Posted on 08/15/2015 7:31:19 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Republican presidential candidate and Texas Senator Ted Cruz reunited for the first time in decades with the pastor who baptized him and led his father to Jesus in the 1970s, during a campaign stop in Tennessee this week.
For Cruz, he saw his stop through Murfreesboro on Monday to speak at a campaign rally as being more than just an opportunity to share his conservative views with potential voters. As Cruz took the stage to speak to the crowd, he had just one question for the audience.
"I was told Pastor Gaylon Wiley was here. Is that right?" Cruz asked.
As it became apparent to Cruz that Wiley was in the audience, the conservative politician smiled and remarked, "I haven't seen brother Wiley since I was a kid. Brother Wiley led my dad to the Lord," which was followed by a huge cheer from the crowd.
"Brother Wiley baptized me when I was eight years old as a Christian," Cruz continued, followed by another cheer from the crowd. "So, I am really glad to be here in Tennessee."
Cruz credits Wiley, who has preached for over 40 years and moved to Tennessee 12 years ago, with not just baptizing him, his parents and leading his father, Rafael Cruz, to the Lord but also also credits Wiley for helping save the Cruz family from permanent separation.
If it were not for Wiley, Cruz said, it is very likely that the Cruz family would have never been reconciled after Rafael abandoned his wife and son when Ted was just three years old.
As Cruz has explained in many previous public speaking engagements, he and his parents were living in Canada during the 1970s and were involved in the oil and energy business. Although Cruz has stated that both of his parents had drinking problems, things were going well until Rafael cracked under the pressure of marriage and fatherhood, left his family and took off on a plane to Houston, Texas.
"When I was three years old, my father left my mom," Cruz told the crowd. "He decided he didn't want to be married anymore, he didn't want to be a father to his three-year-old son."
While living in Texas, Rafael Cruz was invited by a colleague to attend a church service at Clay Road Baptist Church. Cruz attended the church service and later gave his life to Jesus one night when Wiley stopped by Cruz's Houston living quarters to "deliver the mail."
After accepting Christ, Cruz, who is now a pastor himself, was forced to rethink his decision of abandoning his family and made the choice to return to Calgary to reunite with his wife and child.
"I had the privilege of talking to Rafael Cruz in the 1970s in a home just like Ted told today," Wiley told the WDTN local news channel covering the rally. "The Holy Spirit touched him such that he fell out of that chair, on his knees and prayed the sinner's prayer and changed his life. He flew back to Canada and got his family back together again."
After acknowledging Wiley, Cruz finished with his speech but was able to catch a personal moment with Wiley outside of his campaign bus before taking off for his next appearence.
Cruz's stop in Murfreesboro was one of just five Cruz campaign stops in Tennessee as he toured through the South this week. Cruz also visited Chattanooga, the Nashville suburb of Franklin, and attended a GOP dinner in Jackson on Monday, followed by an appearance in Memphis on Tuesday.
Although many presidential candidates have recently focused their campaigns in early primary states like Iowa and New Hampshire, Cruz has spent his time since the Fox News debate doing bus tours through Southern conservative states like Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma and South Carolina— or as his campaign refers to as "Cruz Country."
Although Cruz has seen a slight surge in the polls following the debate, with an NBC News poll showing Cruz in third place with 13 percent of the Republican vote, the RealClearPolitics average of national Republican nomination polling puts Cruz in sixth place with 5.8 percent of the vote.
Reading this made my eyes water up.
Cruz to victory!
Cruz has no fear of running into anybody from his past, I’m sure however before he wins the nomination there will be some profit motivated false accusers to come forward, unfortunately in our current celebrity focused culture and society, all too often the truth is subverted by nothing more than mere accusation, it is evidenced such deceit provide immense profits.
No worries though history is replete with men who suffered greatly yet prevailed because of their trust in the righteousness of God.
I pray Ted Cruz, as the Christian he is, will understand that his stance on more work visas and apparent willingness to retain illegals in this country is hurting his fellow citizens. It is not Christian to hurt your God, who commands us to love our neighbor as ourselves. Nor to hurt your family, nor to harm your country.
Were he to take the position that he will help the American worker he would be higher in the poll IMHO.
Watch the video. Ted Cruz talked about his father coming here with a student visa. After graduating, he started up a company and created jobs in this country.
May 14, 2013
WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) today presented an amendment to the Gang of Eight immigration bill that would improve our nation’s legal immigration system by increasing high-skilled temporary worker visas, called H-1B visas, by 500 percent. The measure would effectively address the needs of our nation’s high-skilled workforce by helping meet the growing demand for workers in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. It will also make block grants available to states to promote STEM education efforts and increase domestic STEM professionals. The committee voted against the amendment 4 to 14 with every Democrat voting against it on a party-line vote.
“I strongly support legal immigration. Legal immigration is a fundamental pillar of our nation's heritage, and I was pleased today to offer legislation that would have improved and expanded legal immigration by dramatically increasing the cap for high-tech temporary worker visas. This amendment would not only improve the current system, but would also encourage economic growth and create new jobs in America. There is currently a serious shortage of workers in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math, yet every year we send thousands of high-tech graduate students back to their home countries to start businesses and create jobs. This makes no sense. I’m disappointed in the committee’s vote to reject expanding high-tech immigration. Although the Gang of Eight's bill makes a modest step towards improving high-tech immigration, it does not go nearly far enough. There is no reason to arbitrarily cap high-tech visas at 110,000 when these jobs are going unfilled. We need economic growth here and now.”
Sen. Cruz’s amendment would:
Immediately increase the H-1B cap by 500 percent from 65,000 to 325,000.
Help retain the high-skilled workers that are trained in the U.S. by allowing “dual intent.”
Create block grants for states to promote STEM education in their public schools by raising H-1B fees.
Are you serious? The information presented by you about Cruz’s stated intention about immigration is NOT conservative!!!!!! It is Rino. It is corporatist. It is crony capitalism on steroids. It is destructive of the American middle class.
To increase work visas and give green cards to foreign students in the United states an the basis Cruz’s lie that America needs those stem workers in this country to grow the economy is pure rino blather. The existing American stem graduates can’t get jobs because of the abuse of the Hb visas by greedy corporations. The only economy which will be grown by Cruz’s plans is the corporate profit economy. Where is Cruz’s plan to rid the country of illegal immigrants already here taking jobs, taking welfare and destroying the culture?
Shame on you and Cruz for using lying propaganda. READ JEFF SESSIONS ABOUT THIS PROBLEM. IT WILL PUT YOURS AND CRUZ’S LIES IN THE TRASH.
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