The Week in Quotes (Sept. 23 – 29)

Here are some of the week’s most notable quotes.

Ofelia Alonso, regional field coordinator for TFN and Texas Rising, on participating in voter education efforts in the Rio Grande Valley ahead of the midterm elections.

“We all have the same goal, which is not only to have voters turn out but to feel confident about voting. I think a lot of times, we start the conversation assuming people already know most of it, and we don’t talk about it from the beginning.”

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Southern California megachurch pastor Jim Garlow, who is stepping down from his role as senior pastor at Skyline Church in La Mesa in order to focus on ministering to lawmakers, ambassadors and federal government employees.

“We know that the ways of God apply to every aspect of culture, including the governmental. We don’t buy into the notion that biblical principles must be kept from the governmental sphere. We recognized that God and government should not be separated because He is the One who first thought of government.”

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Dan Quinn, communications director for the Texas Freedom Network.

“Last week was a perfect demonstration of why it’s a really bad idea for politicians to write curriculum standards that guide what public schools teach. Because then you end up with history that’s decided by a majority vote instead of by facts and historical accuracy. But that’s what we’ve got in Texas, unfortunately.”

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John Gehring, the Catholic program director at Faith in Public Life, and Jeanne Isler, a board member at Faith in Public Life, on Catholics’ reaction to racism.

“Systemic racism is a ‘pro-life’ issue. If Catholic leaders are willing to hit the streets, carry banners and lobby lawmakers for the unborn, they should also be pouring out of churches to resist the assault on black and brown bodies.”

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Imam Islam Mossaad, on recent attacks against the North Austin Muslim Community Center. The Austin Police Department is treating them as hate crimes and looking for the culprit.

“I do believe the atmosphere has become very negative toward Islam and has opened the door for people to be more openly expressive of their hate, when in the past they may have harbored that bigotry. It’s become more acceptable, even in mainstream public discourse, and that’s definitely troubling.”

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Doc Greene, a Houston religious-right radio talk-show personality who helped organize the recent protest at the Islamic Society of North America’s conference in downtown Houston that drew roughly two dozen members from the Texas Patriot Network, religious-right and white supremacist groups. New recordings show they were planning to be much more violent.

“[O]nly thing that we’re a little unhappy about right now is we only have about 15 patriots down here.”

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Charles Foster Johnson, a pastor, supporter of public education and advocate for separation of church and state who founded Pastors for Texas Children, on evangelical Christians’ support for President Trump and vouchers. He was honored with TFN’s Samantha Smoot Grassroots Activist Award in 2015.

“When sociologists of religion drill down deep in examining what I’m calling this ‘evangelical subset,’ and inquire as to the exact nature of their religious observances and practices, they find that many of them do not attend religious services, are not active in any religious community, do not hold church membership, do not engage in formal prayer, do not read Scripture, do not participate in good works or service. In other words, do not have any embodied or communal behaviors that constitute what C.S. Lewis artfully called ‘mere Christianity.’”

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Jonathan Stidham, describing a vision he had about Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination.

“On Sept. 24, 2018, while praying about this hot-button political issue, I had an open vision. In the vision, I saw a horse with the letter ‘K’ shaved in its hair cross the finish line. I saw a Supreme Court justice robe and gavel of supreme judiciary authority being handed to Kavanaugh. The Lord told me that Judge Brett Kavanaugh lives pure and fears Him. It is the will of the Lord for Brett Kavanaugh to judge this land, and the opposition is fierce. In the vision, I saw a demonic spirit nearly 30 feet tall standing in the Senate chambers. I asked the Lord, ‘What am I seeing?’ The Lord replied ‘This is the spirit that is wrestling against Judge Kavanaugh’s purpose and destiny.’”

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Former Minnesota congresswoman and current “pastor to the United Nations” Michele Bachmann, declaring that God heard the prayers of conservative Christians in 2016 and, as a result, America has been living in “an unparalleled golden time” for two years under President Trump.

“Two years ago, I believe that the prayers that God’s people made to ask God for his provision were heard. They were heard and granted and for two years, we have lived in an unparalleled golden time in the United States. . . . Do you see what a golden day that we have been given? On every possible level, America is killing it. We are doing great in every possible metric, and I believe that’s because God’s people utilized the tool that he gave us.”