Posted on 01/14/2016 8:12:35 AM PST by Isara
Evangelical Influencer Supports Cruz for President
HOUSTON, Texas – Presidential candidate Ted Cruz today announced the endorsement of Paul Blair, President of Reclaiming America for Christ and the pastor of Fairview Baptist Church.
Blair was raised in Edmond, Oklahoma, and spent five years in the NFL. Since 2001, he has served as the Senior Pastor of Fairview Baptist Church in Edmond, Oklahoma. Pastor Blair speaks around the United States on the topics of Christian apologetics, a biblical worldview, Islam, and the nation's Christian heritage. He is also a member of the Council for National Policy.
Pastor Blair was named Oklahoma's Pastor of the Year by Bott Radio Network, and National Pastor of the Year in 2011 by Vision America. His radio ministry, Exploring the Word, airs weekdays on Bott Radio Network in Oklahoma, and received the Excellence in Broadcasting Award this year.
"I have been a voter for 34 years," Pastor Blair said. "There are several very committed followers of Jesus Christ in this race, some of whom I have supported in the past. However, I am endorsing Ted Cruz for the office of President of these United States. Senator Ted Cruz has the knowledge and the character to rip the Washington cartel out by the roots, restore limited Constitutional government, and re-align the proper balance of power between Washington DC, and the sovereign states."
"Ted is a born again, Bible-believing Christian and family man," Blair continued. "He has a proven record – a history of fighting for liberty, first as Solicitor General for Texas and now as U.S. Senator. And while the 'conservative' candidate often doesn't have the organization or the money to win, Ted Cruz has both. Washington has illegally acquired too much power. With a bankrupt Social Security system, $19 trillion of federal debt, and the Middle East on fire, we cannot afford to elect another president who will abuse the Constitution."
"Pastor Blair has been a leader for life and marriage in Oklahoma and beyond," Ted Cruz said. "I am honored to have the support of Pastor Blair, who has been a friend of natural marriage and an advocate for unborn life. He set out to walk in the footsteps of the colonial pastors who fought for "liberty from tyranny," and he has done so. I'm grateful for Pastor Blair's willingness to be a 'watchman on the wall.'
In 2008, Blair partnered with the Alliance Defense Fund as a leader of "Pulpit Freedom Sunday," in which pastors around the nation challenged the Johnson Amendment, which banned tax-exempt organizations from endorsing candidates for public office. He is a leader of the Protect Life and Marriage OK! petition.
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This race gets more and more interesting.
I love Ted Cruz. He was my guy before Trump came on the scene. Trump has my support because he’s the kind of SOB we need fighting for us.
Ted would do great to a point but he’s donor owed and lets be honest, Trump’s smashmouth honesty has set the narrative of the insurgency.
Trump/Cruz
I was thinking it couldn't have been the former MLB outfielder.
This could offer some advantages.
I’d be more interested in looking at larger implications of devoting oneself to a Christian worldview. How serious are churches like this about wanting to live effectively enough to the grace of God that they become personal advertisements for the Lord without having to artificially affect methods?
What I mean is, it’s fine to believe Cruz would be the best for the top spot. It might not be so fine to believe that tossing him over the political transom into the White House will fix the spiritual issues of the land or that a president is even charged with such responsibilities. (The bible seems to suggest in Romans 13 that his role beyond “executing God’s wrath on evil” is to speak well of those who do well — and Trump could do that as well as Cruz could, methinks.) And distressingly, I see a lot of church religion whose beliefs look like the latter. This is not to damn those folks, but to remind them there is a higher view to be taken.
Ted Cruz, the intellectual version of Donald Trump.
=================================
BOTH men are VERY smart.
Cruz has the brains and education that we can all admire. He would be an excellent POTUS.
Question: thinking of foreign policy (especially the middle east and China) and our new POTUS representing us to the jerks aholes of the world WHICH man would you like to have facing off the rest of the world and speaking for us?
Mr. Educated Nice Guy or Mr. Trump?
.
Snarl...
Like I managed to observe just now, sometimes it seems that when looked at through a bible lens, the suitability of Cruz and Trump for the role seems closer together than we would deem if we were voting for a pastor.
Romans 13 puts it (a) to execute God’s wrath upon those who do evil; (b) to commend those who do good. Nothing about needing to be a believer, just to be faithful to those.
Suddenly having Trump as a wrath guy (but still within bounds of reason) makes more sense; and his Make America Great Again meme seems to fit with the commendation role.
Wouldn’t it be weird if even the bible gave Trump the nod here... though he’s hardly a believer if he is at all. I’m getting scared of what I see in the bible. It isn’t at all intuitive sometimes.
So...The gist of the article is less an endorsement for Cruz as it is more an advertisement for Blair’s “ministry”?
Meh...When Blair can structure his media presence to call-out and challenge Al Sharpton or Je$$ie Jack$on, the rest of America will sit back and watch...
...with popcorn.
My question above was: who would you rather see facing off the jerk nations of the world (especially the middle east and China)?
Mr. Nice super-educated Guy?
or
Mr. Trump?
I BET that the "world" wants us to elect Mr. Cruz because NONE of them want to tangle deal with Mr. Trump. THAT should say it all.
Well I would be kind to Blair, as to all ministers. I am not going to put scare quotes around the word “ministry” for the sake of describing what he does if it has any element of gospel in it at all.
There may be a kind of group misunderstanding going on in modern American Christendom, as I see it. They think a general outward religiosity is all America needs. Get the morals back, don’t diss God too much, and we return to halcyon days.
And I say wait a minute. Keep the horse of faith in front of the cart of blessings. Even if you are treating God and morals like dirt, would you at least BELIEVE Him? When He says He loves you, is willing to forgive you all your wrongs, and desires to do great things through you?
It’s more a systemic issue and this could give rise to a lot of Cruz endorsements — he’s the obviously-Christian guy. Which might end up being right for reasons that we don’t even know about, but putting him and others up to a bible test for executing the role, Cruz might not actually be the best right now.
Maybe.
Poorly written title. It sounds like they are endorsing a pastor.
:: Well I would be kind to Blair, as to all ministers ::
The parishioners of Pastor Neimoller agree with you...
I have no faith in "maybes." :o)
Niemoller did them good so what’s the issue?
Badly done gospel is better than no gospel. God having to correct something is better than having nothing there to correct.
To quote The Red Queen [citing the qu’ran]...
Keep your head!
The bible has perhapses in it too, when the outcome depends on more than just God’s promise.
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