Good morning,

Here is today's Texas Minute.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Friday, November 6, 2020
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• Our reporting on what a Texas lawyer saw (and recorded) in Michigan has drawn the ire of the left-wing media and Big Tech. To recap, “Lawyers for Trump” volunteer Kellye SoRelle video recorded and photographed instances of wagons, suitcases, and coolers moving in and out of a Detroit, MI, vote-counting center without any identification check. 
      
• We reported SoRelle’s claims, as well as claims that one of the people she saw was actually a news photographer moving in TV cameras. (What about the others she saw? What about the alarms she is raising? No one is commenting.)
      
• Facebook and Twitter, at the behest of leftwing media outlets, have now “throttled” reporting on the story. They refuse to allow any concerns about election integrity or ballot security. One can only wonder why...
      
• Apparently reporting on someone’s concerns – backed up by video and photos – is simply not allowed if it goes against the leftwing narrative.
   
• Thanks to donors from around the state, we’ll be able to keep reporting.

• On Tuesday, voters selected a GOP-dominated Texas House. Yet as the week comes to an end, it appears the next speaker of the Texas House will be Dade Phelan who has been “cutting deals with Dems, like the LGBT Caucus leaders, to get ‘speaker votes’,” according to Jonathan Saenz of Texas Values.
      
• “For Texas House ‘Speaker Race’ I recommend that House members ask any speaker candidate to publicly pledge their support to the 8 Legislative Priorities that thousands of grassroots Texas Republicans overwhelming voted to support this year.” – Jonathan Saenz
      
• The speakership and upcoming legislation will be covered in an interview Texas Scorecard’s Managing Editor Brandon Waltens conducted with Allen West, chairman of the Republican Party of Texas. That interview can be seen at 11 a.m. today on either the Texas Scorecard website or Facebook page. 

• Voters in Amarillo rejected a $275 million debt proposal, and also voted against extending the city council terms. Thomas Warren reports a third ballot question – to change city council meetings from weekly to every other week – was supported by the voters.
   
• The city’s mayor, Ginger Nelson, had campaigned for longer city council terms and staggered elections, saying it would prevent voters from “flipping the whole boat again” by electing a completely new city council. It turns out 52 percent of Amarillo voters were unpersuaded by the argument.

• In a new commentary, Dallas-based attorney Kristina West of the Center for American Liberty writes that Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s grit, toughness, and sensitivity will serve her well when presented with cases that directly impact civil liberties in the Lone Star State.
        
• “Judge Barrett’s existence undermines the lie that women have to choose between career and children. She is the mother of seven school-aged children, including one with special needs. Her confirmation last week to the United States Supreme Court represents the pinnacle of any career in law. Simply, Barrett proves that women do not have to forego family and faith in order to achieve career success.” – Kristina West

• Please join me in wishing a very happy birthday to our Director of Development, Shelby Griesinger! (I bet she’d love it if you made a donation today...)

Friday Reflection

Since 1956 the official motto of the United States of America has been “In God We Trust,” and the phrase has appeared on our currency since the mid-1860s. But as a pastor of mine once said, someone can tell us what they believe, but a review of their checkbook or calendar will show us what they actually believe.

That is as true for countries as it is individuals. What do you believe in? What do we believe in?

It surprised me to realize one of my favorite stops in Israel was the archeological tel known popularly as Ancient Shiloh. It is the very spot where the Tabernacle of God stood for more than 350 years before moving to Jerusalem. It is the spot where Hannah brought her son Samuel, and dedicated him to the service of God. 

It is where the people later came to Samuel, rejecting the system of self-governance God had given them and demanding he establish a monarchy – despite severe warnings from God Himself.

The people of God decided, as you can read in 1 Samuel 8, to put their trust in a big, secular, man-devised government. We’ve been making the same mistake ever since. 

In so many real and practical ways, all of Western civilization’s governing mistakes and missteps are traced to that rejection of God’s practical provision of self-governance. 

Those warnings from God came to fruition over the next several decades for those people at that time, and they have been with us ever since. There is never any profit to be found in trading out God’s wisdom for the baubles of the world. 

The Psalmist – who was very likely Israel’s second king, David – grappled with being a king as surely as he grappled with his own painful awareness of his inadequacy and sin. He knew his kingdom would fade, but that God’s would last forever.

In Psalm 146:3-7 we find:

“Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation. When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish. Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, who keeps faith forever; who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry.”

There is truly nothing new under the sun, as David’s son Solomon would later write. Then as now, we find too many people casting their hopes and fears on the personalities of politicians, rather than the eternal God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 

True justice – peace and mercy – is found with the Creator of the Universe, not self-serving politicians.

Just as we cannot trust government agencies to save us, neither can we outsource our governing responsibilities to corruptible politicians. To protect our public servants from corruption, we must limit the fearsome power available to them. That was wrapped up in the practical wisdom of God’s design for self-governance. Our nation’s Founding Fathers believed strictly limiting the size and scope of the government to be a design feature; our current generation has treated it as a bug.

The God who made us in His image calls us to be a self-governing people. That starts by trusting in Him not just with our words, but by our actions.