Is this Cruz’s Patrick Henry moment? Give me liberty!

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, released a video telling the story of Dick and Betty Odgaard, the Iowa couple who recently had to shut down their business as a result of the Iowa Civil Rights Commission’s efforts to force them to host a same-sex wedding ceremony in violation of their religious beliefs. The video highlights the Odgaards’ experience with government-sanctioned religious intolerance, as well as their reaction to being targeted. Cruz will host a special event in Des Moines, IA, next month featuring the Odgaards.

“It was devastating to hear that we were bigots, we were homophobes, we were haters,” Betty Odgaard recounts. “We just kept thinking, ‘they don’t know us.’ How can they be calling us all these horrible, horrible things when they don’t know what’s in our hearts? We don’t have any hatred toward gay people.”

As a result of the suit, the Odgaards stopped hosting weddings at their event venue, which all but destroyed their business, leading them to the decision to close their doors at the end of the summer.

“And that has been quite painful,” tells Dick Odgaard. “As a result of that, the business has declined. We just can’t support it. So we’re within — by the end of August we’ll be shutting our doors.”

New data show Americans are strongly opposed to government forcing business owners to violate their deeply held religious beliefs. Nearly three out of five people (59%) now say that businesses with wedding-related services should not have to provide those services to same-sex couples, an increase of seven percent from April.

“Our country was founded by people who risked everything for religious liberty, free of the government getting in the way,” Cruz tells the Odgaards in the video. “And I want to thank both of you, number one, for taking a stand. But number two, for telling your story.

“Your story is powerful. Your story is inspirational and inspires me, and it inspires millions of believers, believers of many faiths across this country who want to live in a land where we’re free to live out according to our faith and our convictions and it’s not second guessed by the government stepping in and saying, we don’t share your faith and we’re going to shut you down.”

Cruz will host a “Rally for Religious Liberty” in Des Moines, Iowa on August 21 at 6:30 pm CT. The event will take place at the Iowa Events Center and feature the Odgaards as special guests. Registration is open to the public here.

"If we must have an enemy at the head of Government, let it be one whom we can oppose, and for whom we are not responsible, who will not involve our party in the disgrace of his foolish and bad measures." - Alexander Hamilton

"We don't intend to turn the Republican Party over to the traitors in the battle just ended. We will have no more of those candidates who are pledged to the same goals as our opposition and who seek our support. Turning the Party over to the so-called moderates wouldn’t make any sense at all." -- President Ronald Reagan

"A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice." - Thomas Paine 1792

"It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men." - Samuel Adams

"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen." - Samuel Adams

Sad to see Cruz rathole on this issue.

It might play well in Iowa, but it's not a winning national issue in my estimation. Rand went down this path a few years ago when running for the Sentate, but retreated after he figured out it was a losing position.

"New data show Americans are strongly opposed to government forcing business owners to violate their deeply held religious beliefs."

Sadly, no link is provided for this assertion.

Here is a hypothetical (one that has been used continuously by the gay marriage supporters):

What if my religion strongly rejects the equality of Black people, or teaches that Jews are evil. Would Ted & Co. support a business owner refusing to service Blacks or Jews?

We had the "deeply held beliefs" vs. "right to use of public accommodations" argument in this country already. It's not really open for re-litgation. (That's what Rand tried to do, and failed).

This was litigated and decided in the USA in the 1960s, when the Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. From WIkipedia:

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Pub.L. 88–352, 78 Stat. 241, enacted July 2, 1964) is a landmark piece of civil rights legislation in the United States[5] that outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.[6] It ended unequal application of voter registration requirements and racial segregation in schools, at the workplace and by facilities that served the general public (known as "public accommodations").

This law is almost universally viewed as virtuous and good law. The fact is though, that it significantly reduced the rights of business owners and pushes against the whole idea of people's right to voluntary associations with others. It started by being applied to public transport, hotels and, famously, lunch counters. But in the 1990s we saw it being used as a club to forcibly integrate all-male private social clubs.

As soon as gays won the "it's just like being black, it's genetic" part of their argument it was obvious that we would end up here.

No one, not even Ted, can answer the straw man of why the Christian Identity owner of a dry cleaner is evil for not wanting to clean a black mans pants, but the Christian owner of a bakery is within the bounds of the law by refusing to bake a cake for a gay wedding.

He's not showing his famed Ivy League Debating Logic on this. More importantly, it's a poor issue to run on.

Here is some YouTube of a less experienced Rand trying to nuance this issue. Rand on Maddow. He makes some good points, but failed miserably to carry the debate on this.

It’s clearly heinous.

But, we live in a liberal/fascist nation.

Claiming “religious freedom” is a failing strategy for changing that.

And, in my opinion a restaurant owner who doesn’t want to serve blacks should have the same right to refuse service as a wedding cake baker who doesn’t want to bake a gay wedding cake.

Trying to tease these apart into different issues will not work, either as a point in law, nor as a campaign issue.

I don’t much favor the way America is being run, and don’t have alot of hope in turning it around.

You earned every bit of it black jack. Telling us to give in to the fag agenda will get you nowhere. Your concern troll BS is easy to see through.

I never said give in to the fag agenda.

I said Ted Cruz's attempt to create a "deeply held religious belief" exemption to Civil Rights law will fail as both a strategy to roll back the gains made, and as an election tactic.

The straight forward way to roll back gay marriage is with a Constitutional Agenda. And NOT the one Ted Cruz and Scott Walker support, returning the issue to the States, I disagree with. Not enough. Time to assert majority control of the nation, not let freaks in NY stay freaky. Why go through all the trouble of an Amendment only to let the Blues off easy. They NEVER do that for anything. The Assault Weapons Ban was national, etc.

I'm not a troll, and I don't appreciate the name calling, skank. If I meet you I'll slap you like a b*tch and we can find out who is. I'm not worried.

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