Texas Impact's Weekly Witness

This fall, Texas Impact hosted voter education and mobilization events throughout Texas, highlighting the importance of participating in the midterm elections, advocating during the legislative session, and continuing this engagement in future election cycles. This week, Scott is joined by Rep. Rhetta Bowers, who represents Texas House District 113, to discuss the midterm elections, the vital role Texans of faith played, and advocacy efforts for the upcoming legislative session. Scott encourages listeners to sign up for a legislative advocacy team and support Texas Impact by becoming a member. To learn more or get involved, please visit Texas Impact's Action Center at texasimpact.org.

This week, Scott is joined by Rev. Dr. Neil Thomas, Senior Pastor of Cathedral of Hope of Dallas and a member of Texas Impact's Leadership Council. Dr. Thomas is a leading voice for LGBTQIA+ rights and a champion for communities that have been systemically marginalized. Scott and Neil discuss his faith (and geographic) journey, the upcoming election and Texas Impact's new set of legislative priorities.

See the full set of legislative priorities online at: https://texasimpact.org/legislative-priorities-2027/

To learn more or get involved, check out Texas Impact's Action Center at texasimpact.org.

This week, Scott is joined by Rev. Dr. Daryl Horton, pastor of Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Austin. Dr. Horton joined Texas faith leaders for a press conference on the steps of the Texas Capitol calling on Texans to be Day One Voters, and since many Texas communities are reporting record day one voting, we thought we would invite him back to talk about and promote Black Out Sunday to try to set more records during the early voting period. Scott and Daryl discuss the historic role of the black church in promoting voting and voting rights and the roles clergy and people of faith can play in encouraging civic participation.

Find out more about Black Out Sunday in this article by The Dallas Morning News: North Texas coalition of Black pastors encourages congregants to vote as faith leaders mobilize ahead of election

To learn more or get involved, check out Texas Impact's Action Center at texasimpact.org.

This week, Scott was joined by Rev. Phil Dieke, Texas Impact's Board President. Phil and the Texas Impact Leadership Council have done a deep dive this year into the idea of "prophetic imagination" and how it relates to the work of Texas Impact and our members as we prepare for the upcoming election cycle and the legislative session to follow.

They also discuss the importance of making a plan to vote and the Texas Impact legislative priorities: https://texasimpact.org/legislative-priorities-2027/

To learn more or get involved, check out Texas Impact's Action Center at texasimpact.org.

This week, the Weekly Witness team joined Texas faith leaders on the steps of the Texas Capitol for a press conference highlighting diverse faith voices calling on Texans to fulfill their faith values by voting in the upcoming midterm elections. They encouraged Texans of faith to make a plan to vote, organize their friends, and show up on day one of early voting, October 19.

This week on Weekly Witness, Scott provides a short introduction to the full audio of the press conference featuring eleven Texas faith leaders.

To learn more or get involved, check out Texas Impact's Action Center at texasimpact.org.

This week, Scott is joined by Bishop Sue Briner, who serves as the bishop of the Southwestern Texas Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Judicatory leaders are faced with decisions about when and if to respond to a wide range of policy concerns, so Scott and Bishop Briner discussed how faith leaders can discern when to speak out. Bishop Briner has chosen to spend considerable effort in working to protect democracy, so she shares her perspectives and challenges listeners to get involved with election protection efforts.

We hope you enjoy this episode and invite a friend to listen along. If you share it in your social media, make sure to tag us!

If you have questions about election protection or see something that doesn't seem right, check out https://866ourvote.org/state/texas/ or call 1-866-OUR-VOTE.

To learn more or get involved, check out Texas Impact's Action Center at texasimpact.org.

Weekly Witness is hosted by Scott Atnip and engineered and produced by David Vassallo. Our executive producer is Bee Moorhead. Theme music by Kimberly Zielnicki, Hayden Havard and Andres Garcia-Bonilla. The opinions expressed on Weekly Witness are those of Texas Impact and our guests, and they do not necessarily reflect the views of our sponsors. Weekly Witness is a product of Texas Impact. Visit us online at texasimpact.org.

This week, Scott is joined by Darlene Alfred who has served in about every position a United Methodist layperson could serve from the local church to the conference and even global levels. In many of those roles, she was a "first" but always works to open doors for the next. She has served on the United Women in Faith Board and is a long-time Texas Impact Leadership Council member and joined the podcast this week to talk about Texas Impact's new legislative priorities.

Darlene talked about public education—it's especially important to her given that she has served on a school board and her kids both work in public schools. She also talked about the importance of voting.

See the full set of legislative priorities at: https://texasimpact.org/legislative-priorities-2027/

We hope you enjoy this episode and invite a friend to listen along. If you share it in your social media, make sure to tag us!

To learn more or get involved, check out Texas Impact's Action Center at texasimpact.org.

Weekly Witness is hosted by Scott Atnip and engineered and produced by David Vassallo. Our executive producer is Bee Moorhead. Theme music by Kimberly Zielnicki, Hayden Havard and Andres Garcia-Bonilla. The opinions expressed on Weekly Witness are those of Texas Impact and our guests, and they do not necessarily reflect the views of our sponsors. Weekly Witness is a product of Texas Impact. Visit us online at texasimpact.org.

This week, Scott is joined by Abel who serves as the director of connectional ministries for the Rio Texas Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. Among his portfolio, Abel works on mission, justice, and disaster response ministries.

Abel also serves on Texas Impact's Leadership Council, who just released Texas Impact's biennial legislative priorities for the next biennium. Abel talks about the legislative priorities, specifically reflecting on public education, immigration and climate priorities.

See the full set of legislative priorities at: https://texasimpact.org/legislative-priorities-2027/

We hope you enjoy this episode and invite a friend to listen along. If you share it in your social media, make sure to tag us!

To learn more or get involved, check out Texas Impact's Action Center at texasimpact.org.

This week, Scott is joined by Minister Chris Johnson who serves as the director of missions at Good Hope Missionary Baptist Church in Houston and co-host of Impact Houston Live on KTSU Houston, 90.9 The Choice radio station.

Chris is well-positioned to listen to the voices of Houston residents, both on his radio program and in his church work. Scott and Chris talk about what he is hearing and discuss what he calls the "greatest humanitarian crisis" in modern American history. Check out the episode to hear more.

We hope you enjoy this episode and invite a friend to listen along. If you share it in your social media, make sure to tag us!

To learn more or get involved, check out Texas Impact's Action Center at texasimpact.org.

Weekly Witness is hosted by Scott Atnip and engineered and produced by David Vassallo. Our executive producer is Bee Moorhead. Theme music by Kimberly Zielnicki, Hayden Havard and Andres Garcia-Bonilla. The opinions expressed on Weekly Witness are those of Texas Impact and our guests, and they do not necessarily reflect the views of our sponsors. Weekly Witness is a product of Texas Impact. Visit us online at texasimpact.org.

This week, Scott was joined by Leadership Council member Dianne Hardy-Garcia, Director of Community Engagement and Advocacy at St. David's Episcopal Church in Austin. Prior to joining the staff at St. David's, Dianne served as a social worker and legislative staffer at the Texas Capitol. She reflected on her journey and made a compelling argument for Texas to fully fund SNAP. Learn more or sign the statement Dianne promoted at: https://www.calltofeedthehungry.org/

We hope you enjoy this episode and invite a friend to listen along. If you share it in your social media, make sure to tag us!

To learn more or get involved, check out Texas Impact's Action Center at texasimpact.org.

Weekly Witness is hosted by Scott Atnip and engineered and produced by David Vassallo. Our executive producer is Bee Moorhead. Theme music by Kimberly Zielnicki, Hayden Havard and Andres Garcia-Bonilla. The opinions expressed on Weekly Witness are those of Texas Impact and our guests, and they do not necessarily reflect the views of our sponsors. Weekly Witness is a product of Texas Impact. Visit us online at texasimpact.org.