http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/02/rafael-cruz-ted-cruz-campaign-god-signTed Cruz's Dad: My Son Ran for President After God Sent His Wife a Sign
(And other tales from Rafael Cruz's world of extreme Christian fundamentalism.)
That's how Rafael Cruz, Ted's father and a born-again pastor, described his son's decision-making process. Speaking on a syndicated radio show at the end of last year, the elder Cruz recounted that during a Sunday prayer session at a Texas church, Ted Cruz and his family sought God's guidance as to whether the senator should enter the presidential race, and after two hours of praying, God sent a message to Heidi that essentially said: Go for it.
Here's the story, according to Rafael Cruz:
My son Ted and his family spent six months in prayer seeking God's will for this decision. But the day the final green light came on, the whole family was together. It was a Sunday. We were all at his church, First Baptist Church in Houston, including his senior staff. After the church service, we all gathered at the pastor's office. We were on our knees for two hours seeking God's will. At the end of that time, a word came through his wife, Heidi. And the word came, just saying, "Seek God's face, not God's hand." And I'll tell you, it was as if there was a cloud of the holy spirit filling that place. Some of us were weeping, and Ted just looked up and said, "Lord, here am I, use me. I surrender to you, whatever you want." And he felt that was a green light to move forward.
That Rafael Cruz should cast his son's presidential campaign as a divinely inspired endeavor is not surprising. For years, he has been a freelancing evangelical who has promoted an extremely fundamentalist version of Christianity and decried those, including other Christians, who do not share his religious views. He has called for fundamentalist Christians to gain control of most aspects of American society, and he has issued a series of controversial statements blasting President Barack Obama, gay rights activists, and other spiritual enemies. As Mother Jones first reported, he called Obama an "outright Marxist" who "seeks to destroy all concept of God" and urged Americans to send him "back to Kenya." He said it was "appalling" to have a gay mayor in Houston and asserted that Satan was behind the Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage.
In most instances, it would be unfair to judge a politician based on a relative's pronouncements. But for years—in his Senate race and in this presidential campaign—Ted Cruz has used his father to round up support from tea partiers, social conservatives, and evangelical leaders. The son, naturally, speaks lovingly of his father. Given that Cruz is seeking the presidency by courting the religious right and offering himself as a moral and godly candidate who shares the faith of evangelical voters—and given that he frequently quotes Rafael Cruz on the campaign trail to urge people to vote by God's values—a voter can likely gain some understanding of Ted Cruz's world (and perhaps his worldview) by examining the statements and professed beliefs of his father. And they are extreme.
