Texas Impact's Weekly Witness

This week we are recording during early voting before election day next Tuesday, November 4, and we know that all of you are doing everything you can to make sure your friends, neighbors and communities of faith are taking this election season. For many of us, the policy implications of what's going on in the world right now are hitting close to home. The government shutdown and corresponding free...

This week we take a break from the news of the day to talk about work important to many of us in the faith community–caring for our siblings who are being systematically marginalized by harmful public policy. Our transgender friends and neighbors have been specifically singled out for attack since at least 2017 in high profile and public ways starting most prominently in Texas when the first "bath...

This week we are excited to be joined by State Representative Mickey Dollens from Oklahoma. You might ask why Texas Impact would have an Oklahoma state representative on the program. That's a great question—and we have an answer. We met Rep. Dollens at a recent event focused on combating Christian Nationalism sponsored by Interfaith Alliance. He shared his story of crashing a meeting with the Nati...

This week we turn our attention from Austin to the nation's capitol, because the center of the policy universe right now is the government shutdown. The decisions of Congress in the coming weeks will impact every one of us.  Joining us for the conversation this week is friend of the program, Min. Christian Watkins, a Texas transplant currently serving as the Government Relations Advocate with NETW...

There is a lot going on in the world from government shut downs to statements and actions that threaten democracy and try to pit Americans against each other as enemies. And, in an increasingly polarized media landscape, it is hard to know where to get good, quality information. Religious media can play an important role in this landscape. There are many great religious media outlets, and this wee...

This week we have a special treat: instead of our usual interview format, we're giving you a front-row seat to a special episode of Texas Impact's award winning Faith in Democracy series, hosted by Executive Director, Bee Moorhead. This episode talks about the importance of voting. Bee says that voting is a matter of faith, citizenship, and democracy. We hope you believe that and recognize how imp...

The legislature has left the building, but the Texas Impact team has been hard at work. Last week, we welcomed Texas Impact's Leadership Council to Austin for its annual in-person meeting. We left there, and several of us went to Dallas for a convening of organizations standing up against Christian Nationalism dubbed Religious Freedom in Public Schools Summit convened by Interfaith Alliance. Joini...

This week we are talking with friend of Texas Impact, Cyrus Reed, Legislative and Conservation Director with the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club. There has been a lot of talk about flooding following the July 4 floods, but spoiler–folks were actually talking about this during the regular session, and a lot of the conversations came through the budget bills. We'll walk down memory lane, all th...

This week, just hours after the Texas Legislature adjourned sine die, we sat down with Texas Impact's Executive Director, Bee Moorhead, to get an initial response and lay of the land as we (hopefully) move into the legislative interim. Texans of faith did some incredible work throughout this year, but as a state, we can do better. We look forward to conversations about how Texans of faith can visi...

As we prepare to head into the Labor Day weekend, many of us thought the second special session would be over, but the work will continue after the long weekend. The Legislature has already passed racially discriminatory redistricting but is still working to finalize bills related to bathrooms, medication abortions and more, while ignoring real problems our communities face like upcoming cuts to h...

Texas Impact, our members and many others have been filling the Capitol this week. Texans of faith have hosted daily pop-up worship experiences highlighting our shared faith values and have fully engaged in the process because of the unprecedented assault on faith and faith values during the Texas Legislature's second called special session. We were lucky enough to speak with some representatives...

The second called session of the 89th Texas Legislature is on and reproductive rights are back on the call. Once again bills have been filed to ban medications that induce abortions—but what is flying under the radar in the Senate version of the bill is a provision that would limit the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act or Texas RFRA. The Texas RFRA has historically been a respected, bipartis...

The Texas Legislature is midway through the third week of Special Session No.1  and activity has slowed to a halt in the House as Texas House Democrats have left the state to oppose the congressional redistricting plan. Texas Impact's Bee Moorhead joins the program to give us the latest and talk about how Texans of faith can help encourage conversations about community rather than what we are curr...

The Texas Legislature is nearing the end of the second week of the special session, but in this episode, we want to focus on the Thursday July 31 hearing in Kerrville, TX that focused on the July 4 flooding in Central Texas.  Our listeners will remember seeing the news from that day, and our prayers certainly go out to all who were impacted. We hope our prayers are also for leaders to do the work...

The Texas Legislature is back in Austin for a special session to consider a number of issues the governor has identified, chief among them congressional redistricting . Texas Impact does not take a position on the partisan makeup of those districts, but does believe that it is important that communities are a part of the process. Joining us this week for a thoughtful discussion of redistricting is...

In our last episode of our legislative wrap-up series before the special session we welcome Diana Forester, Director of Health Policy with Texans Care for Children to talk about where the Texas Legislature landed on all things health. We recorded in mid-June, and so we touched briefly on action at the federal level and how it would impact Texas, but trust that we will have more content that dives...

This week's episode is another installment of our legislative wrap-up series as we welcome Adrian Shelley, Texas Director of Public Citizen to talk about the wins and the continued work we need to do on climate and energy policy. We recorded in mid-June, and a lot has gone on in the world since, but the goal of this series is to be a resource for Texans of faith to understand what happened in the...

Weekly Witness is back after a quick two week break.  This week we continue our legislative wrap-up series as we welcome Kristin Etter, Director of Policy and Legal Services with the Texas Immigration Law Council. We'll discuss some of the key immigration bills that passed out of the Texas Legislature and touch on what is happening at the federal level. We hope this series will be a resource for T...

The Texas Impact staff gathered this week in Austin for a planning retreat and we will have some exciting opportunities for you soon. It also created a perfect opportunity to gather four members of Texas Impact's Lobby team for this week's conversation. They spent the legislative session lobbying on behalf of Texas Impact priorities throughout the session, staffing our issue champion teams, and he...

If you hear shouts of joy and celebratory sounds coming from Austin, that is because the Texas Legislature has adjourned Sine Die and legislators are returning to their communities. Joining us for the conversation this week is Beaman Floyd Texas Impact's Outside Legislative Counsel Beaman Floyd to begin to help us process what happened during the 140 day legislative session and what comes next. Fi...

Texas Impact's Executive Director Bee Moorhead joined the program again this week with only days remaining before the Texas Legislature adjourns Sine Die. Scott and Bee talk about the last week and offer some reflections on the legislative session in the waning hours as we start to look forward to the interim and what comes next.   Find out how you can get involved at  texasimpact.org   Get full a...

With 11 days remaining before the Texas Legislature adjourns Sine Die and the congressional passage of one of the worst bills in modern history, Texas Impact's Executive Director Bee Moorhead joins the program to talk about it all, with conversation about health care, reproductive health, religion in schools and public school funding.  Plus, we talk about steps listeners can take as we move toward...

  The Texas Legislature is hitting key legislative deadlines with sixteen days remaining before they adjourn Sine Die. The action in the Capitol is hot on many issues important to Texans of faith, but maybe none more so than the debate over public school finance. Here to talk with us about all of it this week is Texas Impact's Executive Director, Bee Moorhead.  Get full access to Texas Impact at t...

This week, Weekly Witness highlights the voices of Texas faith leaders who spoke during the Texas Impact Leadership Council's press conference on the south steps of the Texas Capitol on May 8th as we call out religious extremism.   Joining us today are: Rev. Phil Dieke, Horizon Texas United Methodist Conference, Dallas Rev. Matt Gaventa, University Presbyterian Church, Austin Elyse Rosenberg & Bet...

As the Texas Legislative Session enters its final month things are hot-both in terms of public policy and feelings, and Texans of faith are working to be effective advocates through it all. Joining us for this week's program is the man who has seen it all in the Texas Capitol, Texas Impact's outside legislative counsel, Beaman Floyd. He is going to give us the lay of the land and talk us through h...