Good morning,

The modern age has given us a soft, diminutive Jesus who is little more than a virtue-signaling tool of the progressive elite. I close out the week reflecting on the differences between the fake, sickly sweet Jesus of the modern age and the disruptively dangerous Jesus of Scripture.

This is the Texas Minute for Friday, August 9, 2024.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Abbott Orders Hospitals to Report Costs of Illegal Alien Healthcare

• Gov. Greg Abbott has announced a new executive order requiring hospitals in Texas to collect and report healthcare costs for illegal aliens. Brandon Waltens has the details.
    
• Specifically, Abbott is ordering the Health and Human Services Commission to collect information regarding the cost of medical care provided to illegal immigrants starting no later than Nov. 1. The data is to be collected and reported quarterly.
      
• Abbott explained that federal law mandates that any response to the questions will not affect patient care.
      
• "Due to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ open border policies, Texas has had to foot the bill for medical costs for individuals illegally in the state. Texans should not have to shoulder the burden of financially supporting medical care for illegal immigrants." – Gov. Greg Abbott

Under Investigation by Paxton, ActBlue Strengthens Donation Security

• Attorney General Ken Paxton has announced that, amid an investigation by his office, Democrat fundraising catalyst ActBlue has changed its contribution security requirements. Will Biagini explains security codes will now be needed for anyone to make donations by credit card to the leftwing group.
    
• Paxton's office is demanding ActBlue turn over additional information related to allegations of donation fraud.
      
• Investigative journalist James O’Keefe unearthed one instance in Texas where a woman named Barbara Staples denied making thousands of donations to ActBlue.
       
• The political group claimed Staples made 53 transactions in a single day and gave more than $13,000 in 1,600 donations. She told O'Keefe, "No, there’s no way I had made all those."

Musk Opening Montessori School in Bastrop

• Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk is opening up an experimental private school in Bastrop. Luca Cacciatore reports the school will serve children aged three to nine by providing Montessori-style education with an emphasis on math and science.
       
• Musk’s investment in Ad Astra adds to his growing presence in Central Texas. The school is only about a mile away from offices for Musk’s The Boring Company and SpaceX.
       
• This is not Musk's first foray into education. He had previously invested in a less formal Montessori school in Los Angeles for his five children and several of their friends. He got the idea after being displeased with the instruction provided by his children’s prestigious private school.

Harris County Residents Concerned About Squatters

• Texas Central Railway has purchased several homes in Harris County that have become inhabited by squatters, which Debra McClure reports are raising safety concerns for residents.
        
• TCR planned to relocate the structures from Northwest Harris County to clear the way for its slow-moving high-speed train project connecting Houston and Dallas. Residents say some homes are in poor condition, and squatters have moved in.
      
• A local television station, KPRC, visited the area and found "dilapidated" homes.
      
• "These aren’t the kind of people you want living next to you. They tend to be lawbreakers, drug users, and sometimes even more dangerous individuals." – Harris County Precinct 2 Constable Jerry Garcia

Dallas Taxpayers Charged $13,000 for City Manager’s Travel to Leftwing Events

• Travel to leftwing events by Dallas' interim city manager is costing taxpayers thousands. Holly Tkach has the story. Kim Tolbert's penchant for "luxury politics" in hotels and airline seats earned her the title "First-Class Feminist" from The Dallas Express.
    
• Tolbert’s first trip was to the International City/County Management Association event in Austin, where the itinerary included an “Equity & Inclusion Leaders Luncheon.” She charged taxpayers $1,200 for that excursion. Taxpayers spent $4,000 on her trip to the International Women’s Forum in Detroit, Michigan.
            
• The Dallas Express' review indicates Tolbert's trips to leftwing events and conferences have cost city taxpayers more than $13,000.

The Jesus of the modern age is a diminutive figure, soft and unassuming. This Jesus doesn’t challenge us; just loves to love. This Jesus never raises his voice but purrs obediently, like a neutered kitty. This Jesus bears no resemblance to the disruptive Jesus of the Gospels.

The real Jesus was a carpenter in an age when that meant something. He wasn’t the designer-jeans-wearing carpenter of a home remodeling show who shies away from dirt and dust when the cameras go dark. He lifted lumber and chiseled rock.

The real Jesus was described as a shepherd. This wasn’t a euphemism for a gentleman farmer tending domesticated chickens on an oversized cul-de-sac lot. This biblical sort of shepherd had to fight off fearsome beasts and poachers in the wilderness.

The fake Jesus of the modern age is a model of leftist sensibilities, waving an LGBT flag while employing a DEI handbook to assign church committees.

The real Jesus spoke forcefully not only about overt sin but also the sin in our thought lives. When Jesus intervened to spare the life of an alleged adulteress, He wasn’t condoning the polygamous and polyamorous sexual indulgences of our age, but forcefully condemning even our lustful thoughts and sinful desires.

The fake Jesus created in the modern age is a virtue-signaling tool of the elite, urging obedience to the whims of the self-anointed intelligentsia.

The followers of the fake Jesus weep at mean tweets and direct criticism of the political elite. They whimper for a cowardly form of faux civility that imposes soft shackles on citizens in the name of “peace” and “purity.”

The real Jesus called the leaders of the day prophet-killers, a “brood of vipers,” and “whitewashed tombs.” Modern readers don’t hear the invectives, but the real Jesus’ audience would have been scandalized by such language.

The real Jesus openly mocked the ill-gotten gains of the ruling class, who profited by imposing extra-biblical rules on the citizenry. The real Jesus had great respect for people who earned their wealth through hard work and spoke with open scorn against those who prospered through government dictates.

In one of my favorite passages of the Gospels, we find the real Jesus overturning the tables of the money changers. To be clear, the marketplace did not need or want these “businesses.” Holy Scripture did not call for money changers to exist as part of Temple worship. No, these were politically connected people profiting off rules created to serve the whims of the rulers by enriching their cronies.

Rather than engage in mindless debate with the charlatans and thieves, Jesus simply drove them away with a whip… A whip Scripture says He strategically spent considerable time fashioning Himself.

The fake Jesus of the modern age tells us what we want to hear; the real Jesus leads us where we need to be. The fake Jesus is a paper tiger guarding the sensibilities of soft men. The real Jesus is a roaring lion fighting the prince of darkness.

The fake Jesus points us to eternal hell while creating a hellish world of slavery on Earth. The real Jesus offers salvation in the hereafter and freedom in the here and now.

We embrace the fake Jesus to our peril. We follow the real Jesus to real joy.

Quote-Unquote

"In the absence of a biblical morality, a new elite will always come forward to dictate arbitrary absolutes to society."

– Francis Schaeffer