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Good morning,

Too many people claim to hate evil and love good but are unwilling to take a stand in the real world. I end the week reflecting on the challenge presented by the Book of Amos to those who limit the application of their "faith" to the afterlife.

This is the Texas Minute for Friday, February 14, 2025.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Texas Senate Passes $6 Billion in Property Tax Relief Legislation

• Members of the Texas Senate voted unanimously for a package of legislation raising the homestead exemption and lowering school property tax rates. As Luca Cacciatore reports, this $6 billion tax relief package now joins school choice legislation in the gubernatorial priority queue waiting for action in the House.
    
• The measures, authored by State Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston), would increase the homestead exemption to $140,000 for everyone, though senior citizens and disabled Texans will get an additional $10,000 exemption.
       
• Schools will receive funding to reduce their maintenance and operations tax, which represents 50 percent or more of most Texans' property tax bill.
      

• Bettencourt’s office estimates that the homestead exemption increase and rate compression will save the average Texas homeowner around $496 annually.

House Committee Assignments Keep Democrats in Power

• House Speaker Dustin Burrows named the chamber's committees, revealing that Democrats continue to wield significant influence. Brandon Waltens has the full story.
    
• Under rules Burrows pushed through last month (without allowing debate or amendments), House committees are now required to have Republican chairs and Democrat vice-chairs. But those rules also greatly expanded the power of vice-chairs, allowing them to compel legislation to be presented in committee hearings. The vice-chair position reportedly comes with an additional $4,000 in monthly office cash, though lawmakers remain in the dark regarding the exact expenditure.
      

• The speaker placed six Democrats as the chairs of newly formed "permanent standing subcommittees," effectively preserving their ability to shape legislative outcomes.
      

• Burrows’ selections indicate a return to the status quo of previous sessions. State Rep. Joe Moody (D-El Paso) has once again been named speaker pro tempore, the second-highest position in the House. Moody previously held that position but was stripped of it in 2021 following the Democrats’ quorum-busting trip to Washington, D.C., to block election integrity legislation.
      

• State Rep. Todd Hunter (R-Corpus Christi) will lead the powerful Calendars Committee that determines which bills will—and won’t—reach the House floor for a vote.

Brooke Rollins Confirmed as US Secretary of Agriculture

• Texas' Brooke Rollins was confirmed yesterday by the U.S. Senate as the nation’s new secretary of agriculture in a vote of 72-28. Sydnie Henry has the details. 
    
• As a graduate of Texas A&M University with a degree in agricultural development, Rollins most recently served as the president of the America First Policy Institute. She was also a key figure in President Donald Trump’s first-term policy team, leading the Domestic Policy Council.
       
• Rollins previously helmed the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
     
• Her confirmation finishes out the president’s Texas appointments. Tulsi Gabbard, of Central Texas, was confirmed earlier this week as the director of national intelligence. Former State Rep. Scott Turner of Collin County was recently confirmed as the secretary of housing and urban development, while former U.S. Rep. John Ratcliffe is leading the Central Intelligence Agency.

Will University Reforms Cause a Faculty Exodus?

• Valerie Muñoz reports on claims that large numbers of leftwing professors are planning to leave Texas' colleges and universities as the state cracks down on ideological indoctrination.
        
• Four professors recently resigned from the University of North Texas, with one citing concerns over a state law banning diversity, equity, and inclusion offices and hiring practices at public universities.
       
• Another said she was leaving UNT because she is concerned about the future of a course she teaches: Gay Rights and the Constitution.
           
• “Woke out-migration is a benefit, not a cost, of good academic policies,” said investigative journalist and higher education critic Christopher Rufo.

Senators Drop a Neutron Bomb on the Texas Lottery Commission

• During a firework-filled Senate Finance Committee hearing, the current executive director of the Texas Lottery was sharply criticized by lawmakers for not answering questions, having a flippant attitude toward correcting issues within his rogue agency, and ignoring allegations that the lottery was used to launder $25 million in 2023. Daniel Greer breaks down the hearing.
    
• The Lottery Commission has been embroiled in scandal for the past three years after a $95 million jackpot was rigged for foreign gamblers with the agency's help.
      
• State Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston) pursued a particularly alarming line of questioning about the potential use of the Texas Lottery to launder money during a 2023 drawing. He asked each of the three commissioners in attendance if the 2023 drawing appeared to be money laundering. All three agreed.
       
• State Sen. Carol Alvarado (D-Houston) said she was surprised that the former executive director of the agency was collecting a pension and not in handcuffs. State Sen. Lois Kolkhorst (R-Brenham) echoed that confusion: “We need to call in the Texas Rangers immediately.”

Brandon Gill Defends DOGE, Slams Democrat Hypocrisy

• During a hearing in the House this week, U.S. Rep. Brandon Gill (R-Flower Mound) defended the newly established Department of Government Efficiency—led by Elon Musk—while tearing into Democrats for their selective outrage over unelected officials and rampant government waste.
     
• Gill pointed out that Democrats were fixated on Musk instead of addressing the $2.7 trillion in improper payments made since 2003 that have been uncovered. He blasted Democrats for looking the other way as taxpayer money was funneled into causes benefiting the left.
       
• "So much of the waste, fraud, and abuse of our federal government is actually funding their side of the aisle," said Gill. "It’s funding media outlets that are running cover for Democrats routinely—NPR, PBS, the BBC, Politico. It’s going to fund left-wing NGOs that are facilitating the invasion of our country. It’s going to fund left-wing transgender activism and sex changes all over the globe."

Parents Roasting Allen ISD Goes Viral

• Videos of Texas parents roasting Allen Independent School District officials for failing to remove sexually explicit books from students’ libraries have gone viral, reports Erin Anderson.
    

• The “embarrassing” clips are drawing widespread criticism of how administrators are mishandling the issue. Parents in Allen and across the state are putting district officials on notice that they expect administrators to follow the law and remove explicit materials unsuitable for school children.

This Sunday on REAL TEXANS

Brandon Creighton

Friday Reflection
Doing Real Justice

While Scripture was written for our benefit, it was not written to us individually; each book, psalm, and epistle had a specific audience … which means the inspired author was not writing specifically to me in the 21st century.

Yet, all scripture is (as Paul wrote to Timothy) “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.”

That is to say, the Bible is useful not just for our spiritual edification; it also has very practical things to say about the real world. How can I suggest such a thing? Because each word was, in fact, written for real people dealing with real issues.

The Prophet Amos had some very strong words to say about the rotten governance of the Kingdom of Israel, the “northern kingdom” of the 8th century B.C. In that real place, people were being oppressed, and evil was being done to them. This was not “spiritual oppression” or “evil thoughts.” No, this was real evil and real oppression in the real world by real people.

And Amos was calling on the real people of God to do something about it.

The Book of Amos is inconvenient for those who would tell Christians to sit idly by and wait for a future “Kingdom of God” to arrive. It is a clarion call for real action in the here and now.

“Hate evil, and love good, and establish justice in the gate,” Amos records God as saying. Pray, yes, but also take action in the real world.

Pay attention to that. God said to “establish justice in the gate.”

In those days, business was conducted at the city gate. Disputes were settled there by a local court of elders, which listened to petitions and made binding decisions. God did not tell Amos to tell the people to “pray for justice in the afterlife.” The God of Creation—Elohim Himself—demanded that they promote His justice then and there.

While Amos was writing to and about the people of the Kingdom of Israel, God also intended for us to hear the words and thoughtfully apply them to our own situation in our own time.

We don’t do city gates anymore. Civic elders have been replaced by councils, legislatures, and congresses. Laws are carried out by duly appointed bureaucrats acting in the name of the people. Disputes are resolved in oak-paneled courtrooms.

We are a self-governing republic; the citizen is the leader, and the officials are our servants. Pearl-clutching Christian essayists often tell us that we cannot “legislate morality.” Yet, according to Amos, God said that we must hate evil, love good, and establish justice in the halls of power.

To whom should we listen? I’ll go with the Creator, not the created.

It is not good enough for us to merely feel sympathy for those who are persecuted, prosecuted, regulated, taxed, jailed, and otherwise assailed by unjust politicians and sycophantic bureaucrats. Those victims don’t need our promised prayers and self-justifying sermons; they need our muscles and voices.

Those suffering under the yoke of burdensome government don’t just need words of comfort about the afterlife; they need justice now.

If our vision of a good and just government is limited to the afterlife, then we are missing the calling given to us by God through the Prophet Amos.

Hate evil? Love good? We must be about the business of establishing real justice in the real world right now. It might be messy. It might be inconvenient. It might even be troubling. But it is what we have been called to do.

Quote-Unquote

"Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act."

– Dietrich Bonhoeffer