Good morning,

Our narcissistic culture threatens the very fabric of our self-governing republic. More on that thought below.

This is the Texas Minute for Friday, May 10, 2024.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Attorney General Attempts to Stop Border Charity's Criminal Activity

• Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed for a temporary injunction to halt the alleged criminal activity of a Catholic organization. Will Biagini has the details.
       
• El Paso-based Annunciation House is a non-profit entity affiliated with the Catholic Church.
        
• Ken Paxton has accused the entity of stoking the border crisis by harboring illegal aliens, facilitating human smuggling, and operating a stash house. In March, a Democrat judge in El Paso blocked the A.G.'s office from getting documents and records from the organization.
      
• The attorney general’s office announced this week that it has now obtained and reviewed sworn testimony indicating the accusations are true.

Federal Court Allows Texas’ Media Censorship Case to Continue

• A U.S. District Court is allowing a Texas case to move forward that accuses the federal government of censoring conservative media companies. Luca Cacciatore reports the case was filed in reaction to the fallout from the administration’s Global Engagement Center.
       

• The center was only authorized to target foreign misinformation but was, in fact, actively working to censor, deplatform, and demonetize domestic media companies like The Daily Wire and The Federalist.
      

• Judge Jeremy D. Kernodle of the U.S. District Court in Eastern Texas wrote in his 36-page order this week that the state and the other plaintiffs had sufficiently demonstrated they had standing to challenge the U.S. Department of State.
      

• It is alleged that the GEC conspired with social media companies in 2019 to push the censorship technology “Disinfo Cloud,” which included input from leftwing media-rating companies like the Global Disinformation Index and NewsGuard. 
      

• A 2023 study found that NewsGuard gave left-leaning outlets much higher ratings than right-leaning outlets. Meanwhile, GDI was caught urging advertisers to drop outlets alleging COVID-19 resulted from a lab leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. That "theory" is now held by many U.S. officials.

New Ad Calls Out Rep. VanDeaver for ‘Cushy’ Consulting Gig with Lobbying Firm

• A new television ad accuses State Rep. Gary VanDeaver (R-New Boston) of riding the “gravy train” after it was revealed that he worked as a paid consultant for a lobbying firm. Brandon Waltens has the story.
    
• While serving as a member of the Texas House, VanDeaver was also employed by the Powell Law Group from 2020 to 2022. That entity describes its client base as "school district leaders and businesses in the education space" who want to "influence local and state legislative and regulatory matters."
      
• Psst: That's called "lobbying."
      
• While VanDeaver claimed the Powell Group “is not a lobby firm,” the group’s website actually states that their government relations services include lobbying. (There it is.)
      
• The ad, produced by Club for Growth, links VanDeaver's work with the firm to his support for taxpayer-funded lobbying and opposition to school choice. VanDeaver did not respond to a request for comment on the ad’s allegations.

Fifth Klein ISD Teacher Accused of Sexual Misconduct

• A Klein Independent School District teacher has been fired and accused of sexual misconduct with his students—the fifth teacher from the district this year accused of sex crimes. Emily Medeiros has the report.
    
• Isidoro Guerrero has worked at Klein Forest High School as an Agricultural Science teacher since 2019. District officials allegedly received a tip about the situation on April 23 and Guerrero was confronted. He was fired the next day. 
       
• The investigation is ongoing. Guerrero has not been arrested and state records show his teaching certificate is still valid.

Phelan Releases Muted Interim Charges

• With his future in the legislature uncertain, Speaker Dade Phelan has issued his list of interim charges for House committees. Interim charges refer to the issues given to committees to investigate and research ahead of the next legislative session.
        
• Phelan's charges to House committees come nearly two months later than those he issued in 2022 ahead of the 2023 session. He is being challenged both at home and at the Capitol. Phelan placed second in the March GOP primary and faces an uphill battle to hold on to his seat. Even if he defies historical odds and wins on May 28, he is already being challenged for the speakership by State Rep. Tom Oliverson (R-Cypress)—and others are rumored to be joining the race.
        
• Compared to the charges given to the Senate, Phelan's are muted and less ambitious. For example, while the Senate has been asked to study property tax elimination, the House is only looking at opportunities for additional relief.

Houston Controller and Mayor Clash Over Collective Bargaining

• According to Houston Controller Chris Hollins, the tentative $1.5 billion settlement between the City of Houston and its firefighters could be structured in a way less costly to taxpayers. Charles Blain has the details.
    
• The current proposal would see taxpayers footing the costs for a $650 million back-pay settlement. Hollins, though, believes that number should be closer to $300 million.
       
• In response to Hollins' presentation, the firefighters union issued a press release saying Hollins was “playing politics with firefighters and their families” and called his presentation “uninformed, misleading, and inaccurate.”
      
• “Monday morning quarterbacks may choose to ignore the fact that Texas law mandates firefighter pay to be based on private-sector compensation comparisons, not the public sector, but as mayor and lead negotiator, I cannot ignore that fact.” – Houston Mayor John Whitmire

Friday Reflection
Who Do You Love?

Culture at large tells us we must love and accept ourselves as we are. The doctrine of self-esteem and the creed of self-affirmation have created a generation of narcissists worshiping a false god.

Since at least the 1960s, popular culture has told people that it is OK to embrace and even celebrate their flaws—be that unnatural sexual desire, ravenous gluttony, perpetual laziness, or whatever.

It is spiritual and emotional garbage, physically destructive, and morally bankrupt.

Humanity has long been about the business of attempting to dethrone God by erecting gods in our own likeness, complete with our own failings. It always ends poorly.

This is, in part, why our Founding Fathers rejected the idea that human kings have a divine right to lord over the citizenry. They wisely created a pluralistic republic built on the biblical principles of self-governance.

But self-governance, most literally, means that we must be able to govern ourselves. Yet we have become so infatuated with self-love and self-service that we are trading away our republic. Theoretically, the bargain made between a king and his people was that—when push came to shove—he would trade his life for theirs. In practice, human monarchs have always demanded that their subjects die in defense of the crown.

Only Jesus, guiltless and sinless, took on the kingly duty of self-sacrifice for His people—because He was obedient to His Father and because He loves us more than He loved Himself.

What a contrast to our self-love culture!

So, who did Jesus tell us to love? The Gospel of Mark records Jesus as saying God’s law can be summed up as, first, to “‘love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Notice who I am called to love in Jesus’ summary. First, God and then, others. And…? No, that’s it. What about all the energy that sin says I should direct at loving myself? God says to give that love to others.

Culture says to look out for ourselves first. The Christianized self-help books are better; they say to put ourselves second, presumably behind God. Yet, by my count, I don’t rate any of my own affection when following Jesus’ summation of God’s law.

The law and prophets tell us that we must, in love, serve God and serve others. For our self-governing republic to function as intended, you and I, as the citizen-leaders, must die to ourselves and live for each other.

Quote-Unquote

"If we are too weak to take charge of our own morality, we shall not be strong enough to take charge of our own liberty."

– Calvin Coolidge