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HFollowing an outcry from conservatives, the State Board of Education is preparing to delay a scheduled revision of Texas’ social studies curriculum until 2025. The board voted late last month to only revise the curriculum to ensure its compliance with the Critical Race Theory ban signed last year by Gov. Greg Abbo , and not to make any of the other changes to the curriculum it had proposed. One Democratic member accused the board of “giving up.”
HVanessa Beasley has begun work as Trinity University’s newest president, becoming the fi rst woman to lead the school. Beasley, who fi rst visited Trinity on a college visit with her son, arrives at the school after 15 years at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, where she started as an associate professor of communication studies before moving into administrative roles.
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HSan Antonio’s Animal Care Services shelter is in danger of falling short of its “no-kill” standard for the fi rst time in fi ve years, the Express-News reports. Shelters must release 90% or more of the animals that come into their care to be considered “no-kill,” but Animal Care Services only released 88% between October and July. The shelter is set to get a 15.7% funding bump in the next city budget.
Bud Light has unveiled new, limited-edition UTSA-themed bo le designs to mark the beginning of the new college football season. The 16-ounce aluminum bo les bear the school’s “Birds Up” slogan and will be sold at the Alamodome during games as well as in stores and bars around the city. The Roadrunners are coming off an outstanding 2021 season in which the team went 12-2 and won the Conference USA championship game. — Abe Asher
YOU SAID IT!
— Rio Grande City Mayor Joel Villarreal
to the Texas Tribune about a study predicting the state’s heat index could rise to 125 over the next 30 years.
Failing to stay out of jail with Oath Keepers attorney Kellye SoRelle
Assclown Alert is a column of opinion, analysis and snark.
Kellye SoRelle, the Texas-based general counsel for right-wing extremist group the Oath Keepers, was arrested last week and indicted on four counts related to the Capitol a ack.
A federal grand jury indicted the a orney on counts of conspiracy to obstruct an offi cial proceeding, obstruction of an offi cial proceeding, obstruction of justice and misdemeanor entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, according to the U.S. Justice Department. She was arrested in the town of Junction, an hour and a half northwest of San Antonio, the Texas Tribune reports.
The indictment documents are sparse on details but allege that SoRelle, 43, persuaded or a empted to persuade people to withhold records from the grand jury investigation of the Jan. 6 a ack and that she destroyed or altered documents to prevent their potential use by the grand jury.
SoRelle appeared in the U.S. House’s Jan. 6 commi ee hearings and spoke to the committee, according to press reports. Her boss, Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes, is facing trial later this month along with others in his merry band on seditious conspiracy charges.
Someone needs to tell this assclown SoRelle that a lawyer’s job is to keep her clients out of jail rather than ending up in the Graybar Hotel right next to them. — Sanford Nowlin
Facebook / Kellye SoRelle
Offi cials at the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services took extraordinary steps to hide details of their investigations into families accused of providing gender-affi rming care to their children, according to reporting from the Texas Tribune and Dallas Morning News. The investigations show that department offi cials told employees to stay off social media and refrain from communicating about cases via email or text, even with the families under investigation. “This will get messy,” one supervisor wrote in an email.
Advocates including former Mayor Henry Cisneros are calling on the city to approve funding for a bus line that would make 20 one-way trips between San Antonio and Austin daily. The bus, which would cost $10 for passengers, would make the trip in 90 minutes with stops in New Braunfels and San Marcos. A two-year pilot program would cost $1.5 million — considerably less than any proposal from billionaire Elon Musk to connect the two cities via tunnels. U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents appear to be struggling to tell the diff erence between marijuana and hemp products, the la er now legal under the 2018 Farm Bill. The agency recently posted a notice announcing that it’s looking for portable cannabis analyzers to be er determine what products are and what they contain. Texas law enforcement offi cials have similarly struggled to tell illegal weed and legal hemp apart since the state legalized hemp earlier this year.
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Mahncke Park residents are concerned about a church’s plan to operate from public school in their neighborhood
BY SANFORD NOWLIN
Mahncke Park residents are reacting with anger and concern to a pastor’s deal to rent space at a public school so he can use it to house a church proselytizing to the neighborhood.
Much of the concern stems from an hour-long YouTube interview in which Pastor Carl Young says he’s “planting” his church in Mahncke Park because of its progressive views, which he argues run counter to Jesus’ teachings. Further, the pastor says his agreement with Lamar Elementary School will place fi nancial pressure on the campus to continue hosting his church.
“Where we’re wanting to plant there [in Mahncke Park], there is more of a hostility towards the gospel,” Young says in the clip, which was uploaded in February. “Do I want to bring my kids to that, and see some of that? I think God’s calling us to do that.”
During his interview with Christian YouTube channel The Time & Place, Young elaborates that he was drawn to open his Garden City Church after seeing yard signs in the largely gentrifi ed, north-of-downtown neighborhood displaying the pro-LGBTQ+ “rainbow colors with each of the fi ve secular creed [sic].”
“They have a sign in their yard. I know exactly what they believe,” the pastor says in the video. “And so I know what idols they have.”
Young also explains in the clip that he chose Lamar because 80% of San Antonio Independent School District students are low-income, ratcheting up pressure for the campus to continue extending a welcome to his church.
“Part of our strategy is to — we think God is calling us to be a generous church, fi nancially,” he says. “And so, how do we bless the school and the teachers, and the students and the admin — and everything there — to where, in two years, they couldn’t imagine us not being there anymore? And so, we want to be able to share the gospel with all of them but we want them to think, ‘Man, if they leave, this is gonna go downhill really quickly.’”
Mahncke Park residents began voicing concerns online Sunday after Young revealed plans for the church in the neighborhood’s Facebook group. The pastor posted an announcement that he would hold a meeting with residents at neighborhood tavern The Pigpen to discuss Garden City Church’s arrival at Lamar.
“As a Lamar parent, I am concerned that we were not notifi ed about this agreement until it was already done,” one resident posted in response. “I also want to know what steps will be taken to prevent ... religious literature [from] being left out for students to read.”
“This is very disturbing,” another added. “Public (public!) schools should not be hosts to religious gatherings.”
“Is it appropriate that our local public school supports one religion over any other?” posted a third resident. “Glad my child no longer a ends (or maybe the school is glad he doesn’t).”
The Current opted not to identify the commenters by name since the Facebook page is a members-only group.
As of press time, SAISD has declined to answer the Current’s questions about specifi cs of the school’s agreement with Garden City Church and what kind of research offi cials conducted into Young and his organization.
A district spokeswoman responded to inquiries with a one-sentence statement: “We are investigating this ma er to determine our next steps.”
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The district’s terse response follows a statement from Lamar Elementary offi cials posted Tuesday to the Mahncke Park neighborhood Facebook page.
That message, which was subsequently removed, included assurances that the school’s rental rules prohibit the church from giving fl yers to students or speaking to them about services. The church is also barred from
using the facilities on days when school is in session, according to the notice.
“Our school is not in the business of promoting specifi c ideologies or religious views,” Lamar offi cials said in the unsigned statement. “We also recognize our campus serves as a community hub, and community partners can request to rent campus space from SAISD.”
As of the Current’s Friday evening press time, the district announced plans for a Tuesday, Sept. 6 meeting in the Lamar Elemenary library to discuss its school rental policies.
While SAISD has been publicly quiet about its feelings on Garden City Church, a member of District 2 Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez’s staff said she’s aware of opposition behind the scenes.
An SAISD board member contacted the councilman’s offi ce to voice concerns and noted that Superintendent Jaime Aquino is aware of residents’ worries, said Denise Hernández, McKee-Rodriguez’s deputy director of policy.
McKee-Rodriguez, whose district includes Mahncke Park, told the Current he plans to write a le er opposing the church’s presence on the Lamar campus.
SAISD facilities rules
In Facebook posts, Mahncke Park residents argued that Garden City Church — especially in light of Young’s video clip — is violating SAISD rules on use of school facilities. Those guidelines state that the district can reject applications “if any group requesting usage misrepresents itself or their activity.”
Despite Lamar’s assurance to residents that the church won’t meet on school days or interact with students, Young’s video interview suggests he may not be willing to hold to those limits. In the clip, the pastor says he wants to interact with faculty and students.
“We really want to serve the faculty and students of Lamar however we can outside of Sundays,” he says.
What’s more, SAISD’s school facilities agreement states that the district can scrap applications from a group that “discriminates against any person on the basis of disability, gender, gender identity, gender expression, nationality, race, ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation.”
Young’s specifi c mention of targeting Mahncke Park because of its rainbow yard signs raises questions about the church’s views on LGBTQ+ equality.
Further, the pastor has said the church is aligned with the doctrine of a religious network of more than 800 churches called Acts 29. The organization holds that God has “given to the man primary responsibility to lead his wife and family,” according to its website.
While Acts 29 describes itself as a “diverse, global community,” it prohibits women from becoming pastors or church elders. All six members of its board of directors are men.
In the acclaimed 2020 book Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation, religious scholar Kristin Kobes du Mez argues that Acts 29 and other so-called “New Calvinist” groups propagate a “masculine theology” that’s “remarkably unconcerned about the concentration of unchecked power in the hands of men.”
In a wri en statement supplied to TV station KSAT, Young appeared determined to stick with his deal with Lamar, even in the face of blowback.
“For as long as we can, we intend to uphold our part of the agreement with SAISD/Lamar Elementary, even if they are unable to fulfi ll their part,” he said.
Sanford Nowlin
Acts 29 controversy
Acts 29’s views on gender roles aren’t the only aspect of the organization that has drawn scrutiny.
The nonprofi t group’s chief goal is to “plant” a network of churches that uphold its New Calvinist theology, even going so far as to reveal plans in January to provide up to $50,000 in startup money for each new church founded under its sponsorship.
In his YouTube interview, Young says the money he plans to give Lamar would be enough to provide a teacher’s salary. Compensation for new teachers at SAISD starts at $54,200 annually, according to the district’s 2021-2022 manual.
Over the years, Acts 29’s leaders have been lightning rods for controversy.
The group’s co-founder and one-time head, Mark Driscoll, experienced a 2014 fall from grace over complaints from employees and congregants of his Mars Hill Church alleging he engaged in abusive behavior. The 2021 podcast The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill chronicled Driscoll’s eventual resignation from his church over the complaints.
Even before that scandal, Driscoll faced accusations of creating a hostile environment for women via his teachings.
After evangelist Ted Haggard was caught in a sex scandal involving a male escort, Driscoll drew fi re for a blog suggesting the preacher’s wife deserved at least some of the blame. “A wife who lets herself go and is not sexually available to her husband ... is not responsible for her husband’s sin, but she may not be helping him either,” Driscoll wrote.
Driscoll also faced a public skewering over an online screed wri en under a pseudonym in which he called the United States a “pussifi ed nation” dragged down by feminism, homosexual behavior and “emasculated” men.
Concerns about the leadership ranks at Acts 29 haven’t died down since Driscoll’s departure.
In 2020, the organization’s board removed CEO Steve Timmis after receiving accusations about his “abusive leadership.” An investigation by Christianity Today found 15 people willing to air allegations of abuse and intimidation against the English pastor.
And, just this week, Acts 29 revealed that it asked current Board President Ma Chandler to step aside from speaking engagements after The Village Church (TVC), the North Texas congregation he leads, looked into allegations that he sent inappropriate social media messages to a woman in his fl ock.
TVC offi cials “concluded that though Ma was not involved in a romantic relationship with this woman, in this messaging he failed to live up to the standard of conduct expected of a church elder,” Acts 29 said in a statement posted Sunday.
“The Acts 29 Board has decided to follow the lead of TVC and ask Ma to step away from his Acts 29 speaking engagements during this time,” the statement continued. “Executive Director Brian Howard, who has provided day-to-day leadership for Acts 29 since May 2020, will continue to lead Acts 29 in our commitment to plant disciple-making churches worldwide.”
Even so, Acts 29’s website still shows Chandler listed as its board president.
M“They have a sign in their yard. I know exactly what they believe,” pastor Carl Young says of Mahncke Park residents.
Bad Takes
Former Whole Foods CEO’s libertarian bloviation shows lack of understanding and empathy
BY KEVIN SANCHEZ
Editor’s Note: Bad Takes is a column of opinion and analysis.
If you run a Libertarian media outlet, you’ll need to pucker up and kiss the hairy asses of multimillionaires from time to time.
A few weeks ago, then-Whole Foods CEO John Mackey — he retired Sept. 1 — had his turn when the Houston native and Trinity University alum “sat down with” Reason Magazine Editor Nick Gillespie. Minutes passed before Mackey dropped a steaming pile of COVID misinformation, most of which Gillespie let pass without comment or correction.
“I believe history will show that the lockdowns was [sic] probably the stupidest thing that the government will have done in the 21st century, unless they get into a nuclear war,” Mackey predicted.
A University of Michigan-led study found that such measures saved between 866,350 and 1,711,150 lives. Weighed next to the civilian-massacring toll of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan or the civilization-threatening repercussions of ignoring climate breakdown, does saving hundreds of thousands of people from dying of COVID leap out as the dumbest thing government has done?
Consider the consequences of inaction. The state of Texas alone — population 29 million — negligently allowed more COVID deaths than South Korea, New Zealand, Australia, Norway, Finland and Japan combined. And those countries boast a combined population of 219 million. The Lone Star State’s death toll is in no small part because Gov. Greg Abbo tied the hands of public health offi cials and municipal leaders to issue mask ordinances and other safety mandates.
Unevenly enforced though they were, so-called “lockdowns” bought us time to equip nurses and doctors with protective gear, refi ne treatment protocols and beef up hospital capacity — not to mention develop monoclonal antibodies, anti-viral medicines and approved vaccines.
During the Reason interview, Gillespie ever-so-gently asked Mackey, “You’re not sold on the mRNA vaccines?”
“No,” came Mackey’s stark reply. “I mean, it was experimental, and they didn’t deliver as were promised. You know, when I get a polio vaccination, I expect I’m never going to get polio — not that in six months I got to get a polio booster.”
In fact, the polio vaccine is a fourdose series that only provides around 90% protection after the fi rst two shots. That’s in the same ballpark as how eff ective COVID vaccines originally were against the wild-type strain. The crucial diff erence is the polio virus has stayed relatively stable — knock on wood —whereas the SARS2 virus continues to mutate rapidly, evolving immunity-eluding variants including Delta, Omicron and Centaurus.
That by no means justifi es disparaging vaccines as inadvisable or “experimental.”
Yet Mackey kept digging the hole. “You know, 80% of the COVID deaths in the U.S. were to people that were obese,” he continued.
That’s false. Not even half were obese. And as Dr. Keith Roach, who writes the To Your Good Health column for the Express-News, noted this past winter, bogus statistics like Mackey’s “blame the victims of this terrible pandemic” and “falsely reassure people of normal weight that they have li le to fear from COVID-19.”
Presaging the youth-bashing that ratcheted up with President Joe Biden’s modest student debt relief, Mackey went on to gripe about unemployment compensation in the COVID stimulus.
“A lot of people concluded, ‘We’re making as much money or more money not working at all,’” he said. “And so, guess what? They chose not to work. And they’ve been reluctant to come back to work. They got used to it.”
This stereotype of the lazy freeloader veers from lived reality. Not only do workers in the United States already put in longer hours than most working classes on the planet — and without the vacations and family leave all other developed nations mandate by law — the COVID stimulus also empowered substantially more of us to start our own enterprises.
“In 2020, Americans applied for more than 4.3 million employer identifi cation numbers — a fi rst step to launching a new business,” Jorge Guzman of Columbia Business School wrote in The Financial Times. “That is a 24% increase from 2019, with the largest increases in Black communities.”
There also was scant evidence that Republican governors who callously cut off unemployment checks during a national emergency accomplished much. Last September, according to the Marxists over at The Wall Street Journal, “States that ended enhanced federal unemployment benefi ts early have so far seen about the same job growth as states that continued off ering the pandemic-related extra aid.”
A hippie-turned-Reaganite who longs for “a wave of deregulation” to excise voters and their elected representatives out of any meaningful role in the decisions that aff ect us, Mackey likes to style himself as an advocate for “conscious capitalism.”
How “conscious” can his capitalism be if people’s health and lives are sacrifi ced at the altar of the economy? With all the “free” market’s supposed “innovation,” is it still necessary to crack the threat of deprivation like a whip to motivate the workforce? And why should nutritious food be a luxury reserved for those who can aff ord to shop at Whole Paycheck?
“We know how to cure obesity and yet we’re not doing it,” Mackey told Reason. “You could argue there’s not any money in it. There’s a lot more money made in selling drugs to people.”
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders couldn’t have said it be er himself. But then why lionize and romanticize an economic system that by design puts money ahead of people’s wellbeing?
“My concern is I feel like socialists are taking over,” Mackey said, at last unleashing his inner Joe McCarthy. “They’re marching through the institutions. They’re taking everything over. They’ve taken over education. They’ve taken over a lot of the corporations. They’ve taken over the military.”
This brand of clownish Invasion of the Body Snatchers-conspiracism would have pleased the John Birch Society, past members of which were positive President Dwight D. Eisenhower was a Soviet spy. To proclaim that socialists run the armed forces, your neighborhood school and much of Big Business, one must rely on an exceedingly loose defi nition of socialism bordering on incoherence.
Turns out we can thank Mackey’s upcoming retirement for his recent courage in Red-baiting. Ever since comparing the Aff ordable Care Act to “fascism” in 2009, he’s said he felt “muzzled” by Whole Foods’ corporate brass. “My board basically shut me down, and I was intimidated enough to shut up,” he told Reason.
If only he were a member of a labor union that protects workers from reprisal for freely expressing their political beliefs, as democratic socialists continue to passionately agitate for. Regrettably, Amazon — the monopoly Whole Foods sold out to in 2017 — has innovated union-busting into a science.
“It was amazing too that for all the discussion of essential or frontline workers, there was not a lot of empathy for grocery workers,” Reason’s Gillespie observed at one point.
To which Mackey, operator of an organic grocery store chain for four decades, appeared downright stumped: “I’m not sure what you mean by empathy.”
We know, John. And it shows.
Wikimedia Commons / Mike Gi ord
