Good morning!

It is easy to fear the unknowns of the coming year... easy, but wrong. I end the week (and the year) reflecting on some practical biblical advice for confronting the days ahead.

And, frankly, the story closing our Year In Review should encourage us to redouble our efforts in the fight for a stronger Texas! 

– Michael Quinn Sullivan
Friday, Dec. 30, 2022

2022 In Review

• Each day this week, the Texas Minute has presented the Year In Review – exploring the most-read storylines from the last 12 months. 
     
• It began on Monday, tackling the woke academics infiltrating Texas’ public schools… and the invasion taking place at the southern border.
           
• Tuesday, we focused on the increasing number of “drag shows” targeting kids and the growing outrage from parents and community activists.
     
• Wednesday, the series reviewed the education in corruption that Round Rock ISD has provided in 2022.
      
• Thursday was a look back on the horrible acts perpetrated by predator-educators on children.
     
• This morning, Brandon Waltens looks back on the most-read story of 2022, the year in which major corporations realized that going woke had real-world consequences.

• 📺 Watch me and Brandon discuss these stories, and more, on The Headline – right now! Watch on our website, YouTube channel, or Rumble page.

Go Woke, Go Broke

• For years, corporate America has capitulated to the demands of a small minority of far-left activists intent on pushing radical social and economic agendas on the nation. In 2022, common sense started pushing back.
       
• Insurance giant State Farm quickly backpedaled from sponsoring the purchase of sexually explicit books for school libraries. On the one hand, State Farm had a small number of left-wing agitators intent on sexualizing children with the approval of the company's corporate honchos. On the other hand, State Farm had customers willing to leave.
      
• In the end, State Farm decided they didn't want to go broke.
      
• But no national story was as telling as that of the Mouse House. When lawmakers in Florida sought to clamp down on sexual predators grooming children from abuse, Disney tried to flex its muscles.
      
• Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis flexed back, and Disney folded.

A Family Grocery Store?

• With more than 400 locations in Texas and Mexico, H-E-B has become a brand that many Texans have patronized with pride. The century-old, San Antonio-based, family-owned company presented itself as the embodiment of Texas values.

      
• Except... it no longer was.

Far-Left Push

• The Butt family had long supported conservative and Christian causes, until Charles Butt – grandson of the founder – took over the company. A closeted leftist, Butt became increasingly open about his support of radical causes.
     

• Among other things, Butt is a major donor to Texas Democrat candidates and a staunch opponent of school choice and educational freedom.

Going Woke, Then Backing Down

• This summer, Texas Scorecard was the first to report that the San Antonio-based grocery chain was listed as a sponsor of an LGBT “pride” event in downtown Austin in June. The event, called Rainbow on the Creek, included a drag queen story hour, a “family-friendly all ages” drag show performed by a group called the Hydrated Queer Kitties, and a pride parade.

      
•  It was later revealed that H-E-B was sponsoring OutYouth, an Austin-based organization that bills itself as “a safe place for youth of all sexual orientations and gender identities to be themselves.” The group provides so-called “LGBTQIA+” counseling for children as young as 9 years old.
     
• The outcry was immediate.
   

• After feeling heat from concerned Texans, the grocery chain tried to backtrack and whitewash the evidence.
     

• H-E-B went so far as to retroactively remove their name from a list of the event’s sponsors... months after it took place.

COMING NEXT WEEK!

• Watch midweek when Texas Scorecard will release an important documentary: "It's Not Going To Lick Itself."
   
• The program will explore the rise of drag shows targeting children. You’ll learn from an undercover reporter who went inside to see what really goes on, as well as gain insights from experts in the field who describe the effect these shows have on the children forced to attend.

The Texas Minute will return on Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2023!

Friday Reflection: Be Strong And Courageous

It seems everyone wants to be a victim. Everyone wears weakness as a badge of secular honor, and demands others validate their fears. As the new year bears down on us, may I suggest a different way?

Scattered throughout the Old and New Testaments of the Bible are variations of the phrases “be strong,” “be courageous,” “take courage,” and “fear not.”

It is almost like God knows the whole “I’m a victim” thing is spiritual poison. 

It also explains why the purveyors of cultural rot prefer you to adopt the fatalistic posture of a victim. People who cower and cringe rarely fight back. The political elite want us to live lives full of anxiety, so that we can be more easily controlled.

Isaiah still speaks to us when he wrote, “Say to those who have an anxious heart, ‘Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.’”

Rather than live shadowy lives as cowering supplicants, we’re called to walk in confidence. 

As Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” He later adds, “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Yes, there are some fearsome fights ahead of us in the new year, but it doesn’t mean we should be fearful of them. When the people of God were preparing to cross in the Promised Land, God charged their leader Joshua: “Be strong and courageous… I will be with you.”

Throughout their conquest of the land, you find Joshua and the people echoing that phrase back and forth as words of encouragement. 

So should we. Be strong and courageous; fear not. 

The year ahead presents itself with a great many opportunities to fight and struggle for the cause of self-governance in our republic. Take courage from the knowledge that you are not alone in this struggle, that other men and women are likewise doing what they can, where they can, to advance liberty. 

Only be strong and courageous.