Rafael Cruz describes escape from firing squad

Rafael Cruz

Few Americans can say they know what it’s like to escape from a firing squad.

But Rafael Cruz, father of GOP presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz, can recall when as a young man he was arrested and accused of taking part in Fidel Castro’s insurgency against Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista.

It was when Batista still was fully in control of the island nation.

In a conversation with talk show host Glenn Beck, Cruz said he was part of a group of young people who believed they had nothing to lose and were filled with the kind of idealism that fuels most revolutionary movements.

It was November 1956, and Cruz and his unit were supposed to link up with Castro for an attack on the army barracks the next day. The attack was aborted at the last minute. The police picked up Cruz and his friends when they attempted to flee the city.

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The Cuban army soldiers began chanting for Cruz and his comrades to be put in front of a firing squad. However, just before they were to be executed, an acquaintance passed by whom Cruz knew from the university. Because he was the son of an army major, he was able to convince the soldiers to let Cruz and his fellow rebels go.

“Talk about divine providence,” said Cruz. “Had he not been there, in all probability we would have been shot.”

He explained: “When I was in Cuba, there were three different occasions where I thought I would be killed. And the God that I know, He knew me. And He had a different purpose for my life. So it is divine providence that I am here today.”

“Cruz chronicled his story in his new book, “A Time For Action: Empowering The Faithful To Reclaim America.”

As unlikely as it seems for the father of one of America’s best known conservatives, the elder Cruz got his start as a supporter of a Marxist revolution, the insurgency led by Castro.

“We were kids,” Cruz said, remembering. “As a matter of fact the revolution started in the high schools and the universities.”

“It always does,” commented Beck.

Rafael Cruz insists he didn’t know Castro was a Marxist.

“He presented himself as a freedom fighter,” said Cruz. “And actually, we all thought he was the solution to the dictatorship that was in Cuba. We were all fooled. And it was not until I went back to Cuba after he took over that I saw the hints of socialism. I was shocked when I saw him begin to confiscate private property, to start attacking freedom of the press and shutting down newspapers, and radio stations, and television stations. And then later on he started attacking freedom of religion.”

Cruz shared a widely circulated story of how Castro’s communist revolution attempted to drive God out of Cuba.

“You know, there’s one story … soldiers coming into a kindergarten class and telling them, ‘All right, kids, close your eyes and pray to God for candy,’” recounted Cruz. “And then they would say, ‘Where’s the candy?’ No candy. And then they would say, ‘All right, close your eyes again and pray to Fidel for candy.’ And while the kids had their eyes closed they would very quietly place candy on the desk.”

Cruz recalled he was told by a woman who had grown up in communist Romania and later came to a tea party meeting in Dallas that the dictator in Romania, Nicolae Ceausescu, “did exactly the same thing.”

“Communism, socialism, Marxism, it’s all the same by a different label,” Cruz explained. “They must destroy the concept of God because they must make government your God. That’s what’s behind the attack on religion in this country, Glenn. They want to make government your God.”

But God was not always an important part of the pastor’s life. In fact, Cruz was a secular-minded scientist after leaving Cuba, a geophysicist working in the oil industry in Calgary, Canada. He would make statements such as “religion is a product of ignorance.” He drank heavily. And in 1974, he actually walked away from his wife and son, the young Ted Cruz, and started working in Houston.

Under stress because of guilt, the elder Cruz tried to compensate by sending small gifts back home. But his life was not truly changed until he was invited to a Bible study.

Cruz went to the meeting thinking he was going to disprove the claims of the Bible, which at the time he characterized as “all foolishness.” The Bible study itself had little impact on him, but what followed shocked him to his core.

“After the Bible study, they had a time of prayer,” Cruz said. “And everybody shared prayer requests. And I was shocked. All these people had problems! There was one woman specifically. She talked about her son who lived with her who would beat her to get money to buy drugs. And yet she had a peace I couldn’t understand. How could you live in that hell and have peace?”

Cruz was given a book, “The Four Spiritual Laws,” and told to come back the next week. Later, he was invited to meet with a pastor. But instead of simply hearing out what the pastor had to say, Cruz girded for intellectual battle.

“I spent four hours arguing with this pastor,” Cruz recalled. “I mean, I was a scientist, I thought I had all the answers, I gave this man such a hard time. I praise God for the endurance and the perseverance of this man. For four hours I just kept refuting everything he said. His name was Pastor Gaylen Wiley. Finally at 11 at night on that Tuesday, April 15, 1975, the last question I asked this pastor was, ‘Tell me about a man up in the mountains of Tibet who has not heard about Jesus.’

“Very wisely, this pastor did not go chasing that rabbit or we would have talked for another two hours. Instead, he looked me in the eye and he said, ‘I don’t really know about that man up in the mountains of Tibet who’s never heard about Jesus. But you heard about Jesus. What’s your excuse?”

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Cruz said the question hit him with the force of a sledgehammer.

“All of a sudden the eyes of my understanding were opened, and I just fell on my knees and surrendered my life to Christ,” he told Beck. “Just revolutionized my life. It was like a veil had been dropped from my eyes.”

The reformed Cruz immediately took action to rebuild his family.

“Within days, I flew back to Calgary to explain to my wife what had happened in my life,” he said. “Well, she didn’t understand, but we had a young child who just turned 4, and she didn’t want to see him without a dad. So she decided, not really believing, but thinking there’s a chance. I asked her to come back together, we sold our business, and started a new business in oil and gas exploration in Houston.”

“I was blind,” said Cruz. “But praise God, now I see.”

Cruz credits his adopted country for the remarkable reversal in his family’s fortunes. He looks with pride at the very real prospect that his son could become president.

“It speaks of the greatness of America, it speaks of American exceptionalism,” said Cruz. “Only in America. Only in America. Where else can that be a reality?

“This is a land where with hard work and perseverance anyone can achieve their dreams. This is why it’s so inconceivable to listen to our president say America is not an exceptional country. This is the most exceptional country on the face of the Earth. There’s no other country like America.”

Cruz believes the most important thing Americans can do is defend their heritage, especially the Judeo-Christian principles he sees as deeply immersed in the Constitution.

“The Constitution of the United States is a divinely inspired document,” said the pastor. “It is the greatest document that has ever been written outside of the Bible.”

Beck agreed, calling it a kind of “sacred scripture of government.”

Cruz argued that his son knew he had to dedicate his life to serving the United States even before he left high school. He said both father and son were ready to do what it takes to defend the Constitution.

“Both my son and I love our country so very much,” said Cruz. “I would gladly give my life for this country. I lost my freedom once. I would die before I lost it again.”

But Pastor Cruz said it won’t come to that as long as Americans “vote for people who will uphold the principles that make America great.”

If Americans can do that, he promised, “We’ll see America restored to that shining city on the hill.”

The interview:

SPECIAL OFFER: Get an autographed copy of Rafael Cruz’s powerful new book, “A Time for Action: Empowering the Faithful to Reclaim America,” at a discounted price, from the WND Superstore.

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