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Good morning,

We have allowed the Christmas season to become unnecessarily busy. That busyness can obscure the simple fact that Jesus came to Earth not as He deserved but as we needed Him. More on that thought below.

This is the Texas Minute for Christmas Eve, Dec. 24, 2025.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan

NOTE: In observance of Christmas, the Texas Minute will take a short break and resume on Monday, Dec. 29, 2025.

Abbott Calls for State Prosecutor to Counter Lenient District Attorneys Gov. Greg Abbott is calling for the creation of a statewide Chief State Prosecutor with the authority to intervene when local district attorneys decline to pursue criminal cases. Brandon Waltens reports [[link removed]] the proposal is aimed at reining in progressive district attorneys who have been unwilling to prosecute criminals.

Under current Texas law, prosecutorial authority largely rests with locally elected district and county attorneys. The attorney general, meanwhile, currently has limited authority in specific areas like human trafficking and election fraud. Waco Judge Files Federal Lawsuit To Overturn Obergefell A Waco judge has filed a federal lawsuit seeking to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges ruling, which legalized same-sex marriage in all 50 states. Travis Morgan has the details [[link removed]].

The case has been brought by McLennan County Justice of the Peace Dianne Hensley, who has refused to officiate homosexual weddings while continuing to perform heterosexual weddings, citing her religious beliefs. She is suing the State Commission on Judicial Conduct and its commissioners. The commission issued a "public warning" against Hensley in 2019. Despite a Texas Supreme Court order in her favor, the commission continues to claim that judges' only discretion is to refrain from performing weddings altogether.

In addition to blocking the commission from punishing Hensley further for her actions, her attorney, Jonathan Mitchell, argues that nothing in Obergefell or the Constitution requires Judge Hensley to perform same-sex weddings. But her case is going a step further by asking the court to reconsider the Obergefell decision and declare that gay marriage is not a constitutional right.

"The court-invented right to homosexual marriage—like the court-invented right to abortion—is not ‘deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition,’ so Obergefell had no constitutional justification for imposing same-sex marriage on all 50 states." – Jonathan Mitchell [[link removed]] Paxton Defends Texas Terror Designation of CAIR in New Court Filing Attorney General Ken Paxton is defending Texas’ decision to label the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on American‑Islamic Relations as foreign terrorist organizations. As Sydnie Henry reports [[link removed]], the attorney general is asking a federal court to reject a lawsuit brought by two Texas CAIR chapters.

Last month, Gov. Greg Abbott issued a proclamation declaring the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR to be “foreign terrorist organizations” and “transnational criminal organizations” under Texas law. Abbott relied on years of public reporting and federal investigative records tying both entities and their affiliates to Islamic extremist movements. The governor also directed state agencies to treat them as security threats in contracting, funding, and cooperation decisions.

In response, the Dallas–Fort Worth and Austin CAIR chapters sued the state. They argue the proclamation unlawfully “chilled” their free‑speech rights by branding them terrorists and scaring away donors, partners, and would‑be speakers.

Paxton contends that the local CAIR councils are basing their lawsuit on “speculative” injuries and simple disagreement with Texas’ national security judgments, not on concrete government actions that actually violate the Constitution. Further, his office argues, a gubernatorial proclamation does not stop CAIR chapters from speaking, organizing, or criticizing Texas officials. The filing also notes that the First Amendment does not give advocacy groups a right to be free from official disapproval or labels. Federal Judge Blocks Texas’ App Store Accountability Act A federal judge has temporarily blocked Texas’ new App Store Accountability Act just days before it was set to take effect [[link removed]], ruling yesterday that the law likely violates the First Amendment and cannot be enforced while litigation continues.

A technology trade group and student plaintiffs have argued that the statewide age‑verification mandate would censor vast amounts of lawful speech and shut many minors out of app stores altogether. The order issued by U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman bars Attorney General Ken Paxton from enforcing the new law.

The attorney general is expected to appeal the ruling to the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Texas A&M Attempts to Conceal Records Related To Research Security Adam Cahn reports [[link removed]] that Texas A&M University is attempting to conceal records related to a professor who failed to complete national security-related training.

Earlier this month, Texas Scorecard sent Texas A&M a request for the personnel file and investigative records related to Dr. Leon Luxemburg. He was a professor of foundational sciences who was terminated in April. Reportedly, he lost a university laptop during overseas travel. A&M has not revealed where Luxemburg traveled or how the laptop was lost.

An internal report from the Texas A&M Committee on Academic Freedom, Responsibility, and Tenure found that Luxemburg "did not complete the required training in export control and information security, nor did he fully engage in the investigation."

Texas A&M is asking Attorney General Ken Paxton to let the institution hide additional records related to Luxemburg from public review.

The Texas Minute will resume on Monday, Dec. 29, 2025.

Christmas Reflection

Bethlehem’s Manger [[link removed]]

by Michael Quinn Sullivan

Can I admit that Bethlehem has been my least favorite place to visit in Israel? It’s crowded, dirty, and run by the Palestinian Authority.

Standing in Bethlehem that first time, I couldn’t help but think there had to be a hundred better places for the Messiah to have been born.

And as a father, I cannot help but believe Joseph had similar feelings that night so long ago, despite the angelic assurances he had received months earlier. His pregnant young bride was ready to pop (as my own wife’s OB/GYN so delicately described the last days of pregnancy). Joseph and Mary were far from home, in a manger cut into the side of a hill. With one glance, he knew his son’s first cradle would be a trough carved from stone. Braying donkeys would announce the birth.

While perhaps a “little town,” Bethlehem was hardly unknown. It is mentioned more than 50 times in the Bible, mostly in the Old Testament. For everyone who cared to know, which King Herod did not until he did, Bethlehem was where the Messiah had been prophesied to enter the world. But in a manger?

We have sanitized the scene; there are no animal droppings, no flies, no dirt, and no grime. But make no mistake, the scene in real life would have been incredibly unpleasant.

At Christmas, we focus on an idyllic young mother and a smiling baby. Those images morph to the wise men bringing gifts. We too often stop reading just before the jealous king orders the murder of the baby boys in an attempt to short-circuit the workings of God.

It is easier to keep Jesus as the sweet babe in swaddling clothes, not the innocent man horribly murdered on a cross for our sins.

I think we sanitize His arrival to feel better about ourselves. After all, Consumermas cannot be bothered by the recognition of our deep-rooted sin and desperate need for a savior.

In the moral economy of the Holy God, Jesus came not as He deserved but as we needed Him.

He was born next to animal excrement, which frankly produces a more pleasing aroma than our attempted good works, to borrow from the Apostle Paul.

For God and sinners to be reconciled, Jesus had to live sinlessly through the worst human experiences so He could be the perfect sacrifice. Jesus didn’t deserve to be born in a Bethlehem manger any more than we deserve the mercy He so lovingly offered by taking our place at the cross.

George Whitfield’s glorious hymn gets it just right:

“Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace!

Hail the Sun of Righteousness!

Light and life to all he brings,

risen with healing in his wings.

Mild he lays his glory by,

born that we no more may die,

born to raise us from the earth,

born to give us second birth.”

Quote-Unquote

"Once in our world, a stable had something in it that was bigger than our whole world." – C.S. Lewis

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