Rafael Cruz, the father and top campaign surrogate of Texas senator and Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz, told an Iowa talk radio host on Friday that his son is running for president in order to “share the love of Jesus Christ” with “every person in America of every race, color and creed.”…. “He’s a man of integrity, he’s a man of faith,” Cruz said of his son, “he’s a man that you can be certain that he will be consistent with the principles, the Judeo-Christian principles, that have made America great and the principles of the Constitution of the United States of America, which are one and the same.”…. “Those principles are what gives every American, every hard-working American who is looking for a way to achieve their dreams, a way to give their children or grandchildren a better life, those are those principles that are the bedrock of America, those Judeo-Christian principles,” he added. He then told [Iowa talk radio host Steve] Deace that Ted Cruz sees his candidacy as something of a religious mission. “And he knows that by doing that, he is expressing the love of Jesus Christ to every American,” he said.
This is where I’d expect Christians- you know, those who actually endeavor to lead Christ-like lives- to stand up and repudiate Rafael Cruz and his son for making a mockery of Christianity. Good people shouldn’t stand idly by while those with evil intent portray themselves as the true representatives of the love of Jesus Christ and The One, True, and ONLY Faith ©. Yet that seems to be exactly what’s happening- religious demagogues like Ted and Rafael Cruz are claiming the mantle of Christianity as their own and promoting themselves as God’s earthly representatives.
That I place no stock or value in the twisted and tyrannical religious beliefs of either Cruz should be self-evident. That the vast majority of good, decent, and caring Christians aren’t rising up to reject their inflexible, intolerant, and self-interested theology is…disturbing. To say that “Conservative Christians” support Cruz is to give me pause; do these people even read the Bible? Do they understand the teachings of the Jesus Christ they claim to worship? Do they possess even the barest passing familiarity with Christian values like love, tolerance, acceptance, and inclusion? Or are they on board with Ted Cruz’ “carpet bomb” mentality, which would just as soon kill and destroy the enemies of his angry, vindictive “Christianity”- loosely defined as non-White, non-Conservative, and non-Christian?
“My son Ted believes, like Jesus said, that you must be the servant of all. That is the greatest thing we can do. Ted truly has a servant spirit, he wants to love, to serve We the People, every person in America of every race, color and creed, and just share the love of Jesus Christ with them. It is for the love of Christ and the love of this country that he is running for president.”
If believers unite behind Ted Cruz, he said, “we are going to see America restored again to that shining city on a hill to the glory of God.”
If believers unite behind Ted Cruz, what we’ll see is an America transformed into a Christian theocracy and steeped in the very tyranny Cruz and the rest of the American Taliban claims to fear with every fiber of their beings.
Ah, but it’s not tyranny when you’re the one doing the oppressing….
Ted Cruz is about service every bit as much as Ayn Rand was known for an overabundance of compassion and altruism. His “Christianity” is no more about loving and serving “We The People” than Game of Thrones is a romantic comedy. A Ted Cruz presidency would see an America steeped in intolerance, anger, exclusion, and a righteous desire to destroy The Other- those who don’t look, think, believe, and/or love in the righteous, godly manner Radical Far-right Christians do. The “shining city on a hill” that defers “to the glory of God” will become the headquarters of Fortress America, which will be consumed with destroying evildoers and enemies of all stripes…as they define them. Unless good and decent Christians- those who attempt to live the teachings of their Savior and lead Christ-like lives- rise up and denounce the crass partisan hijacking of their faith.
Or should we be preparing for a future in which “Onward, Christian Soldiers” becomes our de facto national anthem?
