Good morning,

What happens when people reject righteousness, but still exert self-governance? As it turns out, history provides an example worth reflecting on…

Here is the Texas Minute for Friday, July 29, 2022.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

NOTE: On this week’s edition of The Headline, Brandon Waltens welcomes State Rep. Brian Harrison (R-Waxahachie). Join the show at 5:30 p.m.!

Chinese Infiltration 🇨🇳
Texas’ Public Schools

• As part of a multi-faceted investigation into the rising influence of China in the Lone Star State, Texas Scorecard has spent months looking at how the communist regime has infiltrated our state institutions. This week, we have looked at education.
   
• Public schools – kindergarten through 12th grade – in Texas have been the focus of the Communist Chinese government. Kristen Stanciu uncovers striking evidence of Texas’ public schools conspiring with organs of the Communist Chinese government to provide cash, curriculum, and other materials to their schools. Those school districts include, but probably are not limited to, Houston ISD, Coppell ISD, Hurst-Euless-Bedford ISD, North East ISD, and Ysleta ISD.
     
• The College Board, which has an outsized role in college admissions and high school curriculum, has only recently cut its official ties with the most insidious of China’s infiltration into public schools in the U.S. In 2014, the president of the College Board sang the praises of the Chinese efforts in the U.S., saying they are “just like the sun. It lights the path to develop Chinese teaching in the U.S. The College Board is the moon. I am so honored to reflect the light that we’ve gotten” from Beijing.
     
• Ironically, those same public school educrats who demand “local control” (that is: no interference from parents and taxpayers) don’t seem to mind giving Beijing control over classrooms, curriculum, and even personnel…
     
• Part 4 in this series will be released at noon today.

Parents Demand Choices

• From COVID shutdowns and virtual learning to mask mandates, pornographic books in school libraries, and racist ideologies in classrooms, parents are frustrated with the public education system, reports Sydnie Henry from the Texas House’s hearing this week on public education.
      
• Corey DeAngelis of the American Federation for Children explained that there is “a new special interest group that has emerged, it’s not just the employee unions anymore—it’s the parents.”
       
• “It is a crisis of systematic complacency and convenience,” said Rachel Hale, the parent of a public school student.
      
• An option to choose the academic path for their child and have the money follow that child was appealing to many parents. And it’s not just a conservative cause…
     
• “We don’t need CRT. We don’t need SEL. I’m an atheist, bisexual, biracial, homeless person. I want school choice. I do not want my child to be taught that just because she’s black and a woman she’s not gonna make it,” said Gabrielle Clark.
     
• State standardized testing shows that nearly half of all students between grades 3-8 cannot read at grade level and over half are testing below grade level in mathematics.

Meanwhile, Fort Worth ISD Pushes LGBT Behavior

• One of the state’s largest school districts is promoting LGBT sexual conduct, while instructing teachers on pushing leftist ideologies under the guise of “English as a Second Language.” Sebastian Castro has the details.
     
• One of the training excerpts instructs teachers to “embrac[e] the idea that lesson planning is a political act; we either maintain or chip away at systems of oppression with each lesson we plan.”
     
• Fort Worth is just one of the many districts across Texas that are teaching LGBT and other questionable materials to children. Concerned citizens should contact their local school officials for details.

Democrat: Sex-Ed Most Important Class In School

• Forget reading, writing, and math; State Rep. James Talarico (D-Austin) describes sex-ed as “the most important topic” in public schools. Jacob Asmussen has the story.
       
• A synonym for ‘groomer’ is spelled D-E-M-O-C-R-A-T.

Irving Teacher Charged With Sexually Abusing 7-Year-Old

• While working as a teacher in the Irving ISD, Victor Moreno allegedly engaged in continuous sexual abuse of a child who was a second-grade student at Townsell Elementary School in Irving. Moreno went on to teach in the Plano schools, where he was later fired for a “code of conduct violation.” Erin Anderson has more details.

County Declares: It Is An Invasion

• The Parker County Commissioners Court unanimously approved a proclamation this week of a state of disaster, calling illegal immigration an “invasion.” Juliana Berg reports the county commissions are calling on Gov. Greg Abbott to “immediately prevent and/or remove all persons invading the sovereignty of Texas and that of the United States.”
       
• Border counties have been issuing such declarations this summer. Parker County, though, is just west of Tarrant County and Fort Worth.
   
• “I think we all know the border is a mess,” Parker County Sheriff Russ Authier told commissioners. “We see different aspects of it other than our partners who are on the border. … A lot of what we’re seeing here is the drug smuggling.”

Pro-Parent School Trustee Protected By Court

• To say Round Rock ISD has problems would be putting it mildly. A majority of the school board has been busily protecting a superintendent who is under criminal investigation, while attacking parents and taxpayers.
   
• Those attacks included a lawsuit designed to remove one of two pro-parent members of the board of trustees. Now, a court has tossed that lawsuit to the curb this week. Sydnie Henry has the story from Central Texas.

Friday Reflection: Our Part In It

For generations we have held this truth to be self-evident: Our rights are granted by God, not by kings or parliaments, presidents or congresses, or even by constitutions or laws. No less certain is this: The same God who gave us those rights intended for us to be self-governing.

Self-governing is what the people of God were before they rebelled against Him and demanded a monarchy. Self-governing is what the American people most fully became after rejecting the British crown’s heavy hand.

Make no mistake, human beings are created to be self-governing. Just like a car comes with windows, self-governance is built into us. Yes, you can remove the glass from that car – but the essence and function of the window remains; you can still see out. People can have the drive for self-governance indoctrinated and inculturated out of them, but the framework remains; it is who we were created to be. Yet, unhinged from its moral moorings, even the blessing of self-governance can go awry.

These thoughts occurred to me as I knelt in the dirt recently at the ancient city of Dan, at the northernmost tip of Israel. This is one of the two places where Jeroboam erected a golden calf to be worshiped by the people of Israel after the reign of King Solomon. Understanding how Jeroboam came to power is an important, if cautionary, tale.

Despite his reputation for wisdom, Solomon had made a mess of things. This was not unexpected. When the Israelites demanded the God-ordained system of self-governance under His law be replaced with a human king, they were specifically warned that nothing good would result.

The rotten reign of Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, lasted about 30 seconds. Before his father died, Rehoboam asked a council of men how to be a good king, and they told him: "be a servant to this people." You can almost hear Rehoboam laugh; instead, Solomon was barely in his tomb before Rehoboam proclaimed new burdens on the people. He wanted to be served.

So the people, who had clamored for a king and all that entailed, simply decided they had no "portion" in the House of David – Rehoboam’s grandfather. The people of God rightly abandoned the self-serving king Rehoboam. Yet because they refused to embrace self-governance grounded in God's law, they walked right into the arms of another king, Jeroboam, and his own self-serving ideology.

While a car without glass still has windows, replacing the glass with plywood makes the vehicle impossible to drive.

An unvirtuous cycle had been firmly established: the people rejected God and asked for a king. They briefly had a king who honored God, but whose descendants then honored themselves. The people ended up rejecting one bad king in favor of another bad king.

So, what about us? For how long do we expect to enjoy the practical benefits of being a self-governing people when we regularly look for "strong leaders" to deliver us from the sin into which we have mired ourselves? The ruins at Dan are a grim reminder of where it can all lead. We should have no part in that.

Rather than seek corporately after kings, we must instead seek earnestly for personal righteousness. Instead of looking for leaders, we should learn again to govern ourselves.