Posted on 09/27/2014 12:17:53 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
In a speech stressing the importance of protecting America's religious liberties and other inalienable rights that so-called "radical" Democratic policies are trying to limit, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, reflected on his own family's path toward the Christian faith, which included his father abandoning him and his mother when he was three years old before returning to them after finding Jesus.
Before Rev. Rafael Cruz became an evangelical Texas pastor and one of the nation's most notable and quotable congressional parents, he and his wife, with their toddler son, lived in Canada and worked in the oil and energy business. At the time, Cruz said neither of his parents held a relationship with Christ and both had serious drinking problems.
While speaking Friday to the crowd at the Family Research Council's Values Voters Summit in Washington D.C., Cruz said that his father one day "decided he didn't want to be married anymore. He didn't want a three-year-old son. So, he got on a plane and left Calgary and went back to Texas in Houston."
"He left us," Cruz said.
Although most people would be bitter as they recount a time in which their own father deserted them, Cruz spoke of his father's abandonment with passion knowing his father's desertion ultimately led him to accepting of Christ.
Cruz said that while his father was in Houston, he was invited by one of his colleagues from the energy field to come to a service at Clay Road Baptist Church. His father accepted the invitation, attended, and later gave his life to Christ. By accepting Jesus, Cruz said his father rethought his decision to leave his family and his faith led him back to Calgary to rejoin with his wife and son.
"When anyone asks is faith real? Is a relationship with Jesus real?" Cruz said. "I can tell you if it were not for my father giving his life to Christ, I would have been raised by my single mother without having my dad in the home."
From this moment in his own family history, the Tea Party Republican claims with first-hand experience that religious liberties still serve a lasting purpose for American families in spite of efforts from "extremely radical" Democrats to limit religious freedoms in America.
"Everyone of us have seen first-hand that in utter darkness, hope remains," Cruz said. "The words of Amazing Grace put it, 'how sweet the sound that saved my soul. I once was blind but now can see'. What an incredible story everyone of us knows and understands in life. We see it at home. We see it in our nation."
Using his father's' experience as an anecdote to show the beauty of religious freedom, Cruz transitioned into a stark criticism of the Obama administration for taking legal actions against Christian groups that don't want to go against their faith to comply with government mandates.
Cruz talked about the Hobby Lobby decision and went on to chastise the federal government's lawsuit against Catholic nuns from the Catholic religious order Little Sisters of the Poor. The lawsuit is trying to enforce a Health and Human Services mandate that require religious groups to pay for birth control and potentially-abortion-inducing drugs that violate their religious belief.
Cruz also recalled that after the conclusion of the Hobby Lobby case, Senate Democrats proposed legislation that would repeal certain religious liberties protected under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which was designed to prevent laws that would burden a person's exercise of religion. The law passed in 1993 under Democratic President Bill Clinton.
"The modern Democratic Party has become an extremely radical party," Cruz said. "There used to be bipartisan agreement, regardless of our difference on the marginal tax rates, we used to come together and say 'we are going to respect the religious liberties of everybody.'"
Cruz urged voters to protect America's religious liberties by voting for a Republican Senate majority during the upcoming midterm congressional elections.
"How do we turn this country around. We don't paint with pale pastels, we paint in watercolors," Cruz said. "We are 39 days away from a pivotal election. If you want to defend the first amendment, our free speech, our religious liberty, vote Harry Reid out. If you want to defend our second amendment, the right to keep and bear arms, vote Harry Reid out. If you want to defend the fourth and fifth amendment, our right to privacy; if you want to defend 10th Amendment, then vote Harry Reid out."
Powerful.
Like the Palins, the Cruz family has been living a life well outside the usual for the political class, and both Palin and Cruz are deeply engaged in their faith.
Make sure Harry Reid is shown the door. Holder has left the building. House cleaning time.
I have known a number of "holier than thou" Mormon types, people who are so mean-spirited that they make the Pharisees look sweet and full of Christian charity, but Reid tops them all.
Go Rafael go! Go Ted go! Restore America’s Biblical and family values!
Cruz is on the right track here.
Under Obama, there has been a great push toward persecution of Christians. It’s way past time to push back.
A post of hope. Thanks for posting this, I feel better about the future, that there is a ray of esperanza.
Cruz has a talent to tell a story that all can relate to. That is his strength.
Great testimony of the transforming power of a personal relationship with Christ in a person’s life.
Go Rafael go! Go Ted go! Restore America’s Biblical and family values!
Amen!
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. (II Chron. 7:14)
There is no way the establishment and RINOs will let this man be president.
Love Cruz, but his father will be used by the media as an albatross around Ted’s neck. The elder Cruz has said many things that the media can shape into “scandal”
Cruz talked about the Hobby Lobby decision and went on to chastise the federal government's lawsuit against Catholic nuns from the Catholic religious order Little Sisters of the Poor... Cruz also recalled that after the conclusion of the Hobby Lobby case, Senate Democrats proposed legislation that would repeal certain religious liberties protected under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act... passed in 1993 under.. [Slick Willie]... Cruz urged voters to protect America's religious liberties by voting for a Republican Senate majority during the upcoming midterm congressional elections.
Yes it is...and would defuse any who might use this to derail Cruz if he runs.
I think he’s wise enough to get it all out there beforehand so that anything about him is no surprise. He knows how the left works...don’t we all!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.