Good morning,

Here is today's Texas Minute.

– Brandon Waltens 

Friday, July 24, 2020
Update your email preferences.

• Only days after Texas Republicans made protecting and preserving historical monuments, statues, and other items a legislative priority, six of the individuals they elected to Congress voted to remove them from the U.S. Capitol.
   
• On Wednesday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Democrat majority-led House of Representatives voted 305-113 to remove statues of Confederate soldiers.
   
• Seventy-one Republicans crossed party lines and voted with Democrats to remove the monuments. Among them were six Texans: U.S. Congressmen Michael Burgess of Flower Mound, Van Taylor of Plano, Dan Crenshaw of Houston, Michael McCaul of Austin, and Pete Olson of Sugar Land.

• While local government officials are suffocating working-class Austinites with taxes, they’re rolling out the red carpet for a multibillion-dollar corporation. 

• On Wednesday, electric vehicle company Tesla announced it would be building a “Gigafactory” in southeast Austin and is expected to employ 5,000 people. 

• Travis County Commissioners won’t require Tesla to pay full property taxes, unlike the rest of working citizens. The county agreed to rebate at least 70 percent—and as much as 80 percent—of Tesla’s taxes for at least 10 years, meaning Tesla would save a minimum of $14.7 million over the next decade.

• Additionally, the Del Valle school board—the school district where Tesla is locating—changed their tax rules for the company, which will reduce their taxes by nearly $50 million over 10 years. 

• Meanwhile, in Plano, citizens scored a major victory Wednesday in their four-year fight with the city over referendum rights, winning an appeal in their lawsuit to compel Plano officials to act on a referendum petition concerning the city’s comprehensive development plan. Erin Anderson has the details. 
   
• “This is what got me started in politics,” local resident Debbie Bonenberger told Texas Scorecard. “After more than four years and $600,000 of taxpayer money, the court ruled unanimously in favor of the people. Awesome news for the citizens of Plano!”
   
• The referendum petition calls for the city council to either repeal or put to a public vote the Plano Tomorrow Plan, adopted in October 2015 amid controversy over land-use provisions that critics said encouraged too much urban-style, high-density development.

• In a Texas Scorecard exclusive commentary, State Rep. James White (R–Hillister) counters the popular leftist media narrative, positing that, unlike Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden's pandering, President Donald Trump and his record have actually saved black lives.
   
• "Anyone can say that black lives matter to them, but Donald Trump has demonstrated through his actions that black lives really do matter to him." –State Rep. James White

Friday Reflection

by Michael Quinn Sullivan

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 western 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; 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, and told those Jewish men they would be the basis of His church. That 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 exist. 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.” Congratulations, eh? They were literally standing at a rocky structure, wholly unclean – the picture of evil – and Jesus is 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 suburban gig we were hoping for, Jesus...

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. Ready to go do some storming?