Ted Cruz and the Seven Mountains- Part Three- Religious Dictatorship
An Added Note
I guess I should have been a little more prompt in writing this and getting it up, for obvious reasons. I just want to point out that the country has not seen the end either of Ted Cruz, nor of the miserable Dominionists, and their attempt to impose a dictatorship on us, so I hope what follows will still retain some relevance.
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Well, now we get to the heart of all of this, but before the specifics I want to make a comment that applies not just to Ted Cruz but to Republicans in general. The goals and beliefs of Republicans, both many leaders and their base, have degenerated to the point that they are so foreign and repugnant to decent people, that most Americans simply cannot wrap their minds around the fact that any number of people would believe this sort of thing at all; and in this lies one of the main defenses of people like Ted Cruz: without really being confronted with instances of these horrid attitudes, most people simply can't accept that this is happening at all. So in this case, in particular, with a person like Cruz emerging as perhaps the most powerful Republican leader in the country, we can't afford to avert our eyes.
Cruz' father is a hard core right wing religious figure. Most people know that, but they don't have a clue of how extreme he is; and in what follows, please remember that Ted himself has never repudiated or criticized a bit of this malignant nonsense.
Here's papa:
"In no way, shape, or form was Jefferson implying that the church should be restricted from exerting an influence upon society."
May I interrupt here to point out that this is, of course, a total lie. Now, back to Rafael:
"On the contrary, the Bible tells us that we are the salt of the earth and light of the world…Doesn’t that suggest that our influence should touch every area of society – our families, the media, sports, arts and entertainment, education, business, and government?”
“How can we be salt and light if we are hiding behind the pulpit and just hiding behind the four walls of a church? The church should be salt and light in every area of society. And, finally, I think pastors are starting to wake up to that realization.
The Body of Christ is waking up, and they are coalescing around my son.”
From Right Wing Watch:
"It is interesting to read the extent to which Ted Cruz is a product of careful grooming since childhood by his father and by far-right organizations. Rafael was active in the Religious Roundtable’s efforts to elect Ronald Reagan, and Ted, then nine years old, heard plenty of dinner conversations about the importance of getting rid of Jimmy Carter and replacing him with Ronald Reagan. Says Rafael, “My son received a dose of constitutionally conservative politics from a biblical worldview every day for a year when he was just nine!” As a kid, Rafael’s friends introduced Ted to the founder of the Free Enterprise Institute and began inculcating him in the teachings of people like Milton Friedman, Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek. Ted was part of a group of five high school students that the Institute sent around Texas giving speeches on free-market economics and the Constitution."
Here is another, somewhat long video of Rafael Cruz. If you can bring yourself to click on it, you will find right at the beginning, Rafael stating openly that all wealth is stored for the "righteous," i.e. people who share Rafeal's psychotic views, and that it is the duty of the "Kings" to take the wealth of everyone else and give it to the righteous. Of course, Rafael identifies his son Ted as the King that is to do that in this era. This is what Ted was raised to believe.
In summary, this comment from The Daily Beast:
"Rafael Cruz’s views of his son’s role in all of this are literally messianic. When Ted was 4 years old, Rafael says that he told him “You know, Ted, you have been gifted above any man that I know and God has destined you for greatness.”... Rafael Cruz, however, has a very specific, messianic role in mind...
But on the profound level, Ted Cruz’s role is to “take dominion” of the governmental ‘mountain,’ thus effectuating a Bernie Sanders-like “wealth transfer,” except not from the 1 percent to the 99 percent, but from the wicked to the righteous. Even the cover of Rafael Cruz’s book makes this clear, with its picture of a church looming over a much-smaller American flag.
Unsurprisingly, all this is a mission from God."
Well, it is more than clear that Rafael is preaching standard Seven Mountains Dominionism here, with the added detail that his son Ted has been put on this earth by God to bring about this ugly, hateful vision. Now comes the difficult question: How much of this hateful lunacy does Ted himself believe?
There is no smoking-gun answer to this question, because, as you must remember, "Lying Ted" is a politician, not an evangelist, and he is not stupid enough to go around saying that he was appointed by God to rule the world. But, he has steadfastly refused to disavow his father's claims in any way, and we must remember that he has had this abominable myth fed to him since he was four years old.
With Ted Cruz, the country is truly facing the possibility of the rise of a Christian Taliban, intent on destroying every thing we regard as essential to our national character, and replacing it with a despotism governed by its leaders' warped interpretation of their religion, which serves only to allow them to do whatever they please. If such people were ever to take control here, it would be the end of the United States as we know it, and it would be an end that would see this country replaced by something that could make even Nazi Germany look more moderate in contrast. And no, I do not believe I am exaggerating. This country's geographical isolation and its possession of several thousand nuclear weapons, which Ted has already said he might use, would make it almost impossible for other countries to dislodge a theocratic government from power, leaving it free to go on rampages that will make the twentieth century look mild in comparison.
How long would it be, for example, before these people, who talk blithely about turning the Middle East to a sea of glass, would license themselves to begin exterminating the world's billion and a half Muslims? Freed from any restraints whatever, and convinced that they are directed by God, this is absolutely what they will come to, sooner or later, if they are ever allowed to take power.
I guess I should have been a little more prompt in writing this and getting it up, for obvious reasons. I just want to point out that the country has not seen the end either of Ted Cruz, nor of the miserable Dominionists, and their attempt to impose a dictatorship on us, so I hope what follows will still retain some relevance.
___________________________________________________________________
Well, now we get to the heart of all of this, but before the specifics I want to make a comment that applies not just to Ted Cruz but to Republicans in general. The goals and beliefs of Republicans, both many leaders and their base, have degenerated to the point that they are so foreign and repugnant to decent people, that most Americans simply cannot wrap their minds around the fact that any number of people would believe this sort of thing at all; and in this lies one of the main defenses of people like Ted Cruz: without really being confronted with instances of these horrid attitudes, most people simply can't accept that this is happening at all. So in this case, in particular, with a person like Cruz emerging as perhaps the most powerful Republican leader in the country, we can't afford to avert our eyes.
Cruz' father is a hard core right wing religious figure. Most people know that, but they don't have a clue of how extreme he is; and in what follows, please remember that Ted himself has never repudiated or criticized a bit of this malignant nonsense.
Here's papa:
"In no way, shape, or form was Jefferson implying that the church should be restricted from exerting an influence upon society."
May I interrupt here to point out that this is, of course, a total lie. Now, back to Rafael:
"On the contrary, the Bible tells us that we are the salt of the earth and light of the world…Doesn’t that suggest that our influence should touch every area of society – our families, the media, sports, arts and entertainment, education, business, and government?”
“How can we be salt and light if we are hiding behind the pulpit and just hiding behind the four walls of a church? The church should be salt and light in every area of society. And, finally, I think pastors are starting to wake up to that realization.
The Body of Christ is waking up, and they are coalescing around my son.”
From Right Wing Watch:
"It is interesting to read the extent to which Ted Cruz is a product of careful grooming since childhood by his father and by far-right organizations. Rafael was active in the Religious Roundtable’s efforts to elect Ronald Reagan, and Ted, then nine years old, heard plenty of dinner conversations about the importance of getting rid of Jimmy Carter and replacing him with Ronald Reagan. Says Rafael, “My son received a dose of constitutionally conservative politics from a biblical worldview every day for a year when he was just nine!” As a kid, Rafael’s friends introduced Ted to the founder of the Free Enterprise Institute and began inculcating him in the teachings of people like Milton Friedman, Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek. Ted was part of a group of five high school students that the Institute sent around Texas giving speeches on free-market economics and the Constitution."
Here is another, somewhat long video of Rafael Cruz. If you can bring yourself to click on it, you will find right at the beginning, Rafael stating openly that all wealth is stored for the "righteous," i.e. people who share Rafeal's psychotic views, and that it is the duty of the "Kings" to take the wealth of everyone else and give it to the righteous. Of course, Rafael identifies his son Ted as the King that is to do that in this era. This is what Ted was raised to believe.
In summary, this comment from The Daily Beast:
"Rafael Cruz’s views of his son’s role in all of this are literally messianic. When Ted was 4 years old, Rafael says that he told him “You know, Ted, you have been gifted above any man that I know and God has destined you for greatness.”... Rafael Cruz, however, has a very specific, messianic role in mind...
But on the profound level, Ted Cruz’s role is to “take dominion” of the governmental ‘mountain,’ thus effectuating a Bernie Sanders-like “wealth transfer,” except not from the 1 percent to the 99 percent, but from the wicked to the righteous. Even the cover of Rafael Cruz’s book makes this clear, with its picture of a church looming over a much-smaller American flag.
Unsurprisingly, all this is a mission from God."
Well, it is more than clear that Rafael is preaching standard Seven Mountains Dominionism here, with the added detail that his son Ted has been put on this earth by God to bring about this ugly, hateful vision. Now comes the difficult question: How much of this hateful lunacy does Ted himself believe?
There is no smoking-gun answer to this question, because, as you must remember, "Lying Ted" is a politician, not an evangelist, and he is not stupid enough to go around saying that he was appointed by God to rule the world. But, he has steadfastly refused to disavow his father's claims in any way, and we must remember that he has had this abominable myth fed to him since he was four years old.
With Ted Cruz, the country is truly facing the possibility of the rise of a Christian Taliban, intent on destroying every thing we regard as essential to our national character, and replacing it with a despotism governed by its leaders' warped interpretation of their religion, which serves only to allow them to do whatever they please. If such people were ever to take control here, it would be the end of the United States as we know it, and it would be an end that would see this country replaced by something that could make even Nazi Germany look more moderate in contrast. And no, I do not believe I am exaggerating. This country's geographical isolation and its possession of several thousand nuclear weapons, which Ted has already said he might use, would make it almost impossible for other countries to dislodge a theocratic government from power, leaving it free to go on rampages that will make the twentieth century look mild in comparison.
How long would it be, for example, before these people, who talk blithely about turning the Middle East to a sea of glass, would license themselves to begin exterminating the world's billion and a half Muslims? Freed from any restraints whatever, and convinced that they are directed by God, this is absolutely what they will come to, sooner or later, if they are ever allowed to take power.
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