The father of presidential hopeful Ted Cruz says our most fundamental freedoms are under assault and pastors need to engage believers to fight for our most cherished rights, including the freedom to preach the gospel.
Rafael Cruz, an ordained minister, is also author of “A Time for Action: Empowering the Faithful to Reclaim America.”
The story of the elder Cruz is one that his son has told many times on the campaign trail: how he escaped from Batista-ruled Cuba in the 1950’s with just $100 and the clothes on his back and worked as a dishwasher until he could go to school and start a better job.
He says even as a teenager, he knew America was a “bastion of freedom.”
“Horatio Alger stories were things that everybody read. They were very inspirational because in many countries of the world those things are impossible. To think that anyone could achieve their dreams is not something that people in the majority of countries of the world see as remotely possible,” said Cruz.
Since he knows what life is like without the freedoms we enjoy, Cruz says it is vital that Americans understand they are at risk.
“Too many people in America think that we could never lose our freedoms. The reality is we’re losing our freedoms more and more every day. I must have told my son a dozen times when he was a kid, ‘You know, Ted, when I lost my freedom in Cuba, I had a place to come to. If we lose our freedoms here, where are we going to go?'” said Cruz.
Which freedoms are under assault? Cruz starts with the Obama approach to the second amendment.
“Every time there is any kind of massacre or any kind of a shooting, immediately the first thing that comes out of their mouths is gun control. We saw it after Newtown. We saw it after San Bernardino. The second amendment right to keep and bear arms is to protect us from excesses by the government,” said Cruz.
He says the history of gun control in authoritarian regimes is a bloody and tragic tale.
“You look at every tin horn dictator, whether it was Stalin or Mao or Pol Pot or Castro, every time a dictator has taken the guns from the population, then they have used the guns against the population,” said Cruz.
Another major concern for Cruz is the left’s use of the phrase “freedom of worship.”
“It sounds okay but we need to realize that freedom of worship is not the same as freedom of religion. The way socialists or communists define worship is that’s what you do inside a house of worship,” said Cruz.
He says history is a stark guide on this issue too.
“In Cuba and other communist countries, you have freedom of worship. You can worship inside the four walls of a church. You can even preach the gospel. You have spies there, but you can do it inside the four walls of the church. If you do it out on the street, you’re put in jail,” said Cruz.
He says to pay close attention because slick language can lead to repressive policies.
“When they replace ‘freedom of religion’ with ‘freedom of worship,’ they’re basically saying you keep your religion inside your church. But once you step out the door, you’re coming into a 100 percent secular country,” said Cruz.
As a result, Cruz says Christians and all people of faith need to stand up to defend their rights and pastors need to lead the way.
“It is time they become biblically correct instead of politically correct,” said Cruz.
He point to a study from Barna Group, showing 90 percent of pastors believe the Bible addresses all of the problems addressing society but only 10 percent say they preach on those things.
“We can’t divorce ourselves from what’s happening in the civic society. If we do not bring the moral fiber and the moral character of America to the forefront, America’s going to crumble,” said Cruz.
Some pastors don’t want to get mixed up in the sordid arena of politics, while others insist their mission is not to influence elections but to build believers to the glory of God and to reach unbelievers with the gospel of Christ.
While he applauds the latter stand in part, Cruz says those pastors need to consider the impact of losing core freedoms.
“For pastors that say, ‘My greatest responsibility is to preach the gospel,’ I agree with that. But the second greatest responsibility is to preserve the freedom to do the most important thing. Our freedoms are getting to the point if we do not have a change of course, it will become impossible to preach the gospel,” said Cruz.
He says there is historic evidence to back up his position, nothing that the preaching of Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield in the Great Awakening heavily influenced the American founders decades later. He also points out that colonial preachers were railing against the very same grievances listed in the Declaration of Independence as much as a decade earlier.
Cruz says believers are looking to pastors to provide guidance and will look elsewhere if they don’t get it from the pulpit.
He says if pastors and believers cede the political stage to those hostile towards them, the eradication of rights will come as no surprise.
“If those people are not running for office, are not even voting, what is left? What is left is those who trample those principles are voting for those who trample those principles. So we get what we deserve,” said Cruz.
