Posted on 02/25/2016 1:58:31 PM PST by drewh
While in Nashville at the National Religious Broadcasters convention, Steve Deace landed Rafael Cruz as a guest on his show. In keeping with the conventionâs theme, they started talking about religion and its role in politics.
Deace framed his question carefully, asking, âHow in the world does Donald Trump win evangelical voters in South Carolina? What does that say about where weâre at as a church, or does it say anything about where weâre at as a church across the board?â
The question was a great one because Cruzâs son Ted Cruz is running for president and was expected to dominate the Evangelical vote. Trump has somehow ended up doing that in spite of insults to the community and a demonstrated lack of ecclesiastical know-how. Because of this, Cruz was all too ready with his answer:
Well, I think that theyâre defining evangelicals in a very loose manner. If we look at the numbers, those that are people that call themselves born-again Christians that are committed to the lord, we won overwhelmingly among that group. Unfortunately â and this is a message that I have been carrying to America, as you said, for several years â there are too many people in the church that have actually become lax about the word of God, that they are being more concerned with being politically correct than being biblically correct, they have diluted the word of God in order to be palatable to everyone.
Questioning someoneâs faith didnât work well for Pope Francis or for Jeb Bush, but it has been a winning strategy for Trump, so maybe the older Cruz is onto something here. Then again, Trump has already beaten him to that punch, accusing the candidate of phony Evangelism:
this won’t help
Well, this should help Ted lose Texas.
Oy vey. Only God knows.
Like his son , Rafael is honest to a fault
I may need a bucket to puke in after reading that.
Jumping sharks.
Rafael Cruz doesn’t get the right to say this.
There’s only ONE God!
Religious arrogance and it will further hurt Ted.
Now you know why Ted Cruz’s supporters turn voters off.
Everybody wants religious freedom and to stop the political and economic lawfare against Christians because political correctness demands it.
The majority of GOP voters though do not want to be proselytized to and accused of not being Christian or not being Christian enough.
Wrong tack to right this ship. The overemphasis on religion has done no favors for Cruz. It’s a part of the formula, but they’ve made it the whole formula. Cruz won in 2012 as a champion of limited government and delivering change in Washington for the voters. He didn’t abandon that message, but it’s been overshadowed by the constant religious message. I understood his original announcement at Liberty and the focus on capturing the support of the religious voters leading up to Iowa, but it should have taken a sharp tack to refocus on fixing Washington from the minute he won there.
I have to say, they did so many things right in the Cruz campaign and so many things just didn’t make sense. I am not referring to all the dumb accusations he’s being attacked about. I am talking the game strategy. They just did not have a plan to build on their early successes as I would have expected.
So the title is very missleading, that is not what was actually said.
This is a dumb as Trump's comment about no one reading the Bible more than him. And this race is not about who is more of a Christian than the next candidate, but who will lead the country in the right direction.
Religious arrogance and it will further hurt Ted.
Yeah, like Trump is the paragon of modesty.
Cruz says he's sorry...clarifies stupid statement...not what his father meant.
The next day headlines....Cruz fires father.
But if I vote for Ted then suddenly I’m a good Christian?Gee,I always thought that my personal acceptance of Jesus determined that.
Pope Ralph judging who the real Christians are?
They’re desperate to say, or try, anything to derail the jaugernaut.
Roll on, Trump. You got em crappin’ in their panty hose.
That is as asinine as Mattie ‘the maid’ Albright saying that females who do not vote for Hillary are going to hell.
==
Threats, browbeating, etc. I don’t see how the users of such think those will bring people TO their candidates.
It does the exact opposite.
Gotta love all the people that only read the headline.
Well, it’s not my favourite Bogart movie, but
“The Desperate Hours” comes to mind..
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.