Good morning –

In today’s culture, “tolerance” of immoral activity quickly devolves into capitulation and participation. So, I conclude the week reflecting on why a self-governing people must pursue both personal and public righteousness.

Here is the Texas Minute for Friday, July 8, 2022.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Well, this is embarrassing… but we always put our corrections up front! A typo in yesterday’s Texas Minute misrepresented Dan Patrick’s job approval numbers. A statewide poll found 35 percent of Texas voters approve of his job performance.

As Pressure Builds On Abbott To Declare A Border Invasion…

• Last month, the Republican Party of Texas described the situation at the border as an invasion. That language – rooted in the U.S. Constitution – was also employed earlier this week by border county officials frustrated by the lawless danger posed by tens of thousands of illegal aliens entering the country. Many are questioning why Gov. Greg Abbott is silent on the matter.
     
• The cause has been championed by U.S. Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX21) for weeks. Now, others in the GOP are speaking out, Fox News reports – including Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-TX19) and Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN). U.S. Rep. Andy Briggs (R-AZ) wants his state to declare an invasion.
      
• Earlier this week, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said, “We are being invaded, and if we’re being invaded, under the Constitution, I think that gives us the power to put hands on people and send them back.”
      
• If history holds, the only way we’re going to see Greg Abbott declare a border invasion is to have Ron DeSantis do it first.

… Abbott Doubles Down On ‘Catch-And-Release’

• On Thursday, Gov. Abbott issued an executive order authorizing the Texas National Guard and the Texas Department of Public Safety to “return” illegal immigrants to the border – but not to the other side of the border. Under his new directative, the illegal aliens will be released on the Texas side of the border. And despite having the opportunity to do so, he did not declare the border crisis an invasion. Sydnie Henry has the details.
      
• The action was quickly derided by those who have been advocating for the state to declare an invasion. Such a designation would enable the state to push illegal aliens back across the border.
     
• Ken Cuccinelli of the Center for Renewing America said Abbott’s announcement represents “no significant changes to current policy. This is still catch and release.”
      
• The governor has gone from catching illegals and busing volunteers to D.C. for release, to now busing them to South Texas. Seems like he’s saving gas money when he should be declaring an invasion.

Today On THE HEADLINE

• Join Brandon Waltens at 5:30 p.m. today for The Headline. He’ll talk with Kinney County Attorney Brent Smith about the border, and cover other news items from the week.
     
• Oh, and I’ll be on, too!

‘Big Three’ Are Silent On GOP Legislative Priorities

• Two weeks ago, the Republican Party of Texas announced its legislative priorities for the upcoming legislative session – but the state’s top three Republican officials have yet to comment on them. As Sydnie Henry reports, their silence could lead to questions about how responsive the state’s Republican lawmakers will be to the grassroots in the coming legislative session.

Will The ‘10-Day Rule’ End?

• Texas has made great strides for defending children in the womb, but pro-life activists say legislators are failing many adults and children who are fighting for their lives in hospitals. Emily Wilkerson has the details.
      
• At issue is the so-called “10-Day” rule. Under the Texas Advance Directives Act, hospital committees have the authority to decide to stop treatment on a patient for any reason. Passed in 1999, the law applies to patients receiving life-sustaining treatment, even if they are conscious and opting to continue treatment.
      
• The patient then has 10 days to arrange an emergency transfer to another hospital or facility that is willing to continue life-sustaining treatment. The process for doing so, however, is complicated.
        
• In 2019, 9-month-old Tinslee Lewis, who was born with congenital heart disease, was surviving with the help of a ventilator at Cook Children’s Hospital in Fort Worth. Before long, the hospital informed Tinslee’s mother they would be removing the life-sustaining ventilator in 10 days. A court fight ensued, saving Tinslee’s life. She is now three, lives at home, and breathes without a ventilator. 
       
• While there are no official numbers, Texas Right to Life says they know of more than a hundred innocent children and adults who have been affected by the 10-day rule.

What’s Next For Pro-Life Movement?

• One of the eight legislative priorities adopted by Republicans at their biennial convention was to “abolish abortion.” Just days later, the Supreme Court announced its decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, returning the question of abortion’s legality to the states and making the legislative priority all the more relevant.
      
• “Right now, abortion is illegal in Texas,” said John Seago, president of Texas Right to Life. “In a couple of weeks, we’re going to see a new law and some new language take effect, but right now the reality is that elective abortion is illegal in Texas. And there is nothing the left can do to change that fact.”
    
• Seago said one of the biggest priorities for the pro-life movement will be ensuring prosecutors are actually enforcing Texas’ laws.

Banning Minors From Social Media

• This week, State Rep. Jared Patterson (R–Frisco) announced he would introduce legislation in the 2023 legislative session to ban minors from using social media.
      

• The lawmaker tweeted, “It’s long past time to recognize the incredible harm social media is doing to the mental health of young Texans. Next session, we put an end to it.”

Friday Reflection: What We Tolerate

As a personal and civic virtue, tolerance can be a tricky attitude to master without becoming morally rudderless.

In fact, the modern implementation of tolerance can be a deadly vice. Even typing these words makes me feel disloyal to 50 years of inculturation in the public adoration of “tolerance.”

We are allowed in the polite company of the ruling elite only when we agree to "tolerate" that which should otherwise be intolerable. To enjoy the peace of the elite, we must stop pursuing public righteousness.

Sure, it is alright in the privacy of your home to do moral things and think moral thoughts … but we are told you must not allow that morality to influence your public life and decisions.

The purveyors of sin and vice demand we “tolerate” their activities. They know that, with time and exposure, the solid mooring of morality can be worn away. Public tolerance becomes acquiescence, which slips neatly into participation.

Think back to God’s command to His people after He freed them from bondage. He told them to conquer the Promised Land, to completely destroy the temples and altars to the false gods, and to drive out all worshippers of those false gods. To be a self-governing people under His law, God told them, they needed to drive out those things incompatible with His righteousness.

Time and again, the people would always start to obey; they wanted those benefits. But then they would capitulate. They would decide it was easier to tolerate the evil in their midst than obey God. Time and again, their tolerance of false gods and false worship led to their enslavement and misery … often at the hands of the adherents of the false religions they were tolerating.

“The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.” We find that phrase repeated time and again. And what they "did" started with tolerating the presence of evil.

Capitulation to sin begins with toleration of sinful activity.

We’ve all heard variations of the truism found in 1 Corinthians 15:33: “Do not be deceived: ‘Bad company ruins good morals.’” The very next sentence, which is just as true, continues: “Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning.”

Any critique of society’s tolerance of “bad company” is usually countered by a variation of “Jesus was so tolerant. Why can’t you be more like Jesus?” It sounds so spiritual.

Do they mean the Jesus who overturned tables outside the temple and ran out the money-changers with a whip? The Jesus who called the political leaders of the day a “brood of vipers”?

That Jesus, the Jesus of the Bible, isn’t welcome in the 2020s. Nowhere in Scripture do you find a Jesus who coddles unrepentant sinners. Nowhere do you find a Jesus who tolerates sin. You repeatedly find a Jesus who meets sinners where they are, and then tells them to “sin no more.” Some do and follow Him; others leave.

“Sin no more” is loving the sinner so much as to not tolerate the sin. By tolerating sin, we are condemning people to lives of pain and misery. And perhaps worse.

Teddy Roosevelt once said, “If I must choose between righteousness and peace, I choose righteousness.” 

Self-governance starts with governing ourselves, and helping those around us to do likewise. If we expect to enjoy the benefits of living in a righteous land, we must set aside political tolerance and pursue lives of righteousness.