I appreciate the admonitions, but I do have to disagree with your suggestion to Ted.
This is a Republican Primary, and most of us understand that a person’s character is shaped by their biblical faith and practice of the moral principles religion teaches. Reagan often quoted the scriptures directly AS a statesman.
If we truly have arrived (as I believe we have) at the place where the exclusion of scripture and religious principles in political discourse is necessary, then the hope for any shred of liberty to be protected by either the government or maintained by the people it governs, will be in ruins.
Liberty as intended for us was established in the Christian/biblical worldview. A nation that has to exclude extolling those principles out of offense to the body politic is a nation that is not capable of maintaining liberty and will always empower government to act in the place of God.
It is exactly the root cause of how we have arrived at this point as a nation.
“This is a Republican Primary, and most of us understand that a person’s character is shaped by their biblical faith and practice of the moral principles religion teaches. Reagan often quoted the scriptures directly AS a statesman.”
Let me be very clear on this matter. I did not say anything like what you imply. Yes, Ronald Reagan quoted the Scriptures frequently, but did he preach? I think not. He was a Christian statesman, which is exactly what I said Cruz should be, and for that matter Trump and Rubio, if they are serious Christians. Every Christian should speak as a Christian, which will from time to time include quoting the Bible. But they should do so only in proportion to their right understanding and appropriate to their calling (vocation). To do otherwise is to deny what the Scriptures themselves clearly teach and thus to give those who would like to discredit Christianity and Christians plenty of ammunition.
Cruz is running to be president of the United States, not preacher of the United States. There is a difference. More specifically, there is a difference between the divinely intended and instituted estates of government (civil) and church (ecclesiastical), a distinction the authors of our Declaration of Independence and Constitution were well aware of and which caused them to choose their words accordingly. I would trust very, very few preachers to be president; and I would trust very, very few would-be presidents to be preachers. Ted is a very good lawyer, but not a very good theologian; Christian, yes, Christian theologian, not so much.
One of the great problems in our country is that many people no longer use their own language accurately, whether reading or speaking, and no longer are as well read as they used to be in the basics of history, philosophy, and theology. This hurts our ability both to “talk politics” and to “talk Bible.” It is a direct result of the continuing failure of education in our nation.