Bekah McNeel

Texas

Correspondent at The 74

reporter | nail biter | wife | mom | Author of “Bringing Up Kids When Church Lets You Down” and “This is Going to Hurt” (Eerdmans 2024)

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Articles

How One of Texas’s Longest-Serving DAs Made Representation a Rural Value

1 month ago | texasmonthly.com | Bekah McNeel

After 36 years in office, Austin County’s Travis Koehn is hanging up his suit and tie, but not his harmonica. It was the last case on the docket of the last criminal court of the month in Austin County, about ninety minutes west of Houston. The gallery was empty, and the defendant was an undocumented immigrant from Honduras. He spoke only Spanish, and the only translator available was his defense attorney. The defendant, who quickly became emotional, was ready to take the plea deal.
Birthright Citizenship Is Under Attack. Christian Leaders Are Trying to Defend It

1 month ago | sojo.net | Bekah McNeel

From the first day of his administration, President Donald Trump has sought to end birthright citizenship, meaning that being born on U.S. soil would no longer be sufficient for establishing permanent legal status in the country. So far, three different judges have blocked the executive order Trump issued on Jan. 20, which the administration has appealed to the Supreme Court.
DOGE and Trump Threaten AIDS Program That ‘Kept a Generation Alive’

2 months ago | sojo.net | Bekah McNeel

Steve Hoyt didn’t go to the Amecet children’s home in Soroti, Uganda, looking for a child to adopt. The missionary, engineer, and father of two went to the home for orphaned and abandoned children run by the Christian organization Youth With A Mission, to check on a child as a favor for an employee. While he was there, he noticed a baby — he guessed she was about 18 months old — languishing despite the care of the nurses. She wasn’t as young as she looked, they told him.
Where Is the Spiritual Support for People Trying to Conceive?

Mar 4, 2025 | sojo.net | Bekah McNeel

As a homebirth midwife struggling with infertility, Abby Hall Luca intimately knows the gaps in fertility and maternity care. For 12 years she guided couples through the journey of growing their families while not being able to grow her own. “It meant things like canceling a prenatal appointment [for her clients] because I was having a miscarriage,” Hall Luca said.
Faith Aid Groups Say Trump and Musk Have Permanently Damaged USAID

Feb 27, 2025 | sojo.net | Bekah McNeel

On Feb. 13, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to unfreeze the billions of dollars in life-sustaining foreign aid suspended by executive order in January. The order, which cited “enormous harm” to global networks of relief agencies and the populations they serve, was met with relief by Christian anti-poverty and anti-hunger ministries.
The Immigration Crackdown Is Working as Intended. These Pastors Are Managing the Fallout.

Feb 14, 2025 | texasmonthly.com | Bekah McNeel

Iglesia Bautista West Brownsville felt empty but for the cheerful chatter of Spanish drifting through its darkened hallways on a Wednesday evening in early February. Under fluorescent lights in the back room of the church, eleven men and two women were eating pizza while shopping the church’s clothing-donations closet. A few were wearing hand-knit beanies sent by a knitting group in Waco. One had found a spiffy red fedora. All were wearing ankle monitors.
The LA Fires Devastated The Best Defense Against Child Poverty

Feb 7, 2025 | sojo.net | Bekah McNeel

When Shimica Gaskins first saw the single-story green ranch style house in Altadena, Calif., she wasn’t in love with the color. But she was in love with Altadena, a community where the Black middle class was not only thriving but creating the kind of social fabric where she and her husband dreamed of raising their two kids. Eight years later, the citrus trees, native plants, and family memories had made the little green house a home. And then it burned down.
He’s on Death Row for Killing a Pastor. Christians Are Divided Over Whether He Should Die.

Jan 15, 2025 | texasmonthly.com | Bekah McNeel

The sun was so bright on November 15 that the priest had to squint to read his prepared remarks. A cassock peeked from beneath his tan trench coat, and the gentle breeze called attention to his red, sternum-length beard.
I Didn’t Tell My Kids About Santa, Neither Did These Parents

Dec 4, 2024 | sojo.net | Bekah McNeel

In my favorite home video ever, it’s 2020 and my kids are opening their Christmas morning gifts while wearing new ski jackets, even though it was 75 degrees in South Texas, where we live. My son’s 4-year-old hands are still pudgy, and he hasn’t learned to glide his “l” sounds yet, so his raspy morning voice is extra adorable. As he unwraps his gifts, he shouts and cheers and stares at some Power Rangers in adoration.
Harris Declines to Consider Religious Exemptions for Abortion Laws

Oct 23, 2024 | sojo.net | Bekah McNeel

In an interview with NBC’s Hallie Jackson on Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris suggested she would not make concessions for religious exemptions on abortion laws, one of her strongest allusions yet to where she plans to take the abortion debate if she wins the White House in November. Given the possibility of a Republican majority in Congress, Jackson asked about Harris’ approach to her stated goal of restoring federal abortion rights.