Here are some of the week’s most notable quotes culled from news reports from across Texas, and beyond.
Gov. Greg Abbott speaking at Thursday’s National Catholic Prayer Breakfast.
Religious liberty is being tested by some who want to silence the faithful and purge God from the public square. We see this in the never-ending battle to defend the unborn. And we see this with the legal assault on marriage defined by God. But we know that God’s law cannot be undone by man’s law.
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Rev. Gil Caldwell, an activist who marched with Martin Luther King Jr., in a sermon calling for support of LGBT equality.
In some ways there is a possibility that on gay rights and marriage equality, God is speaking more through the judiciary than God is speaking through the United Methodist Church.
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U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert’s personal interpretation of the maps being used in the Jade Helm 15 military training exercises.
Once I observed the map depicting ‘hostile,’ ‘permissive,’ and ‘uncertain’ states and locations, I was rather appalled that the hostile areas amazingly have a Republican majority, ‘cling to their guns and religion,’ and believe in the sanctity of the United States Constitution.
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Texas Freedom Network communications director Dan Quinn, in an interview with KTRH about SB 2065, one of several so-called ‘religious freedom’ bills.
It’s offering a solution in search of a problem. Right now, the Constitution and state law already protect pastors from having to perform ceremonies that violate their religious beliefs. In some cases it would allow people to use religion as an excuse to discriminate against others.
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Sen. Ted Cruz, on why he is asking the Pentagon for more details on the Jade Helm 15 training exercises planned for Texas this summer.
You know, I understand a lot of the concerns raised by a lot of citizens about Jade Helm. It’s a question I’m getting a lot. And I think part of the reason is we have seen, for six years, a federal government disrespecting the liberty of the citizens. That produces fear, when you see a government that is attacking our free speech rights, or Second Amendment rights, or religious liberty rights. That produces distrust.
For just six years, Ted? Really?
The only reason the United Methodist leadership is against gay marriage is because they fear that being for it will split the church down the middle and result in a separation into two separate denominations. If it were up to them alone, I would bet my eye teeth that nearly every one of them is for it.