Texas

Bekah McNeel 2-27-2024

Sister Helen Prejean speaks at a press conference outside the Collin County, Texas Courthouse on Feb. 26, 2024.

In the almost 23 years that Ivan Cantu has been on death row in Texas, a lot has changed: A trial witness admitted he lied on the stand. A true crime podcast revealed several forensic oversights in the details of Cantu’s case. And hundreds of thousands of people have petitioned for courts to reconsider the case. But one thing hasn’t changed: Cantu is still on death row, and his execution is now scheduled for Feb. 28. With few avenues of appeal left, a coalition of faith leaders, family members, and true crime podcast listeners say evidence that could prove Cantu’s innocence deserves to be heard by a court.

A participant wears an LGBTQ+ flag as people take part in the Annual Mermaid Parade in Brooklyn, N.Y., June 18, 2016. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz

A Christian-owned wellness center is exempt from the federal law prohibiting employers from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, a federal appeals court ruled on June 20.

Bekah McNeel 6-15-2023

The Navajo Nation flag and a customized American flag are flown in Monument Valley, Utah on March 27, 2017. Alberto Zanoni/Alamy

On June 15, in a 7-2 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Indian Child Welfare Act when it ruled in favor of the federal government and tribal governments in the case Haaland v. Brackeen. The case, which originated with a Texas couple’s attempts to adopt two Navajo children despite the tribe’s ability to find a placement for the children within Navajo Nation, was seen by many as an attempt to fundamentally dissolve tribal sovereignty

JR. Forasteros 5-24-2023

Protesters stand outside the Georgia capitol in Atlanta on September 29, 2003, to advocate that the Ten Commandments be kept in federal and state buildings across the country. Credit: Reuters/Tami Chappell TLC.

The Senate of my home state, Texas, recently made news for passing three bills designed to bring Christianity into public schools. As I told NewsNation when they interviewed me earlier this week about the proposed legislation, I think this is an example of a government attempting to force beliefs on people. Yesterday, the State House failed to pass a law that would’ve required the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public schools. SB 1515 would’ve required that “a public elementary or secondary school shall display in a conspicuous place in each classroom of the school a durable poster or framed copy of the Ten Commandments.”

Republicans in Texas argued that this move would reinforce essential American identity because America was founded on so-called “Judeo-Christian” principles. According to the Texas Tribune, Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick defended the law by saying, “Bringing the Ten Commandments and prayer back to our public schools will enable our students to become better Texans.”

A migrant waits at the border with the intention of turning himself in to the U.S. Border Patrol agents, on the banks of the Rio Bravo river in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez

I am not sure what else needs to happen so the entire U.S. church wakes up to the realities of the evils entrenched in our immigration system. Honoring the dignity of all people is our calling as Christians; no other entity is tasked with recognizing the image of God in every person. Our Latine brothers and sisters are leading the way, but the whole church should be outraged; we should be demonstrating without ceasing. We should not let people sleep until they see the humanity of every migrant.

Outside of the sanctuary at Congregation Beth Israel in Austin on Nov. 1, 2021. Late the night before, a fire was set at the synagogue. Franklin Barrett Sechriest, then a student at Texas State University in San Marcos, was charged in the incident. Michael Gonzalez/The Texas Tribune

As other kids in Austin, Texas recovered from trick-or-treating on Halloween last year, Sarah Adelman worried about white supremacists, her mom, and their synagogue. After a series of antisemitic incidents around Central Texas, someone set fire to Congregation Beth Israel, where Sarah’s mother, Lori, is a leader.

Sarah Einselen 9-22-2022

Venezuelan migrants stand outside St. Andrew’s Church in Edgartown, Massachusetts, Sept. 14, 2022. Ray Ewing/Vineyard Gazette via Reuters.

When about 50 people found themselves stranded last week on Martha’s Vineyard, the island’s nonprofit social services agency called on local churches to help. “We rallied and did what any decent human being would do if strangers showed up,” local pastor Rev. Charlotte Wright told Sojourners this week.

Anti-abortion demonstrators celebrate outside the United States Supreme Court as the court rules in the Dobbs v. Women’s Health Organization abortion case, overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade in Washington, D.C. on June 24, 2022. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday took the dramatic step of overturning the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that recognized a woman's constitutional right to an abortion and legalized it nationwide, handing a momentous victory to Republicans and religious conservatives who want to limit or ban the procedure.

Plush toys on red chairs covered with flowers and candles.

Plush toys on chairs placed in remembrance of the victims of the deadliest U.S. school shooting in nearly a decade at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas on May 29, 2022. REUTERS/Veronica G. Cardenas

Four days. That’s how long researchers have found that people’s sadness and outrage last after each major gun massacre in America. Perhaps this is our own defense mechanism kicking in or maybe we have become far too desensitized to this time loop of horrific gun violence. But anger that dissipates after four days dishonors the lives that are stolen. Four days isn’t enough time to sufficiently process and grieve. And it’s not nearly enough time to galvanize the political will necessary to overcome political fecklessness, particularly the degree to which the GOP remains captive to fierce advocates for gun rights.

Emily E. Ewing 5-27-2022
People protest the National Rifle Association annual convention in Houston, Texas on May 27, 2022.

People protest the National Rifle Association annual convention in Houston, Texas on May 27, 2022. REUTERS/Callaghan O'Hare

“I hate, I despise your vigils,
and I take no delight in your school shooter drills.
Even though you offer me your thoughts and prayers,
I will not accept them;
and the offerings of well-being of your collection plates
I will not look upon.”

Bekah McNeel 4-22-2022

Reps. Jeff Leach, Joe Moody, Lacey Hull, Victoria Criado, Rafael Anchia, Toni Rose, and James White prayed with Melissa Lucio at Mountain View Unit in Gatesville, Texas, where the state houses women on death row. (Image: Courtesy of Rep. Jeff Leach via The Innocence Project.) 

“We don’t think the death penalty is in line with Christian values,” said Cameron Vickrey, a staff member with Fellowship Southwest, a network of churches dedicated to social service. While she has always opposed the death penalty on compassionate grounds, Vickrey said Lucio’s case caught her attention because of new evidence demonstrating the likelihood that Lucio is innocent.

Andie Myers wears a facemask with a transgender pride flag at the Women’s Ivy League Swimming and Diving Championships at Harvard University on Feb. 19, 2022. Photo: Paul Rutherford-USA TODAY Sports

March 31 marks the annual International Transgender Day of Visibility. I will confess that I only recently became aware of this day, which is “dedicated to celebrating the accomplishments of transgender and gender nonconforming people while raising awareness of the work that still needs to be done to achieve trans justice,” as GLSEN, an organization that advocates for LGTBQ issues in K-12 education, puts it.

Bekah McNeel 2-24-2022
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott delivering address at Great Hills Baptist Church in Austin, Texas

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott delivered the keynote address at the Texas Values policy forum at the Great Hills Baptist Church in Austin, Texas on Sept. 24, 2021.

“Obviously this order is actually going to cause more harm,” said Rev. Gavin Rogers, associate minister at Travis Park Church in San Antonio. Rogers said characterization gender-affirming care as “child abuse” flies in the face of research, which has shown its importance in the health and wellbeing of transgender youth, who already face many barriers to access.

Ryan Duncan 2-23-2022

Image of books (top to bottom): The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas; The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie; Burned by Ellen Hopkins; Looking for Alaska by John Green; Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. Photo by Doug Hoke, The Oklahoman, USA Today via Reuters.

When Christians label books about queer people as perverse and fight to have them removed from public spaces, we are telling queer kids that they are undeserving of both love and dignity. When racist moments in history are sanitized for the benefit of white students, it shows that the Christian commitment to truth and justice extends no further than our own comfort. And when the church helps silence marginalized voices for the sake of politics, we show that our true allegiance is not to God, but to party lines. Banning books will not protect students. It will only cause them harm and hinder our ability to share the gospel.

Security measures adopted by Congregation Beth Israel in Houston have included installing surveillance cameras outside its premises. Credit: Briana Vargas for The Texas Tribune

On Jan. 15, a gunman held four hostages in a standoff that lasted around 11 hours at Colleyville’s Congregation Beth Israel, a synagogue northeast of Fort Worth not affiliated with Kutner’s. The FBI said Friday it is considering the incident a terrorist act and hate crime.

Priest celebrates mass at the church and empty place for text

An advisory group to U.S. bishops urged the Catholic leaders on Tuesday to avoid making Communion a tool for division as debate resurfaces in Catholic circles over whether President Joe Bidens support for abortion rights should disqualify him from receiving the sacrament.

Gathered in a Baltimore hotel ballroom, the bishops conference is scheduled to discuss a draft of a document clarifying the meaning of Holy Communion, a sacrament central to the faith.

The bishops have been divided over how explicitly the document should define the eligibility of prominent Catholics like Biden to receive Communion due to political stances that contradict church teaching.

Storm clouds roll in over the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, U.S., September 1, 2021. REUTERS/Tom Brenner.

Supreme Court justices on Tuesday appeared divided over a bid by a man sentenced to death to have his pastor lay hands on him during his execution in Texas in a case testing how far states must go to accommodate religious requests by condemned inmates.

The justices heard more than 90 minutes of oral arguments in John Henry Ramirezs appeal after Texas officials refused his request to let his Christian pastor touch him and audibly pray as he dies from the lethal injection and lower courts refused to issue a stay of execution.

The court, which has wrestled in recent years over the religious rights of death row inmates, has a 6-3 conservative majority. Some of the conservative justices raised questions about the sincerity of Ramirezs religious request and how siding with him might affect future cases. The courts liberal justices appeared to sympathize with Ramirez, who was not contesting his guilt in the appeal.

A doctor walks past a poster showing images of the development of a human fetus at a fertility clinic in Rome on June 6, 2005. REUTERS/Alessia Pierdomenico

As a pastor I don’t ask, in this holy space of in between, when death is drawing near, theological questions about personhood or ensoulment. Neither do medical definitions of what marks life’s margins — heartbeats, breath, or brain function — occupy my concern. These are the gray edges of life.

Sandi Villarreal 9-08-2021

 The U.S flag and the Texas flag fly over the Texas State Capitol in Austin, Texas. REUTERS/Brian Snyder

When the Supreme Court last week refused to block a new Texas law — which bans abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy and allows private citizens to sue abortion providers and anyone who “aids or abets” someone getting an abortion after six weeks — faith groups like Texas Right to Life and the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops applauded.

But Rev. Erika Forbes, a spiritual adviser and one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit to block S.B. 8, called the law “a direct assault” on the religious liberty of clergy.

Tammy Stallcup 8-16-2021

Students return to their first day of school at Napier Elementary School by walking down the red carpet in Nashville, Tenn., Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2021. Stephanie Amador / The Tennessean via Imagn Content Services, LLC

Editor’s note: On Sunday, the Texas Supreme Court temporarily blocked mask mandates in two of the state’s biggest counties, upholding Gov. Gregg Abbott’s executive order prohibiting them. As school begins across the country, some districts in Texas, Florida, and elsewhere are defying mask mandate bans, in some cases risking school funding. Teachers and administrators are preparing for a year of unknowns as the Delta variant rages among the unvaccinated.

Tammy Stallcup has been teaching junior high and middle school choir for 34 years in Texas public schools, primarily in Odessa. Now teaching near Fort Worth, Texas, she begins her 35th year this fall, and wrote this prayer for teachers.