"I'm completely in favor of the separation of Church and State. These two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them together is certain death." George Carlin
April 20, 2016
By: Linda Case Gibbons
The Founding Fathers couldn't have made it more clear: Church and State? Keep them separate!
Religion was a big bone of contention in their day, and they were bound and determined that religious persecution, and the assumption that a union between church and state was a natural state of events, would not carry over to America.
As president George Washington wrote: "Religious controversies are always productive of more acrimony and irreconcilable hatreds than those which spring from any other cause."
So it came as a surprise when Rafael Cruz announced that his son, Ted, had been chosen by God to be the next U.S. president.
There aren't many parents who would think one of their kids was chosen by God for anything except perhaps Mary and Joseph.
And Ted Cruz' father.
And it gets worse.
Glenn Beck is a big Cruz fan. He's endorsed him for president, and, as a supporter, unfortunately isn't above praying on his knees, on stage, while stumping for Cruz during a campaign rally.
"Fall to your knees and pray to God to reveal to you what the hour is," Beck recently told an audience at a rally in South Carolina. "This is your last call, America! Stand with the man I believe was raised for this house. Ted Cruz!
And it got much, much worse when Beck claimed Cruz' birth was brought about by "the hand of divine providence."
Who knew? We sure didn't. And we sure didn't care.
Beck did a pretty good job when he was with FOX News His conservative take on politics was sound, bolstered with well-researched facts and contained incisive insights. Sure he cried a lot about things from time to time, but then so did John Boehner.
During his shows, Beck would speak about his religion now and again. He was religious. But as years went on, he went off the rails in a frightening fashion, becoming increasingly "religious," and intolerant of those who are not.
Especially Donald Trump. Beck hates him and uses his radio show to tell the world how much he hates him.
So, one might ask with a father who is a controversial, outspoken preacher, and a political supporter who is exhibiting signs of being a religious zealot, what's going on with Cruz?
Is this man presidential material?
Of course religion has its place, but that place is not in a political campaign, especially "Nasty Christianity."
So if these three guys are going to play the religion card, isn't it time we ask them, "Hey, fellas. What Would Jesus Do?"
He wouldn't tell people who they should vote for, but would probably give guidance on how to behave if you are claiming to be a Christian.
Glenn Beck is a vicious Christian, ridiculing Trump mercilessly.
"No Christian...somebody who is living their faith...says 'I want that guy,' Donald Trump," Beck said during his radio show.
And Cruz' father is no better than Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
During a Sunday morning service at Grace Baptist Church in Iowa, before the caucus, he asked the question, "If the righteous are not running for office and not even voting, who is left? The wicked electing the wicked. And we get what we deserve."
What the elder Cruz didn't ask was, "Son, why did you say Dr. Ben Carson was dropping out of the race when he wasn't? You cost that guy a lot of votes."
That might have explained to him why his son earned the name "Lyin' Ted."
What the elder Cruz didn't ask was, "Why did you give your children speaking parts in your campaign ads, Ted? Why did you have them pass along your talking points through their little seven and four year old lips?
"And you actually read to them, from pretend bedtime story books in front of the Christmas tree? 'How Obamacare Stole Christmas,' 'Rudolph the Underemployed Reindeer,' and 'The Grinch Who Lost Her E-mails!'"
As an arbiter of all things Christian, why didn't the elder Cruz, the preacher, the man of God, say to his son, "That wasn't very Christian, Ted. That's no way to win the race."
It only seems fair that just as Ted Cruz and Glenn Beck and Rafael Cruz ask about Donald Trump we can also ask: "Is Ted Cruz presidential material?"
We've already had a president who believes that the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet to heal when he became president. A president whose staff, it is rumored, call him the Black Jesus.
We don't need another delusional man in the White House.
Hold the line, America.