Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas
Editor’s note: If U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz became president, just what actions would he take – not just “on Day 1,” but on the first 100 days of his presidency? The eye-opening answers are revealed, by Cruz himself, in a new book just published by WND Books.
The book, authored by Cruz’s father, Cuban-American pastor Rafael Cruz – titled “A Time for Action: Empowering the Faithful to Reclaim America” – includes a powerful 3,000-plus word “Epilogue” by son Ted Cruz, which is excerpted below.
In Rafael Cruz’s stirring narrative, one truth that becomes increasingly evident is that Ted Cruz’s devout Christian faith had a lot to do with the presidential candidate’s father – and with benefiting from all of his trials, tribulations and profound lessons his dad learned.
While “A Time for Action” unfolds the harrowing story of Rafael, a refugee from communist Cuba, and his escape to America, the main purpose of the book is to lay out the elder Cruz’s vision for America, and specifically, his detailed blueprint for how Christians can and must take their country back from the secular progressive forces that have come to dominate the once Judeo-Christian nation.
Here is U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz’s powerful “Epilogue” to “A Time for Action”:
“A Time for Action: EPILOGUE”
by Sen. Ted Cruz
If you’ve read this far, you now understand why, for my entire life, my father has been my hero.
My cousin Bibi (the daughter of my aunt, Tía Sonia) and I have often reflected on what a blessing it is to be the children of those who fled oppression. As children, we would sit at the feet of our grandparents, Abuelo and Abuela, and hear stories of my dad and my aunt fighting in Cuba.
My father, fighting against Batista, was imprisoned and tortured by Batista’s army. My Tía Sonia, a few years later, fighting against Castro, was likewise imprisoned and tortured. When you are the children of those who fled oppression and came to America, it makes you appreciate how precious and fragile liberty truly is.
My dad is a freedom fighter. And if we need anything today, it is more freedom fighters.
Our country is in crisis. The challenges we are facing today are not like in the past, and the upcoming 2016 presidential election will not be an election like every other. We are bankrupting our kids and grandkids. Our constitutional rights are under assault from Washington as never before. And America has receded from leadership in the world, making the world a far more dangerous place. Today, our friends and allies no longer trust us, and our enemies no longer fear us.
I am convinced, it is now or never. There comes a point where the hole is too deep, the debt is too great, our liberties are too receded, and there is no going back. I don’t think we’re there yet … but we’re close. Very close.
It is a time for truth. It is a time for action.
* * *
In September 2015, I met at the county jail with Kim Davis, the Kentucky clerk jailed for acting according to her faith. She and I embraced, and I thanked her for her courage. I told her that millions were inspired by her stand. That she was being lifted up in prayer by believers across America and across the world. That she may have thought she was alone in that jail cell, but she didn’t realize just how crowded it was.
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.
A year ago, if I had suggested that a Christian woman would be sent to jail for honoring her faith, that would have been dismissed as crazy. Paranoid, even. But that is where we are.
Why was Kim Davis jailed? Two reasons: First, the Supreme Court’s fundamentally illegitimate gay marriage opinion. Five unelected lawyers declared themselves, in Justice Scalia’s words, the “rulers” of 320 million Americans, insisting that their radical view of marriage – contrary to the biblical definition, to the understanding of marriage that predated America by millennia – would be forced on the rest of us. That was not law. Courts don’t make law. And that was not the Constitution. In the penultimate paragraph of his dissent, Justice Scalia predicted that state and local officials would refuse to obey the court’s lawless edict.
Second, a federal district judge and the state of Kentucky both violated Kentucky law. Kentucky, like the federal government and many states, has a Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which protects expressions of faith. It mandates reasonable accommodations for religious faith. Thus, Jehovah’s Witnesses are exempted from having to make pledges or oaths, which is contrary to their faith. Amish are exempted from sending their children to mandatory schooling. Christian Scientists are exempted from mandatory medical treatments. Muslim truck drivers are exempted from carrying alcohol. Jews are exempted from being forced to work on the Sabbath. All of that is current law.
And yet, Christians are somehow singled out. Kim Davis, as a Christian, did not want her name to appear on a homosexual marriage license. Under Kentucky law, her faith should have been respected and her name removed. Since the state decided to treat the court opinion as law, it would have been a simple matter to comply with Kentucky’s RFRA and accommodate Kim’s religious convictions. Instead, she was sent to jail, the act of an imperious, arrogant judge wanting to punish a Christian for daring to live according to her faith.
In the aftermath of Ms. Davis’s imprisonment, virtually every Democrat – and sadly, more than a few Republicans – said that she should either abandon her faith and issue the same-sex marriage certificates or resign her office. They gravely intoned that her honoring her faith was somehow a profound threat to liberty and the rule of law. What nonsense.
And, it seems, none of those commentators was concerned with the behavior of other government officials (with whom they agreed) defying actual laws. None raised concern about former San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom granting same-sex marriage certificates, when doing so was directly contrary to California law. Nor were they troubled by the current San Francisco mayor’s policy – mirrored by Democratic mayors in cities across America – declaring San Francisco to be a “sanctuary city.” Thus, San Francisco openly obstructs federal immigration law, in effect inviting violent criminal illegal aliens, such as the career criminal who is accused of murdering Kate Steinle.
Nor do most of the politicians take serious issue with the extraordinary pattern of lawlessness demonstrated by President Obama. Whether it is federal immigration law, or welfare reform law, or even his own Obamacare, the president, repeatedly, has simply refused to follow the law.
None of these commentators who are outraged by Kim Davis has called for the resignation of the San Francisco mayor or of President Obama. How can it be that one Kentucky clerk, honoring her Christian faith, poses a grave threat to the rule of law, but a president who routinely ignores federal law is not a problem at all? The hypocrisy is staggering.
What we are really seeing is an increasing hostility to religious liberty, and to Christians in particular. When Kim and I visited in that Kentucky jailhouse, I told her she was highlighting the threats to millions, that each of us could be next. Trembling at the impact she was having, she replied, “It is all to the glory of God.”
These threats are coming. And not just to Kim Davis. In the summer of 2015, I was honored to host a rally for religious liberty in Iowa. Some twenty-five hundred people came out to attend the rally, and we listened to the stories of heroes who had stood for their faith and been persecuted: Dick and Betty Odgaard, Aaron and Melissa Klein, Chief Kelvin Cochran, Sergeant Phillip Monk, Barronelle Stutzman, Blaine Adamson. Amazing stories. Ordinary people – a florist, a baker, a soldier, a fireman – who stood by biblical values and faced vicious persecution. If you want to be inspired, watch the video of their stories at www. http://ift.tt/1nxmVSZ.
They are not alone. Indeed, at the Supreme Court oral argument in the gay marriage case, Justice Alito asked the Justice Department whether, if the Obama administration prevailed, the next step would be for the IRS to deny tax-exempt status to Christian colleges and universities that follow a biblical teaching of marriage. By extension, his question could apply as well to Christian grade schools, Christian charities, or even Christian churches. Chillingly, the Obama solicitor general replied that, yes, that was a real possibility.
These threats are only growing. If we don’t stand up and stop them, you and I could be next. Chief Cochran was fired from his job as Atlanta’s fire chief because he wrote, in his personal time, a Christian book discussing and analyzing Scripture. Pastors, being punished for preaching the Word of God could well be next.
The Iowa religious liberty rally ended with the story of Naghmeh Abedini, the wife of Pastor Saeed Abedini, an American citizen sentenced to eight years in an Iranian prison for the crime of sharing the gospel. Tragically, the Obama administration’s extended negotiations with the Islamic Republic of Iran did nothing to secure Pastor Saeed’s release, or that of his fellow American hostages languishing in Iranian prisons. Our commander in chief should be fighting for the release of American hostages, not appeasing Islamist dictators.
All of us pray fervently for the swift and safe release of all of the hostages. And yet, even in the darkness of an Iranian prison cell, God is sovereign. Since he began his sentence, Pastor Saeed has led dozens of fellow prisoners and even some of his captors to Christ.
* * *
As I write this today, I’m campaigning for president. Our campaign is enjoying enormous momentum; I could not be more encouraged.
We need strong leadership. Principled, constitutional leadership.
If I am elected president, let me tell you what I intend to do on the very first day in office:
The first thing I intend to do is rescind every single illegal and unconstitutional action taken by President Obama.
The second thing I intend to do is instruct the Department of Justice to open an investigation into Planned Parenthood and the horrible videos that have emerged and exposed them, and to prosecute any and all criminal violations by that organization. The administration of justice should be blind to party and ideology; the only allegiance of the Department of Justice should be to the laws and Constitution of the United States.
The third thing I intend to do is to instruct the Department of Justice, and the IRS, and every other federal agency, that the persecution of religious liberty ends today. That means that our servicemen and women will be able to pray and worship God, and their commanding officer has nothing to say about it. That means that the Little Sisters of the Poor – a Catholic charity against which the Obama administration is currently litigating to try to force the nuns to pay for abortion-inducing drugs – will have the case against them dismissed.
The fourth thing I intend to do is to rip to shreds Obama’s catastrophic Iranian nuclear deal. The single greatest national security threat facing America is the threat of a nuclear Iran – we should not be sending over $100 billion to a theocratic zealot like the Ayatollah Khamenei, who pledges “death to America” – and if I am president, under no circumstances will Iran be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons.
The fifth thing I intend to do is begin the process of moving the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, the once and eternal capital of Israel.
All of that is on day one. It is an example of how quickly things can change. The Left, and the media (who are in cahoots), try to convince us that nothing can change. They want us to give up. But strong presidential leadership, backed by the American people, can usher in dramatic change.
In the days that follow, as president I intend to do the following:
Go to Congress and repeal every word of Obamacare. In its place, we will pass commonsense health care reform that makes health insurance personal, portable, and affordable, and keeps government from getting between our doctors and us.
Instruct the Department of Education – which should be abolished – that Common Core ends today. Education is too important to be dictated by unelected bureaucrats in Washington; it should be controlled at the state or local level, where we parents have direct control over our children’s education.
Expand school choice – the civil rights issue of the twenty-first century – so that every child, regardless of race, ethnicity, income, or zip code, has a right to access an excellent education.
Rebuild our military, and honor the commitments made to our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines. Peace through strength should always be our goal, but we must remember that we can’t have the first without the second. If we are committed to peace, we need an equally profound commitment to maintaining America’s strength.
Reform the VA to give our veterans the right to choose their own doctors at whatever hospital they wish, and protect the right of our servicemen and women to keep and bear arms and protect themselves.
Stand up and defeat radical Islamic terrorism. Confront it by its name. Utterly destroy ISIS, which is the face of evil, crucifying Christians, beheading children, and working to establish an Islamic caliphate to spread their theocratic hate. And as commander in chief, make clear to jihadist militants across the globe, “If you go and join ISIS, if you take up arms and wage jihad against America, trying to kill innocent men and women, you are signing your death warrant.”
Finally, finally, finally secure the borders and end sanctuary cities. Put an end to the Obama administration’s indefensible practice of releasing violent criminal illegal aliens, and pass Kate’s Law, ensuring that fewer violent criminals go free.
Take on the EPA, and the CFPB (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau), and the alphabet soup of federal agencies that are strangling small businesses and killing jobs. Unchain booming economic growth, so that young people coming out of school once again have two, three, four job offers and a brighter economic future.
Unleash an American energy renaissance, allowing America finally to become energy self-sufficient and ushering in millions of high-paying jobs. Stopping the Obama administration’s war on coal and crushing regulatory assault will revitalize manufacturing across America, enabling us to bring back millions of jobs from foreign nations like China, based not on low-cost labor, but on abundant God-given low-cost energy.
And work with Congress to pass fundamental tax reform, passing a simple flat tax. Where all Americans can fill out their taxes on a postcard. And when we do that, we should abolish the IRS.
This is a bold, aggressive agenda. And yet it’s simple common sense. Return to the free-market values and constitutional liberties that built America. Live within our means. Don’t bankrupt our kids and grandkids. Follow the Constitution.
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.
How can we get it done? Ecclesiastes 1:9 tells us “there is nothing new under the sun.” And I believe where we are today is very much like the late 1970s.
The same failed economic policies. The same misery, stagnation, and malaise. The same feckless and naïve foreign policy. Indeed, the very same countries – Russia and Iran – openly laughing at and mocking the president of the United States.
Why does that analogy give me so much hope and optimism? Because we know how that story ended. Millions of men and women rose up and became the Reagan Revolution.
And it didn’t come from Washington. Washington despised Ronald Reagan. (Remember, Reagan had primaried Gerald Ford in 1976. You want to incense the Republican establishment? Come within an inch of defeating the incumbent Republican president in a primary.) It came from the American people – from people just like you and me – and it turned the country around. We went from misery and stagnation to booming economic growth. To millions being lifted from poverty into prosperity and the American dream. We went from our hostages languishing in Iran, to winning the Cold War and tearing the Berlin Wall to the ground.
And the same thing is happening today. When we launched our campaign for president at Liberty University (the largest Christian university in the world), the mainstream media scoffed. The New York Times opined, Cruz has almost “no chance” to win because the GOP “despises” him.
I’ve often joked, “I kinda thought that was the whole point of the campaign!”
If you think Washington is doing great, that we need to keep going in the same direction and just fiddle about the edges, then I ain’t your guy. But if you think Washington is profoundly broken, that there is bipartisan corruption of career politicians in both parties who get in bed with lobbyists and special interests and who grow and grow government, and that we need to bring power out of Washington and back to we the people . . . that is what this campaign is all about.
And the support has been incredible. From the grassroots. From the people.
In the first two quarters of the campaign, out of seventeen Republican candidates for president, our campaign raised more hard money than that of any other Republican candidate. Over $14.3 million, from all fifty states. Our average contribution was sixty-eight dollars.
To date, we’ve received more than 275,000 contributions, from people all over the country going to http://www.tedcruz.org.
Signing up, volunteering, contributing. As of September 2015, we have financial supporters in over 55 percent of the zip codes in America.
And we’re seeing the old Reagan coalition coming together. Conservatives, evangelicals, libertarians, young people, Hispanics, African Americans, women, Reagan Democrats.
No other candidate has the grassroots team we have put together . . . in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Nevada, and all across the South – the so-called SEC primary states that are voting on Super Tuesday.
If you agree with my father’s message, that our country is in crisis, that we must change direction now, then join us. The only force powerful enough to defeat the Washington cartel is we the people.
We need revival. We need awakening. And it is happening all across America. If you wonder why our government is daily assaulting life, and marriage, and religious liberty, why we’ve abandoned Israel and aided and abetted the rise of radical Islamic terrorism (going so far as President Obama’s working to send more than $100 billion to Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei), the answer is simple. In 2012, 54 million evangelical Christians stayed home. And millions more Reagan Democrats – blue collar Catholics – stayed home as well.
If our nation’s leaders are elected by unbelievers, is it any wonder that they do not reflect our values?
I tell you this: we will stay home no longer.
If the body of Christ arises, if Christians simply show up and vote biblical values, we can restore our nation.
Imagine, in 2016, if just 44 million evangelicals stayed home. Now, let me be clear: that would be a miserable failure. It would mean we failed to reach and motivate 44 million Christians to take a stand. But even so, if just an additional 10 million evangelicals showed up, the election would be over.
We wouldn’t be waiting up at 2 a.m. to see the results in Ohio or Florida. Instead, they would call the election at 8:45 p.m., because 10 million more Christians showing up is all it takes.
That is our task. To do it together. For pastors to take the lead, to reawaken the Black Robe Regiment and call upon Christians to stand for truth.
It is a time for truth. It is a time for action.
It is our time to preserve the last best hope of mankind, to restore that shining city on a hill that is the United States of America.
From our first days, God’s providential blessing has been on our nation, and I’m convinced God isn’t done with America. Brighter days are still ahead, if only we stand and act in accordance with our faith.
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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