Good morning,

Zealots change the world... for better or for worse. I end the week reflecting on the kind of zeal that Scripture calls us to embrace.

This is the Texas Minute for Friday, July 26, 2024.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

U.S. House Condemns Kamala Harris for Border Failures

• The U.S. House has approved a resolution condemning Vice President Kamala Harris’ handling of the border crisis. While it passed largely on party lines, Brandon Waltens reports six Democrats—including Texas’ Henry Cuellar—supported the resolution.

      
• Harris was named the "border czar" by President Joe Biden in March 2021.
      
• According to the resolution, over 9.7 million illegal aliens have been encountered by Border Patrol since then, including 31,077 Communist Chinese nationals. The resolution also condemns the administration for ending the Remain in Mexico program, which was implemented under President Donald Trump, and for secretly flying over 400,000 illegal aliens into the country.
      
• In recent days, liberal media outlets such as Axios have attempted to erase their former coverage of Harris’ appointment as Border Czar. The move has been seen as an effort to mitigate one of her biggest failures ahead of the November election, where she is now the presumptive Democrat candidate against Trump.
      
• "Resolutions are nice, but the real victory will be throwing this administration out of office on November 5th. I won’t celebrate until then." – U.S. Rep. Lance Gooden

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• Each of Harris' claims, however, has been found to range from outright fabrications to misrepresentations of fact. For example, Trump has explicitly stated that Medicare and Social Security will be protected. Similarly, courts have blocked most of the Biden-Harris student loan programs.
       
• Harris County Republican Party Chair Cindy Siegel derided the vice president for her "indifference to the real issues Texans are facing."

Congressman Slams Biden for Flying Illegal Aliens to Texas

• Hundreds of illegal aliens are being flown from California to Texas each week, according to U.S. Rep. Chip Roy. As Debra McClure reports, the Texas Republican is demanding that the Biden administration end the program.
       
• Because the San Diego facilities are overcrowded, illegal aliens are being transported several times a week from California to Laredo and the Rio Grande Valley for processing. Reportedly, the flights cost $80,000 each.
      
• Roy said the plan is "offensive," noting that Texas has been bearing the brunt of the border crisis since Joe Biden and Kamala Harris took office in 2021.
      
• Meanwhile, Gov. Greg Abbott has described Harris as "responsible for the open border policy."

Study: Legalized Gambling Comes With High Financial Risk

• Following a 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, many states rushed to legalize online sports gambling. Now, reports Daniel Greer, the impacts of these policy decisions are starting to come into focus.
       
• A study from the University of California San Diego reveals that legalized gambling is associated with a notable increase in irresponsible betting behaviors, particularly among low-income populations.
       
• Economic burdens affect families and communities through increased bankruptcy rates, job loss, reduced productivity, and increased crime.
      
• A common slogan for growing the gambling footprint is revenue generation, but states that have legalized betting don’t see significant revenue increases. As Texas found after creating a state lottery in 1992, proceeds from legalized gambling don’t amount to much in government coffers. Although the lottery was pitched to Texans as an avenue to fund public education, it has never paid for more than a week of schooling in a given year.

Hood County Commissioners Tackle Bitcoin Mine Noise

• Responding to residents’ pleas for help, Hood County officials have taken steps toward providing relief from noise pollution generated by a bitcoin mining facility near Granbury. Erin Anderson has the story.
     
• Bitcoin mining requires massive computing farms using large amounts of energy to produce the unique cryptocurrency coding. Research studies have linked sound waves, like those emitted by cryptocurrency mining facilities, to serious health concerns. Dozens of people who live near the Hood County bitcoin operation have reported getting sick since the plant began operating in 2022.
      
• The Hood County resolution seeks legislative action to “address acoustical and noise pollution, destruction of property values, and the incredible demand on the Texas Energy grid caused by Cryptocurrency mining.”

Friday Reflection
A Zeal for being Zealous?

Jesus wasn’t from Capernaum, but it became His base of operations for perhaps the last eighteen months to two years of His ministry. With a population of 1,500, it was a thriving town on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee.

It was also, not coincidentally, a hotbed of zealot activity. Between the kind of men he called as His disciples, and the place where He chose to base His ministry, Jesus had something to say to the zealots. We should listen.

Zealots change the world. The question, of course, is in what way they will change it—for better or for worse.

In the first century, there were perhaps three different kinds of “zealots” operating in Judea generally, and in Capernaum specifically.

There were the Romans, who were zealous for the “pax Romana”—the peace of Rome. Of course, it was a “peace” based on their undisputed power. Refusing to accept peace on their terms was met with brutal force.

There were the Herodians, who were nominally Jewish by birth but zealous for their own niche of comfort which they had achieved by being Roman appeasers. Distinctly different were the Pharisees, as much a political party as a religious sect. They were zealous for a rigid interpretation of the Mosaic law that empowered them. Like the Herodians, they were happy to collaborate with Rome as a convenient means to that end.

And then there were the actual Jewish Zealots. Many of them were zealous for independence from Rome, zealous for liberation from the appeasers placed over them. Some were not-so-secretly zealous for power, while others were truly zealous for the righteousness of God.

Among Jesus’ 12 disciples, there was a zealous Roman appeaser (the tax collector named Matthew) and a power-seeking zealot (known helpfully as Simon the Zealot). The rest fell somewhere in between. Several rings out from that circle of Jesus’ relationships was even a Roman centurion, who seemed to follow Jesus from a distance.

But make no mistake, they were zealots, one and all.

Jesus was directing the zeal of these people, demonstrating the proper kind of zealotry that changes the world for the better. His Sermon on the Mount, delivered not far from Capernaum, is a clarion call for directing our zeal upward to God and outward in service of our fellow man.

Unfortunately, not enough of the zealots in Capernaum were listening. Jesus eventually denounced the population of the city in Matthew 11 by saying, “For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I tell you that it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you.”

What kind of zealot will we be? One that is assured of our own righteousness, serving ourselves, and destroyed by a quest for power?

Or, one that obeys God and zealously serves His people?

Zealots undeniably change the world. So, again, what kind will you be?

Quote-Unquote

"We are foolish to expect to serve God without opposition: the more zealous we are, the more sure are we to be assailed... Every man to his post, ye warriors of the cross, and may the Lord tread Satan under your feet shortly!"

– Charles Spurgeon