Predictably, Republican candidates for the Presidential nomination are up to their usual pandering to the faithful and osculation of religion. But it doesn’t get much more blatant than this statement from Ted Cruz, junior Senator from Texas, reported by Right Wing Watch (my emphasis):
Ted Cruz was thethird Republican presidential candidate to appear at the “National Religious Liberties Conference” in Iowa yesterday, an event organized by extremist right-wing pastor Kevin Swanson, who earlier in the program proclaimed that, according to the Bible, “the sin of homosexuality … is worthy of death.”
Swanson introduced Cruz by stating that Jesus Christ “is king of the President of the United States whether he will admit it or not and that president should submit to His rule and to His law” before asking Cruz to share his opinion on how important it is for “the President of the United States to fear God.”
Cruz, predictably, asserted that fear of God is absolutely vital, declaring that “any president who doesn’t begin every day on his knees isn’t fit to be commander-in-chief of this nation.“
Here’s the video:
Although a substantial proportion of Americans agree with Cruz that an atheist isn’t fit to be President (40% in a recent Gallup poll)*, I doubt that everyone in that group would require a President who begins his (or her, starting in 2017) knees. At any rate, Cruz is going against the U.S. Constitution here, which, in Article VI, paragraph 3, says that no religious test should be required for government office.
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*The good news, though: 58% of Americans now say they would vote for a qualified atheist candidate for President, and that’s up from only 18% in 1958 (check the link above). This, I assert, is a strong sign of the waning of religion, and attendant reduction in demonization of atheism, in the United States.
h/t: jsp
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I am starting to think that our “friends” south of the 40th have a tendency to use their constitution like they do the bible… when it suits them. I am surprised, given how vociferous Americans can be about their constitution, that more do not decry this apparent lack of separation between the church and the state.
49th? Or were you referring to the Southern States? Either works actually.
Is it okay to just say yes 😉 What is a few degrees among friends, plus the 0 and the 9 are right beside each other on the keyboard so they are essentially the same…
On another note the States which have enacted State Religious Freedom Restoration Acts are all essentially below the 40th. Although looking at those States which have proposed legislation in 2015, we may need to consider building that proposed beaver dam right along the 48th…
….damn keyboard 😉
One of their favorite talking points is that separation of church and state doesn’t exist, solely because the exact words “separation of church and state” don’t appear in the constitution.
“tendency to use their constitution like they do the bible… when it suits them.”
You’re just now picking up on that? 🙂
Kevin Swanson’s article is headed ‘if my son invited me to his gay wedding I’d smear my body in cow manure’ when attending, or words to that effect.
If Kevin Swanson were my father I’d be tempted to smear myself in cow manure!
If Swanson were my father, I’d be tempted send out a wedding invitation for me and another guy just to see if he’d show up covered in manure.
I’d include a 5 gallon pail of fresh manure. I’d even spring for overnight delivery to make sure it’s fresh.
You could have taken up the Cards Against Humanity “bullshit” special edition of a year or two ago. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if some people did – but the recipients are keeping quite about it, or taking legal action, or something.
This year they’re doing something about “8 sensible gifts for Hannukah,” but I don’t remember enough about Jewish culture to work out what they’ll actually be sending.
(Yes, they did send out bullshit. Heat-treated so it was harmless, but otherwise bullshit. In a gift wrapped box. Srsly.)
K. Swanson isn’t fit to be commander-in-chief of this nation.
Neither is Ted Cruz. But to be fair, religious nut jobs are not fit for public office in the US or anywhere else.
No one who believes no atheist is fit to be president is fit to be president.
Any would-be president who says he takes orders from God has tacitly admitted that his oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States would be a knowing lie.
The link to Right Wing Watch is busted presumably because they have corrected spelling in the original link from “nationn” (link in this post) to “nation”
The new link to the RWW page is
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/cruz-any-president-who-doesnt-begin-every-day-his-knees-isnt-fit-be-commander-chief-nation
In any case, the YouTube video has been removed. I’ve briefly looked for an adequate substitute and can’t find one. Most of the YouTube coverage of this conference seems to be focused on its anti-gay rhetoric, not what they said about atheists
Rachel Maddow has a lot of footage on her show, but I don’t think she has the “no atheist…” comment.
Since Cruz doesn’t really have any other direction, his main thing is to position himself as the rightest of far right wing nuts in the republican tent. He became a tea party great soon after getting elected down there in bible country, Tx. and I think he is just a little desperate among all these big thinkers like Trump.
He has to be really in poor shape because he came here to our one-horse town in Iowa the other day. I missed out on whatever it was he said while he was here but I’m certain it contained several Amens and howdys.
On Fox yesterday I even heard one of their commentators complain about how while he’s okay when talking, when he gets into preacher-mode he’s just annoying. I too find his preacher-mode extremely irritating, although to me he’s always got this supercilious look on his face that makes me feel like slapping him (and I’ve never slapped anyone in my life).
I’m in agreement. He’s one of the few politicians who is actually (IMO) less effective in ‘stump speech mode’ than he is when just conversing naturally.
But after a couple of rounds of debate, I don’t really care what Cruz has to say about atheists because I’m very strongly convinced he’s not going to be the primary choice. You know which of the other candidates is using the same outreach strategies he’s using? Huckabee and Jindal. Has it helped any of them in the polls? No. IMO he’s voluntarily boarded the B-Ark at this point and its just a matter of time before it departs.
Commenters here will know Yakaru, who also comments on my site. S/he has posted a link to the Rachel Maddow Show that plays both Cruz’s comment Jerry reffered to above and Swanson’s “kill the gays” speech. The other two candidates that appeared at that conference were, of course, Jindal and Huckabee.
I agree that Cruz won’t be the nominee, but at this early stage he’s very popular, so he gets to spread his ideas. The “B-Ark” sums him up perfectly, although it’s disturbing to think he might be an ancestor. 🙂
What was he doing in your one-horse town, and more importantly, did it scare the horse?
(This is an oblique reference to an Otto von Bismark story, of uncertain truthfulness.)
The video has been removed. YouTube says they have had multiple complaints of copyright infringement by RWW.
Sounds like a whole lot of people just don’t like having their own words exposed.
I wrote about this yesterday. It happened last Friday – RWW hasn’t been clear in their piece about the date.
Even the Christian sources I’ve read have been pretty neutral in their reporting of this. There’s not the widespread support there once would have been for such a comment, which is good. It’s only extremists saying such stuff out loud now, and while they’re a loud voice in GOP primaries, I suspect they’re increasingly irrelevant in the country as a whole.
If you maybe don’t like Cruz so much, the Trump man might be doing better today. His new thing on immigration is a “deportation force”. I guess this is his answer when so many ask, Donald, how do you move 11 million people from here to there?
He refers us back to the good old days and do what Eisenhower did back in 1954. It was call – operation wetback. So the title should tell you all you need to know. If you think this is a joke, you can look it up. Very odd, that this guy says the Mexicans love him.
I watched the GOP debate the other night. He was talking about this then too. Some of the other candidates were challenging him on how he was going to do it, especially Kasich and Bush. In fact, Kasich got the loudest applause of the night on that, so I think there are plenty of Republicans who recognize how stupid Trump’s policies on the subject are.
Stupid yes but the damage to the republican party concerning Hispanic votes is headed in the same direction as African-American. This can only mean that this white, soon to be minority of bible punchers will, sooner or later, be sending their votes to never-never land.
I think they can run 30 candidates for president next time if they want and it won’t mean a thing.
I agree. Their voters are overwhelmingly from a shrinking demographic – white men and married white women. The only reason they still do okay in any elections is that in the US that is also the same demographic that is best at getting out to vote.
It also moved 1 million people the first year; quite a bit smaller than the 11 million today.
Another interesting factoid Wikipedia tells about the program is that while it was going on, employment of illegal immigrants by US farmers increased every single year. IOW while the raw numbers of exported people were impressive, it failed utterly in achieving its goal.
Yes, but you are just looking at details and facts. Trump “the manager” will show us how to do it. I think you can quote him on that.
I’m surprised. Trump the manager should be glad of the 11 million. After all they represent cheap labor for his casinos and other business ventures.
Oh, wait…they also represent Democratic votes.
No No. Trump says they love him. The Mexicans love him.
Some of his best friends are Mexicans! 😉
Well, 11 million is a pretty big task. Assad has only managed to move about 4 million Syrians out of the country, and he’s had to get the Russians in to help. According to Wikipedia, the internment of US citizens who were Japanese-looking during world war 2 was only a bit over 100,000 strong, so that’s not going to be very useful experience.
So, The Cathead is proposing something around 4 and a bit times the size of the current US prison system. Big project! He’ll be going with the lowest bidder, I take it?
Yes please. Give me a leader who gets on their knees in submission to an invisible sky dictator every morning. I want a leader who grovels to the master.
I’d ask him, ‘When you get on your knees in the oval office, which of the Kochs will you blow first?’
If only all they wanted from him were blowjobs…
I suspect the only time Cruz gets down on his knees is when he needs to kiss the tuches of whichever billionaire he is getting money from.
Turn the billionaire around 180 degrees and you’d have it about right.
Ohhh, I dont’ know. It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if it turned out that Cruz is a master of the rusty trombone*.
*I wouldn’t necessarily encourage anyone to look that up.
Is that the same as a player of the pink oboe?
Not that there is anything wrong with a player of the pink oboe becoming US president, I’m just surprised that a right-winger is so in favour of it.
No, not the same. To “play” the rusty trombone the two participants would need to be oriented as described by John Conoboy. Interestingly enough Wikipedia has a page on it. Will wonders never cease?
I am with you. I could care less if a presidential candidate, or anyone else, were an aficionado of the rusty trombone. Though I wouldn’t really be interested in hearing about it. But for someone like Ted Cruz it would be epically contrary and hypocritical. Therefore the likelihood that he truly is a master of the rusty trombone is significantly more probable.
Reblogged this on Nina's Soap Bubble Box and commented:
any potential leader who scapegoats a demographic or two, has demonstrated they are not of leader calibre.
and since Ted Cruz was born in Canada, he is not qualified by law to be president. Not that we want him back.
How ’bout a prohibition on Senators from Texas becoming President?
Besides, juxtapose “the sin of homosexuality … is worthy of death,” with “any president who doesn’t begin every day on his knees isn’t fit to be commander-in-chief of this nation.”
It’s like they’re begging everyone to make fun of them.
“Playing the rusty trombone while wearing Monica’s little blue (and yellow) number and puffing on one of Clinton’s specially-flavoured cigars.
More than two can play at all of those games. And probably have, though maybe not in the “Oval Office”. Which is sounding more and more like an euphemism the deeper we get into the bottom of this barrel.
This barrel has a bottom???
Not yet …
Turtles. It’s turtles all the way down.
I have observed that Cruz is a pathological liar. Has anyone noticed how he sounds like (and even resembles in some ways) the demagogic fascist Joseph McCarthy ?
Yes, I noticed both resemblances … Ugh.
The video has disappeared from RWW for some reason, but the same segments can be seen here on Rachel Maddow’s show.
Anyone doubting whether Swanson would really cover himself with be in sack cloth and ashes and covering himself in cow dung while attending a wedding should have a look at the guy.
Ted Cruz is on a race to the bottom. (Double entendre intended.)
Wow, those clips of Swanson are really disturbing. He’s deranged.
Your link now also leads to a dead end.
How can statements made publically as part of a public campaign for public office be subject to laws that make it impossible for the public to hear them?
Yeah…publicly.
I assume either Swanson or the Republicans have got it taken down. They must be learning something if they don’t want to stand by their deepest beliefs.
This clip still works as of 13 Nov–
Lest anyone say that no one takes Leviticus or Romans 1 seriously.
Typical freak: Willing to kill someone who doesn’t share his metaphysics and his imaginary friend.
I presume the irony of making such a statement at a “National Religious Liberties Conference” has escaped every single one of the participants.
In truth, him saying that doesn’t bother me at all, because while he may think that atheists aren’t fit to be President, I don’t think fundamentalists of any religion are either. This seems fair to me.
Now, had he said that atheists shouldn’t/don’t have the RIGHT to be President, that’d be a different story. I absolutely think fundies should have the RIGHT to be President, to run for and hold office should they be elected – but I’ll be damned if they ever get my vote.
Just curious on the name Pali? From Hawaii maybe – Kailua or Kanehoe.
Actually, it was a character of mine in an old role-playing game. I use the name for everything I do online.
No connection/allusion to the south Asian’s script?
Sorry to disappoint, but nope, none at all. Picked the name Pali as a shorthand for paladin, though the character ended up a cleric instead. 😉
Has anyone from the “liberal media” (or any other media, for that matter) bothered to challenge Cruz, Huckabee, and Jindal for not denouncing Swanson’s comment about gay people?
I believe Rachel Maddow?
Yeah, so they say.
Color me skeptical, too.
From the other side of the pond this political tussle for the faith vote is fascinating but I wonder what will be his policy (if he becomes President)to deal with the millions of atheists?
Have any of the aspiring contenders
ever been specific?
The republicans have a well known strategy which starts right for the primaries, then shifts toward the center for the general election. So as soon as a nominee is picked, he or she will suddenly moderate most of the really crazy talk and try to sell themselves to independents. The worry is, however, the country, as a whole, has shifted rightward over the years to such an extent that moderate republicans are what we used to call dangerous, right wing whackos.
And they still are dangerous, right wing whackos.
Probably an extension of the death penalty. They can’t let the Muslim countries out-religion them, after all. Can they?
It’s absolutely critical that a president can distinguish fact from fiction, and if an adult still believes that some god created the world in seven days, or that Jonah actually lived in a wale for three days, or that some natural disaster is a sign from some disgruntled god, or that our politicians are actually pink rabbits in disguise, well…
If given the choice, I would vote for someone more skeptical. 😉
Are people overlooking the obvious response to Cruz’s remark because it’s offensive or because it’s obvious?
🐾