Good morning,

This morning I reflect on what a shame it is that not enough people know about Judah the Hammer... or know what became of his efforts.

But first, here is today's Texas Minute.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Friday, May 1, 2020
Update your email preferences.

• There are 74 days left until the primary runoff elections, on July 14. Early voting begins July 6.
      
• A super PAC affiliated with retiring U.S. Rep. Will Hurd is planning a series of attack ads against former White House physician Ronny Jackson in the GOP runoff for the open U.S. House District 13 seat. Jackson has been endorsed by President Trump. Thomas Warren has the details.
       
• As federal lawmakers contemplate additional financial payouts to state and local governments that have racked up massive budget deficits and are expected to pull in far less revenue as a result of their shutdown orders, Cary Cheshire reports a group of Republican lawmakers – including Texas’ Ted Cruz – is pressuring President Trump to prevent any additional aid from being used to reward poor fiscal stewardship.
        
• “Americans expect that their tax dollars will be used for Coronavirus response, not to backfill decades of bad fiscal policy.” – U.S. Sens. Rick Scott of Florida, Ted Cruz of Texas, Mike Enzi of Wyoming, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, and Mike Lee of Utah
      
• U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) has not signed on to the effort.
     
• As of 5pm yesterday, the Texas Workforce Commission data reported 1.9 million Texans have filed for unemployment because of the government-ordered shutdown of the economy.
        
• Phase one of Gov. Greg Abbott’s plan to reopen Texas goes into effect today, but will only allow some businesses to partially open their doors. Brandon Waltens reports lawmakers are demanding he speed things up.
       
• Dallas businessman and Republican donor Ray Washburne told Fox News that Gov. Abbott’s mandated 25 percent occupancy limit for restaurants doesn’t make economic sense. He said to go “either all in or not. ... I would rather not open at all then [at] 25 percent and wait until we get to 75 or 100 percent.”
      
• Despite the Austin City Council constantly enacting harmful leftist policies, socialists wanting a “revolution” vandalized the city hall this week. Jacob Asmussen reports on the irony. 
      
• Small business owner Alisha Mahboob writes in a guest commentary how the economic shutdown related to the coronavirus has led to everything being taken away that she and her family worked hard to create. It is a situation others like her are experiencing across the state and nation. 

Friday Reflection

by Michael Quinn Sullivan

As a Protestant, I grew up without the Maccabees. The two books of the Maccabees are among what my Catholic friends call the “deuterocanonical” portion of the Bible. For more than a thousand years, Christians have debated—and will continue to debate—the theological significance of those books.

Yet all of us would benefit from understanding the Maccabean period.

Judea was going through a period of Hellenization, trapped between the Syrians and Egyptians—both kingdoms having been influenced by Alexander the Great. By 200 B.C., the Syrian Seleucids had taken over Judea, and their culture took root among the upper-class Jews in Jerusalem. These were Jews ready to be done with the law and other religious trappings of Judaism. They wanted to be accepted—socially and economically—into the kingdom of their latest masters.

That didn’t sit well with observant Jews, particularly those living in the countryside. They saw two enemies: their backstabbing countrymen, and the Hellenistic Seleucids whose king had—for a bribe—unceremoniously forced out the rightful high priest.

The country rabble didn’t like it. A village priest, Mattathias the Hasmonean, and his sons organized a revolt. The youngest of whom, Judah (sometimes written as Judas), emerged as an able military leader. He was given the name “Maccabee”—drawn from the word for "hammer"—in recognition of his fierce and heroic leadership in battle. He successfully led rag-tag volunteer forces in what we’d recognize as guerrilla warfare against a much stronger opponent.

Yet the revolt almost ended at Mount Arbel in central Israel. On seeing an amassed Seleucidian army before battle, thousands of his rebels simply fled. Just 800 were left behind, many of whom were killed in the fighting, including Judah himself.

Inspired by the example of their younger brother, the priest’s two older sons—Jonathan and Simon—stepped up. They built a renewed army, taking up the name “Maccabee” in homage to Judah. They set about the work of reclaiming their country. Victory was achieved after they captured Jerusalem, sent the Seleucidians packing, and installed Jonathan as the high priest.

The Maccabees wanted Israel to govern itself, so they could worship and go about life under God’s law. Unfortunately, the freedom purchased with the blood of the Maccabees was quickly squandered. In what would end up as Israel’s last chance at sovereignty, the leaders stumbled. Again.

Rather than embrace the system of self-governance God presented to Moses, they installed yet another human king. Divided loyalties arose, creating the “Pharisee” and “Sadducee” parties who competed—sometimes violently—for political leadership.

This created an opportunity for the region’s new superpower, Rome, to step in. By 63 B.C., Israel had become a client kingdom. In 37 B.C., all pretense was dropped, and the Roman Senate installed Herod the Great as “King of the Jews.”

Self-governance in Israel was destroyed by preening politicians more concerned with their own power and prestige than the principles of the people they nominally served.

Today’s grassroots movement can relate. Remember those darlings of the Tea Party, elected officials whose heads were quickly turned by the establishment elite?

Think of how often grassroots activists fight for a candidate who, in turn, uses his newfound political clout to ignore those who brought him to power. We see it with frustrating regularity. Rather than staying true to the principles upon which they campaigned, the politician betrays the grassroots and undermines his own legacy.

We must not allow the liberty achieved through self-governance to be sacrificed by politicians on the self-interested altars they erect to themselves. Even when elected officials become faithless, we citizens must remain faithful to our principles.

The Maccabees failed to hold their movement and nation together. God’s gift of self-governance vanished from Israel for two millennia. Let us pray we do better. Let us work to do better.