Good morning,

Yesterday’s question about suing China elicited strong responses! Then I close out the week reflecting on the horrendous history of a beautiful dump, and what it can mean for us.

But first, here is today’s Texas Minute.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Friday, April 24, 2020
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• Texas’ unemployment claims have jumped; new numbers from the Texas Workforce Commission show 1,698,638 Texans have filed for unemployment related to the  government’s shutdown of the economy. The week began with unemployment claims at 1.2 million.
   
• As Texans have seen their personal financial situations suffer under the government-imposed restrictions designed to curtail the Chinese coronavirus, Brandon Waltens reports conservatives are imploring state government officials to identify ways to slash spending ahead of the upcoming legislative session in 2021. Their message seems to be getting through.
      
• In a memo to Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Texas House Speaker Dennis Bonnen reportedly suggested directing all state agencies to “immediately identify and execute 5 percent budgetary savings.” Neither statewide official has made a public comment about the idea.
     
• Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar has already stated he anticipates a several-billion-dollar shortfall of funds that will be needed to balance the budget lawmakers passed in 2019.
      
• An Austin-based leftwing gossip blog floated the rumor yesterday that state agencies were being asked to cut spending 20 percent. Republican lawmakers immediately reacted, saying that it wasn’t true.
      
• It does beg the question: What plan does Gov. Abbott, Lt. Gov. Patrick, and the Republican legislative majority have for cutting government spending both immediately, and for the next budget? Frankly, the absence of a plan is worse than the presence of unfounded rumors.
      
• All businesses are essential, State Rep. Mike Lang wrote to the Texas Department of Emergency Management this week. The Granbury Republican adds that the list of “essential” businesses provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency was “advisory” in nature and should not be considered a directive. Matt Stringer has the story.
   
• Two-thirds of Texas’ Republican and Democrat voters say their jobs do not allow them to work from home. Our friends at The Texan report on the details.
   
• In a new commentary, Tarrant County businessman Adrian Murray writes that our civil liberties should not be “the ultimate victim of COVID-19.”
   
• The City of Fort Worth and Dallas County both backed down from their outright bans on worship services yesterday. Robert Montoya reports they now fall in line behind new guidelines from Gov. Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton protecting houses of worship.

• In yesterday’s Texas Minute – as well as on Empower Texans’ social media platforms, readers were asked if Texas should sue China over the coronavirus like Missouri is doing. Close to 90 percent said yes. But those who said “no” offered some very good reasons.
      
• Several folks suggested, like Bill F., that “the lawsuit will feel good and is just, but we must remember that China is a sovereign entity and will not recognize the lawsuit.” Both Bobby B. and Ken M. noted, as did others, that even if you win the lawsuit “who’s going to enforce the verdict?”
     
• Others, like Margaret W., are of the opinion a lawsuit will “spend money that could be better spent elsewhere.” Robert G. is fairly certain there will be “no meaningful results other than further draining our already minimally funded economy.”
        
• Roger T. suggest the “symbolism” of a lawsuit is great, but thinks Trump is on the right track “by holding the [World Health Organization] accountable.”
      
• As noted, the “sue China” side was overwhelmingly supported. I suspect many of them agree with Ray L. that “China should be held responsible for its deceit.”
   
• Rex R. suggests a lawsuit isn’t nearly enough: “stop buying any goods produced in China... The only deterrent that will get the Chinese attention is an economic one.”

Friday Reflection

by Michael Quinn Sullivan

My brain didn’t want to process that I was at a dump. I’ve been to many dumps over the years, hauling pick-up trucks full of refuse for disposal. The luscious grass, the marvelous trees... how could this be a dump?

It had been for hundreds of years. This was the valley of Gehenna, just a stone’s throw from the ancient city of Jerusalem’s walls. Fires constantly burned, consuming the city’s refuse.

The vision we have of hell is derived almost entirely from New Testament allusions to Gehenna – a wretched, filthy place in which perpetual fires consume that which is unclean.

Gehenna was a dump in the time of Jesus because it had once been something far worse – a fact that would have been known to every Jew of the day. You see, the Valley of Gehenna had served as the place in which the pagan Canaanites – who previously governed the land – would brutally sacrifice living children to their god Molech.

The valley was so unclean, its legacy so horrific, it could only be used as a dump. Gehenna was as bad of a place as it could possibly get. There was nothing good about it.

While Gehenna once served as the cautionary model for hell, today it stands as a picture of our personal salvation. Even at our worst, even at our most wretched and vile, God offers us the pathway to a beautifully glorious restoration. 

The former British slave-trader John Newton understood this about himself, a knowledge he so famously put to music after becoming a Christian. “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found, t'was blind but now I see.”