Good morning,

Few places have I found in my travels to be more beautiful than the Garden of Gethsemane – physically and for what it represents. I write about that in the Friday Reflection.

But first, here is today's Texas Minute.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Friday, April 2, 2021
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Programming Note: So our Scorecard team can enjoy the Easter weekend, the Texas Minute will return on Tuesday, April 6.

• Republican-priority election integrity legislation is moving through the Texas Senate, more than eight weeks after the governor declared the issue an emergency. Erin Anderson reports senators passed Republicans’ high-priority comprehensive election reform Senate Bill 7 on a party-line vote, 18-13.
   
• The omnibus election bill, authored by State Sen. Bryan Hughes (R–Mineola) and 12 other GOP senators, is loaded with reforms sought by election integrity advocates and intended to make voting more secure, accurate, and transparent. SB 7 includes dozens of provisions relating to voter registration, voting by mail, voter assistance, poll watchers, and voting systems, among other reforms. It also adds criminal and civil penalties for fraud and official misconduct.
   

• The measure now goes to the House for their consideration and action.

• With the state’s Child Protective Services agency under a cloud of allegations for “abuse of power,” state representatives in the Texas House passed an important reform bill this week. But, as Robert Montoya reports, the GOP-dominated House let Democrats block efforts to strengthen the measure to better serve and protect children and families.
     
• State Rep. Bryan Slaton (R-Royse City) attempted to amend the bill so parents refusing to modify their child’s gender would also be protected from CPS. His efforts were blocked on shaky procedural grounds by Democrats and GOP Speaker Dade Phelan – despite Slaton’s efforts aligning with the GOP’s priorities for the legislative session.
      
• “To clarify, Texas House GOP leadership just killed a measure that would prevent CPS from taking your children away if you refuse gender modification,” tweeted former State Rep. Matt Rinaldi.

• Hundreds of activists from across the state rallied in front of the state Capitol this week calling for the abolition of abortion and for Texas to ignore the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade ruling. Jeramy Kitchen reports that despite being a GOP priority, no legislation abolishing or restricting abortion has been scheduled for a hearing in the Republican-controlled House.
      
• Earlier this week, though, the Texas Senate passed several pro-life bills that would restrict abortion in the Lone Star State.

• You can hear directly from some of those pro-life activists later this morning on The Headline with Brandon Waltens. Join him at 11am for the live conversation, or listen to the podcast this afternoon.
   
• He will also visit with a pregnant Texas woman who was removed from a service at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Dallas by police. Deirdre Hairston was feeling lightheaded and nauseous during a worship service and so had lowered her mask so she could breathe and regain her composure.
   
• “In the moment as it was happening, not one single person in the church flinched,” Hairston told Texas Scorecard. “I think this shows a lack of leadership from our state officials and from our church leaders. Our bishop, Edward Burns, has really shown a lack of courage in this situation.”

• State Rep. Jeff Cason (R–Bedford) is seeking to clarify state law to protect lawful citizens’ rights to carry a firearm while in a car.  Iris Poole has the details.

• To help usher in Easter, University of North Texas students planned an Easter egg hunt that was not warmly accepted by other students. Ariana Silva reports 250 Easter eggs containing Bible verses around campus by the Young Conservatives of Texas chapter, eager to host a non-controversial event to get students excited about Easter. 
      
• Instead, the chairman of the group received calls to kill herself.
     
• Criticisms against the organization’s event included individuals who did not like the Christian message, as well as from those who did not think a conservative organization could represent Christianity.
      
• “I do not understand how we could have done the event without putting verses in the eggs or tying it back to Jesus or the Bible in some way. It’s impossible and pointless to celebrate Easter without acknowledging the biblical aspect—the holiday is literally meant for celebrating Christ.” – YCT-UNT Chairman Kelly Neidert

Friday Reflection

It’s not something we generally think about, but Israel rests at roughly the same longitudinal lines as Texas. Jerusalem itself is on the 31st northern parallel – in line with the Texas cities of Odessa, Hemphill, Waco, and San Saba.

That generally doesn’t mean much, except to explain why the most vibrant image from my trips to Israel is the flowers in the Garden of Gethsemane. 

The garden, after all, is supposed to be a dark place of pain and sorrow. Yet my first visit there was in the spring, just days after Passover and Easter—and it was glorious.

The geography, seasons, and weather in Israel is far more similar to our own than that of the northern European painters whose iconic artwork informs our cultural perceptions of biblical places.

Too many of those paintings present the Garden of Gethsemane as a dreadful, foreboding place sitting on the edge of a forest undoubtedly filled with wicked witches and grandma-eating wolves. The real place is much different. Just as spring is marked in Texas by the appearance of bluebonnets and Indian paintbrush, Gethsemane and the rest of the Israeli hill country is alive with wildflowers.

[As an aside, this is actually why going to Israel is so important to me; seeing the places as they actually are puts scripture and history into context. We will be leading a trip to Israel in late April of 2022. More information about this trip, and how folks can join in, will be coming out next week.]

So when Jesus went to the garden to pray on the night of His betrayal, arrest, and trial, it was the height of spring. The garden would have been awash in colors. This wasn’t a dead place; it was bursting with the promise and glory of life. A promise Jesus was about to seal with His own sacrifice. A glory that would be outshined three days later by Jesus’ resurrection. 

In the book of Genesis we are told sin and death entered the human condition when Adam and Eve made a decision to disobey God in the Garden of Eden. It was therefore appropriate that in a garden Jesus made His commitment to obey God, to bear the weight of our sin.

When my wife and I sat praying under a tree in the Garden of Gethsemane a few years ago, we were struck that the undeniable physical beauty of the place is overshadowed by that even more beautiful act of loving obedience. It was there, to paraphrase Horatio Gates Spafford’s classic hymn, that Jesus took the last step toward shedding His own blood for our souls.

Fortunately, we don’t have to ever set foot in that garden to benefit from Jesus’ obedience to His Father. Wherever we are, we are surrounded by the beauty of His love.

Quote-Unquote

“Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.”

– Horatio Gates Spafford​