legislation that would withhold federal aid from students who have been convicted as a result of anti-Israel demonstrations. Luca Cacciatore has the details. 
    
• U.S. Rep. August Pfluger (R-San Angelo) wants to strip federal financial aid from students if they assault a police officer or engage in rioting. His proposal, which has not been finalized, comes as anti-Israel protestors have ravaged colleges and universities across the country.
        
• At the University of Texas at Austin, officials were forced to call in state law enforcement personnel after protestors constructed illegal encampments. 
      
• James Clark, an attorney with the Travis County Public Defender’s office, estimated that more than 90 protestors were arrested on Monday. In the days since, more individuals—most of whom are not UT students—have been arrested.
      
• "It's simple: federal taxpayers should not be paying for college for anyone who engages in a violent riot or assaults a police officer. There must be a return to order on college campuses." – August Pfluger

Florida Has Banned Lab-grown Meat—Will Texas?

• Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed into law a ban on the sale of lab-grown meat within the state. Now, reports Sydnie Henry, Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller wants the Lone Star State to do likewise.

    
• The Sunshine State's new law prohibits the manufacturing, distribution, and holding of lab-grown meat in Florida, except for research purposes. It also makes it a second-degree misdemeanor to knowingly sell the product.
      
• Miller has long championed traditionally-raised beef and chicken over lab-grown substitutes. He noted that the public has shown no interest in "fake meat." 
     
• A law passed in Texas last year requires such products to be prominently labeled so consumers know what they are getting.

Attempts to Illegally Cross Border Continue as Traffic Slows

• Despite the decrease in overall border traffic into Texas, Will Biagini reports groups of illegal aliens continue to find ways to cross the southwest border into the Lone Star State.
      

• Yesterday morning, illegal aliens were apprehended in Mission after attempting to breach the border wall using a makeshift ladder.
       

• Gov. Greg Abbott recently posted photos showing soldiers from the Texas Military Forces redoubling and reinforcing barriers in their mission to deter and repel illegal entry. Meanwhile, construction is continuing in Eagle Pass on a new Forward Operating Base that will be able to house more than 2,000 National Guard soldiers.

Male Athlete Set to Compete Against Texas Women’s Teams

• Although Texas has a law protecting women’s sports, a man masquerading as a woman will be traveling to Texas A&M this weekend to compete against women at the National Women's Water Polo Championship. Emily Medeiros has the story.
      
• Johnny Paans, who goes by "Alicia," is on the University of Michigan team. Michigan will compete against Texas State University as its first opponent.
       
• Last spring, Texas lawmakers passed the “Save Women’s Sports Act” to prohibit the state's public universities and colleges from allowing biological men to compete against women. It took effect on Sept. 1, 2023.
       
• When asked about how Texas A&M will deal with the biologically male player, a university spokesman said the state's law "does not address the hosting of competitions for out-of-state teams."
      
• Brady Gray, president of Texas Family Project, said that this instance is another example of the left’s attacks on women. "If the NCAA cared at all about their female athletes, they would ban men from competing against them and robbing them of opportunities."

Austin a ‘Sanctuary’ for Child Gender Mutilation

• Members of the Austin City Council approved a resolution yesterday proclaiming the state’s capital a sanctuary for gender-mutilation procedures and chemical castration, though the actual effect of the move may be limited. Brandon Waltens reports the measure prohibits city personnel, funds, or resources from being used to investigate or prosecute individuals performing such procedures.
      
• The city's resolution is more performative than substantive because the state law banning the procedures on children is enforced by the Texas Medical Board and not the city police.
      
• "[T]his Council is unfit to manage the capital city of the greatest state in our country." – State Rep. Brian Harrison (R-Midlothian)

Friday Reflection
In the Beginning

As a young news reporter, I always felt the urgency of “telling the story.” Inevitably, that meant getting to the end. In my interviews, I pushed people to just get to the good parts. While this seemed efficient, it prevented me from giving my readers critical context.

At the prodding of one of my first editors, I got in the habit of telling interview subjects to “just start at the beginning” of their story. On the downside, it meant hearing about why the witness to a robbery preferred one grocery store over another, which led her to be at that traffic light. On the upside, I found details to stories that brought them alive.

Context matters.

This is why it always gnaws at me when Christians tell me that they don’t read the Old Testament.

While our salvation is secured through belief in the risen Jesus, an even deeper joy of His work is made known through every jot and tittle of Scripture. We see Jesus Himself with Joshua on the plains of Jericho and again with Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah in Nebuchadnezzar’s furnace.

The explicit description of our moral state—and the real need for a savior that it demands—comes to us much earlier. Genesis puts us at the beginning. It provides the critical context for what we were created to be, how we have fallen, and where, through Christ, we can return.

“But I don’t care about wading through all that law stuff,” I have been told more than once.

Yet Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”

Whatever applicability one believes the specific dictates of Leviticus might hold, appreciating what Jesus said He was doing should at least inspire our curiosity and contemplation. While our justification before God is no longer based on our adherence to those laws (Jesus did it for us), they do provide a model of living from our Creator.

Rather than being “just for the Jews,” we find in the Old Testament that God often achieved His purposes through Gentiles. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and David is the God of Jethro, Rahab, and Ruth.

In the great story of salvation authored by the Creator of the universe, we understandably want to rush to the “hallelujah” chorus. But let’s not deny ourselves the joy of the context in which He orchestrated history to bring us to Him.

Quote-Unquote

"It is one thing to believe in God; it is quite another to believe God."

– R.C. Sproul