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Good morning,

If even the gates of hell cannot stand against us, why are so many people unwilling to engage in the battles around us that matter most? More on that thought in today's Friday Reflection.

This is the Texas Minute for February 28, 2025.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

A&M Geography Course: Gender Is 'Social Construct'

• A Texas A&M course in geography is promoting gender identity, intersectionality, and critical race theory. Valerie Muñoz has details on the course, which satisfies the university’s "international and cultural diversity" requirement.
    
• In a presentation for TAMU's Intro to Human Geography course, a module entitled Cultural Geographies asserts that gender is “socially constructed.” Texas Scorecard obtained the presentation through an anonymous source.
       
• According to the presentation, gender “can be influenced by biological, social, and cultural influences” and often disadvantages females. It goes on to assert that gender “intersects” with other identities like race and religion to “further marginalize females.”
      
• The course features the use of "The Genderbread Person," a graphic that claims to distinguish between gender identity, gender expression, and anatomical sex. This is used to bolster the contention that gender identity is not binary but instead self-defined and uncorrelated with a person’s sex.
      
• Do we dare ask my fellow Aggies to define "what is a woman"?

Amid Lottery Controversies, Senators Approve 'Courier' Ban

• Days after Texas Lottery commissioners faced widespread criticism from state lawmakers, senators have sent to the House a measure explicitly banning illicit ticket resellers known as "lottery courier services." Luca Cacciatore has the report.
    
• Legislation by State Sen. Bob Hall (R-Edgewood) passed the chamber unanimously yesterday. It prohibits online couriers from allowing customers to purchase lottery tickets at a premium from brick-and-mortar stores without being physically present.
       
• The courier process was introduced to Texas over the last decade, well after the Texas Lottery was established in August 1991. While state law currently requires purchases to be made in person with cash, the Lottery Commission has aided these services in circumventing those statutes.
       
• Senators have publicly accused the lottery of working as a money laundering operation.

State Rep. Leach Refiles Mail Ballot Measure Vetoed by Gov. Abbott in 2023

• Republican State Rep. Jeff Leach of Allen has refiled a measure that Gov. Greg Abbott vetoed in 2023. As Sydnie Henry reports, the legislation is purportedly aimed at expanding the voting rights of disabled Texans by allowing “certain voters” access to an electronic absentee ballot.
    
• However, according to Gov. Abbott and other election security advocates, the measure’s vague wording would put the election system at more risk of malfeasance.
       
• The governor said Leach's legislation lacked strong parameters around who qualified to apply for electronic ballots and was susceptible to unintended consequences.

Libraries Could Lose Funding for Hosting Drag Queen Story Hours

• Brandon Waltens reports that state taxpayer funds could soon be removed from libraries that host “drag queen story hours,” in which men dressed as women read books to young children.
      
• Legislation by State Sen. Bryan Hughes (R–Mineola) would cut off state and local funding to libraries that facilitate such events, which Hughes says are a form of political activism rather than education.
      
• In presenting the legislation to the Senate State Affairs Committee yesterday, Hughes referenced a case in Houston where it was discovered that a library had allowed a registered sex offender to participate in the program without conducting a background check.
       
• “The library is supposed to be a safe place where children can learn, where parents don’t have to worry about what they’re being exposed to,” said Hughes. “This bill is very simple: if a library chooses to host these events, they will lose public funding.”

Houston Business Owners Challenge Minority Contracting Requirements

• A family-owned landscape construction company is suing both the City of Houston and Harris County over a Minority and Women-Owned Business program, calling it an unconstitutional violation of its rights. 
    
• As Charles Blain reports, Landscape Consultants of Texas is a small business with a mostly Hispanic 50-member workforce, but its owners—Jerry and Theresa Thompson—are white.
      
• The Thompsons argue that they are the victims of racial discrimination in government contracting because despite being the lowest and most qualified bidders on a number of local government projects, they have been passed over for minority-owned firms by the city and county.
      
• Even when they win a contract, the Thompsons assert that they are required to give 11 percent of the work to a minority-owned firm. They argue that a similar business owned by a minority would be permitted to keep 100 percent of the contract amount.

Aldine ISD Set to Close Schools Due to Enrollment Loss

• Trustees in the Aldine Independent School District have voted to close six schools as they grapple with declining enrollment and a growing budget deficit. As Michael Wilson reports, the district has experienced a 20 percent decline in student enrollment over the past decade.

This Sunday on REAL TEXANS

Nate Fischer

Friday Reflection
At the Gates of Hell

The roots of self-governance, and nearly everything we think of in Western civilization, can be traced to the 8,500 square miles of land known as Israel. Whatever one thinks of their modern politics in the context of the geopolitical fights of the day, the history of the world is tied inextricably with the ancient history of Israel. And so are our allusions and metaphors. 

From Shakespeare to the Constitution, biblical stories and phrases fill our language. None has intrigued me more over the years than variations around the phrase “the gates of hell.” It’s a curious phrase used to indicate a measure of resolve. “We’ll storm the gates of hell,” you’ve heard countless heroes in movies and books say about the impossible task ahead.

It’s also a very real place, and I am not talking metaphysics. You can go there right now. It’s located in the archaeologically protected area of Caesarea Philippi, and the entire area is actually quite beautiful.

But 2,000 years ago... it was the site of nasty forms of pagan worship. The caverns were believed to be gates to the underworld—to hell—and so acts of grotesque bestiality were performed at the mouth of the cave to call forth the fertility god Pan.

To Jews living in those ancient times, the entire area was considered unclean as a result. They stayed far away. Yet in Matthew 16, we find Jesus took His disciples there. Overlooking the pagan site, He told His very Jewish followers they would be the basis of His church... in places like that. It had to be a little uncomfortable. 

Rather than ignore places of unspeakable evil, Jesus wanted His disciples to overcome them—and doing so required acknowledging they existed. To stand against evil, we must be willing to fight it.

As an aside, this is the place where Jesus tells Peter—a nickname meaning “the rock”—that he will be the “rock” on which a church is built “and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

They were literally standing in front of a living embodiment of evil—and Jesus was saying, “You will overcome places like this, and we’ll build the church on top of those efforts. Now get to work!”

This isn't exactly the comfortable life too many Americans associate with the Christian life.

There is nothing comfortable or safe about prevailing against the gates of hell. But we’re not called to lives of comfort and safety; we’re called to be faithful. We must engage culture and politics with the conviction we’re fighting a righteous fight for the very soul of our nation.

Are you ready to go do some storming?

Quote-Unquote

"Of two evils, choose neither." – Charles Spurgeon