Ted Cruz pays tribute to pastor who turned his atheist father into a Christian

[rug]

Hazel Torres
Published 31 January 2016

Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz says aside from his parents, he would not be where he is now aspiring for the presidency of the greatest country in the world without a pastor named Brother Gaylon Wiley.

Writing for Charisma News, the senator from Texas shared intimate details of himself and his family and how they all found Jesus Christ.

He mentions one all-important date that will forever be etched in his family's consciousness: April 15, 1975. At precisely 11 p.m. on that date, his dad Rafael, formerly a die-hard atheist, dropped to his knees after being hit "like a sledgehammer" by the words uttered by pastor Wiley who convinced him to give his life to Jesus.

A year before his father's transformation, Cruz says his dad left him and his mother in Calgary, Canada for reasons he could not understand since he was just three years old then. At that time he says both his parents were hard drinkers and neither were Christians yet.

http://www.christiantoday.com/article/ted.cruz.pays.tribute.to.pastor.who.turned.his.atheist.father.into.a.christian.leading.to.his.own.redemption/78194.htm

Cruz would be a dick whether his father remained atheist, became a Christion, or a Ba'hai or a Jain.

[longship]

1. And Cruz and his father are both... Get a bowl, a spoon, and some milk.

They are both cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs. Nobody in the right mind would want either of them anywhere near government.

Oopsie! Too late! Well, let's try to minimize the damage. Unfortunately he's elected from Texas where delusion reigns tall.

Please, somebody expose this lunatic!

As always, rug.

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. But if his father had remained an atheist, would Ted have got elected?

Ted's religion, and his father's, seems to have driven him to believing he's on A Mission From God to be a dick to the entire world.

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/ted-cruzs-father-tells-him-god-has-destined-you-greatness

And they make full use of religious gullibility (perhaps even more, if you don't think they really beleive that 'destined' crap):

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/rafael-cruz-people-are-persecuting-my-son-because-he-s-telling-truth-just-jesus

http://www.charismanews.com/opinion/watchman-on-the-wall/54666-ted-cruz-an-ezra-for-this-hour-in-america

Ted Cruz Is the Humble Apocalyptic Martyr We Deserve

CLIVE, IOWA—Righteousness glows, like a distant fire in the snow. Self-righteousness glistens, like a thin sheet of white ice on a foul, poisoned river. At Noah's Event Center on Wednesday night, there was a great glistening on the stage. Rick Perry came to introduce Ted Cruz. So did Congressman Louie Gohmert. So did Congressman Steve King. So did Iowa evangelical ward-heeler Bob Vander Plaats, and so did Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, because what would this company be without the leader of a designated hate group anyway? All of them went out of their way to mention one quality that Ted Cruz possesses, but I'm not going to tell you what it is because it's less a recommendation than it is a punchline.

Make no mistake: Ted Cruz is running an explicitly theocratic campaign. (His well-worn Constitution seems to be missing Article VI, Section III. You know, that whole thing about banning religious tests for office.) He has mashed up radical Tentherism, talk-radio conservatism, and religious extremism into a great ball and he is running to lead a revival in this nation based in end-times Protestant eschatology. It is Dominionism 101. (There is more than a little irony present when Cruz mocks the president as "the chosen one," when there is considerable evidence that Cruz was deliberately raised to believe that of himself by his crazoid preacher father.) When Steve King says he prayed his way to endorsing Cruz, and that he did so "hoping that god would raise up a leader," he's not kidding, and I promise we'll get to that later. But the thing about it is, not only is Ted Cruz running an explicitly theocratic campaign, he's running a very good explicitly theocratic campaign. Of all the true believers in Ted Cruz on that stage, nobody believes more truly in Ted Cruz than the candidate himself.
...
But he never glistens more brightly than he does when he rolls into his peroration, asking his audience to pray the country back from the "abyss" that he and this audience see so very clearly yawning before them. He quotes from Chronicles: "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." And there's no question in anybody's mind who the instrument of divine healing will be.
...
He humbles himself before god…and virtually nobody else.

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a41592/ted-cruz-self-righteous/

Without the support of various corrupt, lying, and/or deluded evangelical pastors and their followers, could Cruz ever have got to national prominence?

[rug]

3. The same thing that got him elected in Texas is what will not get him elected as President.

My guess is that religiosity and elected office is a bell curve. His deviation is way beyond standard.