I've been wanting to do a post on Senator Ted Cruz and his crackpot father Rafael Cruz for some time. Mother Jones has done it for me here in an article by David Corn. I'm still going to add my two cents, though!
I used to think that those Americans who are religious are perfectly fine to have their own thoughts about God and religion, and I still do... as long as they leave religion out of public policy. Yes, it's a shame that so much money goes to churches (tax free to the churches, tax deductible to the giver, and that means the rest of us pay more taxes because of it) -- as well as buying everything from Bibles to crosses to Christian music. I say it's a shame because I think of all the good that could be done with that money if we could get past religion in this country. Could we cure cancer? Make sure no one ever goes to bed hungry? It boggles the mind to think about.
But in recent years the conservative evangelicals in this country, aided by Fox News and right-wing radio hosts, have twisted religion into a political force. When you want to insert religion into laws and public policy, then I have a big problem with it.
Ted Cruz and his fundamentalist father are much scarier than most people, even those who voted for Ted, realize. Ted and Rafael Cruz are Dominionists. Google "Christian Reconstruction" or "Dominionism" sometime. If it doesn't scare the hell out of you, it should. Whether you are religious or not, these people are trying to turn the United States into an extremely fundamentalist Christian nation. Taking away women's rights, the rights of minorities, making sure the wealth flows only to the very top (and even to just certain "kings" of the hard Christian right, including Ted - I'm not joking, he literally was "anointed" by several pastors, as noted in the Mother Jones article)... this is all a part of their grand plan to rule in the "end times," which they believe we are now in.
Among Rafael Cruz's more incendiary remarks (and an outright lie) is that the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare, requires seniors to get suicide counseling. No, I'm not kidding. You and I might think that this old kook is just a crackpot that needs some serious psychological counseling, but the thing is, there are people who believe this crap!
It might be easy to just shrug your shoulders are say that people like this won't make much headway. But Ted Cruz is a United States Senator. With presidential aspirations. Not to mention the GOP war on women that continues unabated, with many states cutting women's rights to control their reproductive choices. Voter ID laws have hit young people, women and minorities particularly hard, as those groups tend to vote Democratic. There are many school districts who want to teach creationism in science classes. Fox News is watched by a lot of people; Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mike Savage and other extreme far-right radio hosts are listened to by a lot of people, and they are all aiding and abetting in the attempt to paint this country as "Christian." Unfortunately, in some areas of the country it's working.
Let's get one thing straight - the United States is NOT a "Christian nation." A two-second Google search will give you all the ammunition you need to prove it. But I'll give you a quick way to prove it once and for all -- go here to the online searchable version of the Constitution, and search on the word "Christian." You will get NO results. Nor will you find any of the following words: God, Jesus, Christ or Christianity. If this country was meant to be a Christian nation, those words would be all over that document. A nation founded on religion is a theocracy, and we don't live in one.
To those people who want to live in a Christian nation, I suggest you pack your bags and get the hell out of my country. Because the United States Constitution guarantees freedom of religion. Which also means freedom from religion, if you so choose. If you don't like it, you're free to move. That includes you, Senator Cruz, and your father.
