When Permission Slips Become Chains

What’s happening to Rep. Nicole Collier in Texas is more than politics — it’s a prophetic mirror of how systems use power to silence those who stand.

Because she refused to sign a “permission slip” and accept an assigned police escort, Collier has been restricted inside the Capitol. No crime committed. No law broken. Just new rules designed to box her in and control her movements.

History tells us this pattern is not new. It echoes the days of slave patrols, when Black people were forced to carry papers for movement and faced intimidation if they resisted. Then it was called a pass. Now it’s called a permission slip. Different name, same spirit.

This is why her courage matters. Whenever a woman — especially a Black woman — refuses to bow, she threatens the very structures built to contain her. That refusal is costly. It is not comfortable. But it is necessary.

And it reminds us of a larger truth: unjust systems can invent rules, but they cannot cancel God’s assignment. What He ordains will not be undone by paper, policy, or police escort.

So today we stand with Rep. Collier. We pray strength over her. And we take courage from her stand — because her fight is not hers alone, it is ours.