TED CRUZ AT THE NORTH TEXAS PRESIDENTIAL FORUM - PRESTONWOOD BAPTIST CHURCH

 

Ted Cruz discusses homosexual marriage, religious liberty. It took Jimmy Carter, to give us Ronald Reagan.

 

Also interviewed by Dr. Jack Graham, pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church, the 7th largest Baptist Church in the country.

 

Ted Cruz at Prestonwood Baptist Church

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god bless the great state of Texas it is really good to be home

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thrilled to be back at Prestonwood Baptist Church with so many dear friends thank you for

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coming out today thank you for welcoming us all here thank you for this

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tremendous gathering you know this morning at the pulpit Dr Grand may have

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gone back to the original Greek looking at scripture if you look to the

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etymology of the word politics there two parts

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poly meaning many and text mining blood sucking pair of size

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and that is a fairly accurate description of washington DC but you know

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I'll tell you we r came out here this afternoon because I think we recognize

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that our countries in crisis I don't believe this is a typical time in

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politics a typical time in our country we are bankrupting our kids and

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grandkids are constitutional rights are under assault each and every day and

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Texans now it and america has receded from leadership in the world and it's

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making the world a much more dangerous place and yet I'm here this afternoon

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with a hope

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word of hope and encouragement an exhortation let me tell you people are

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waking up we are seeing an awakening we are seeing a spirit of revival across

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this nation

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there many things as taxes we can talk about today we could talk about bringing

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back jobs and growth and opportunity we could talk about abolishing the IRS

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we could talk about repealing Obamacare we could talk about standing unshakable

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with our friend and ally the nation of Israel

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but i wanna talk to something close to home I wanna talk about the threats to

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religious liberty we're seeing in this country religious liberty is under

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threat today like it never has been before in this nation and I've been

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blessed to spend much of my adult life fighting to defend religious liberty

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when I was the Solicitor General of Texas Greg Abbott 9 together we defended

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the Ten Commandments monument on the state capitol grounds we went to the you

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s Supreme Court and we 154

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we defended the Pledge of Allegiance the words one nation under God when an

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atheist filed a lawsuit seeking to strike down the pledge we went to the UE

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Supreme Court and we won unanimous and I joined with our friend Kelly Shackelford

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in representing over three million veterans pro bono for free

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defending the Mojave Desert Veterans Memorial

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that was erected over 70 years ago to honor the men and women who gave their

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lives in ww1 the ACLU filed a lawsuit seeking to tear it down the federal

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district court order that veterans memorial torn to the ground it went up

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on appeal the Federal Court of Appeals said you have to take the Veterans

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Memorial down they actually ordered that the cross be covered with a giant FAQ

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with a chain and padlock at the bottom and I'll say this the court was were

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right in one regard the image of the Cross has power

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we went to the UE Supreme Court on behalf of over 3 million veterans and we

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154 upholding that memorial and these threats have only accelerated in a

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little over a month ago I was proud to host a religious liberty rally in Iowa

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win over 2,500 people come out in defense of religious liberty is the

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single largest political event in Iowa this year you know the media diminished

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threat to religious liberty they say it's not real they say it's made made up

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don't worry about it we brought in nine heroes to simply tell their stories to

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tell their stories directly from the stage in a typically a political event

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the candidates front-and-center I'm very deliberately wanted to recede and have

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each of those nine heroes tell their stories as a reason Jesus spoke in

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parables what moves hard to tell what connects with who we are as people there

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were people like Betty and Dick Odgaard a couple of gotta know very well dick and

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Betty live in Grimes Iowa they own and historic Lutheran Church I started a

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business hosting weddings wonderful weddings and they did the catering to do

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the flowers and then a couple of years ago two men came in and they wanted to

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get married in the old guard church now the old guards are devout mennonite so

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they very polite flea they very respectfully said listen we cannot

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celebrate and hoster wedding it is contrary to our faith the next day

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Dick and Betty they spent 18 months in litigation they paid over five

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thousand dollars to settle the suit they promise never again to host another

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wedding in August Dick and Betty he went bankrupt they laid off all their

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employees this month they're auctioning off all of the property in the church

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a person who talked to the rally was Kelvin Cochran an african-american grew

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up in an inner-city a difficult home his whole life you want to be a fire and he

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achieved his dream he became a fireman he rose to become the chief of the fire

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department in Atlanta he then went to Washington President Obama pointed him

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to a national fire board he moved to Washington served in the Obama

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administration and he came back to a LAN and resumed his role as chief of the

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fire department their chief Cochran was also a Sunday school teacher and in

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teaching Sunday school he began teaching at the book of Genesis and particularly

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started focusing on the passage where God asked Adam and Eve who told you you

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were naked and it began thinking about what the word naked means not simply

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without clothes but without the covering of God's love God's redemption and he

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contrasted it all the places in the script sure where it talks about being

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clothed in righteousness closed in jesus' redeeming blood and end up

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writing a book based on a Sunday School teachings called who told you you were

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naked and in that book about a page and a half of that book discusses human

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sexuality and what scripture says about that

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chief Cochran was fired for his job for writing that book it is private time as

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a Sunday school teacher for writing a book about what the Bible teaches he was

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told you cannot be the fire chief of the city of Atlanta I gotta tell you the

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entire event was three hours 2,500 people nobody left it was I would

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encourage we have the whole thing online at Ted Cruz dot org I would encourage

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you to watch it it will lift your spirits to hear these stories are

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ordinary people a fireman a florist a baker a t-shirt maker ordinary people

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lose faith faith was tested who stood up and stood with God I believe 2016 is

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going to be a religious liberty election

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and for anyone who thinks well these are distant threat to these don't impact me

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at the supreme court's gay marriage oral argument last year

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Justice Alito asked the Obama Justice Department if your position prevails

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will the next step be four the Obama IRS to go after Christian universities that

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follow a biblical teaching of marriage and by extension Christian grade schools

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like the school here at Preston or charities the answer from the Obama

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Justice Department is yes that is a very real possibility the IRS targeting those

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who follow a biblical teaching of marriage that is wrong it is not who we

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are but let me give you a word of encouragement as these threats grow

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darker and darker and darker they are waking people up here in Texas and all

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across this country I believe 2016 will be an election like 1980

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and it took jimmy carter to give us Ronald Reagan

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so i cant wait to see where we're headed next

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thank you

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my goodness you know how to fire people up

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well Dr Grand you can understand it's even worse i'ma PK preachers kid I know

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that and my goodness you and i sat down with your beautiful wife Heidi back in

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June and a lot has happened in the last five months and you you talked about

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your vision and your dream and what God put in your heart and we're already

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seeing so much of that happen and the Lord seems to be elevated you and giving

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you favor with people in here certainly here in Texas your back home and we're

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really glad that you are

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on the religious freedom

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one of our concerns obviously is judicial activist and I know this is

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something that I you've talked about you're concerned about is well judges

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who seem to be making all rather than interpreting how do you view this and

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and how can we if you are present that what kind of judges would you appoint in

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particular Supreme Court justices we know elections matter is we talked about

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already in this is one of the big ways that election matter but do we have a

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problem with judicial activism in this country it is an enormous problem and it

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is growing

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if you look at in June the course of 24 hours we had two decisions that were

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both utterly lawless first the Supreme Court a handful of unelected judges

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rewrote the text of Obamacare ignored the federal statute to force that failed

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lawn millions of Americans twenty-four hours later five unelected judges

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reported to tear down the marriage laws of all fifty states both of those

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decisions were lawless they were judicial activism there's not a word in

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the constitution that supports them

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and you know dr. Graham this is an issue that really separates a number of the

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candidates running on the republican side in 2016 several of the republican

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candidates when the marriage decision came out put out statements that

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effectively said it settled it's the law of the land we need to accept its

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surrender and move on those are word-for-word the talking points of

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President Obama I can tell you I for one do not accept it I'm not willing to

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surrender and I'm not willing to give up on the constant

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Dr Graham you asked about judicial appointments if you look at the court

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almost every democratic appointee on every big picture case big issue case

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votes a hundred percent the way the liberals want republicans we bad about

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500 many of the most egregious judicial activist Earl Warren William Brennan

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John Paul Stevens David Souter harry blackmun who authored roe versus wade

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every one of those were republican appointees and the problem with we run

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into the same problem over and over again you know the last debate I talked

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about two moments in time

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number one in 1991 George Herbert Walker Bush had in one room

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David's to turn in another room Edith Jones the rock-ribbed conservative on

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the 5th Circuit federal court of appeals and Bush 41 went with souter and then in

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2005 George W Bush had a similar choice said John Roberts in one room and had my

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former boss Mike looting the rock-ribbed conservative in the 4th Circuit Court of

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Appeals in the other room and George W Bush went with drop now in both

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instances it wasn't that the president bush's wanted to put a liberal on the

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court they didn't want that but with Edith Jones and Mike looting they had

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spent over a decade each on the court being a principled jurist following the

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constitution if you nominated them you would have a fight if you nominated them

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Democrats would go nuts because they'd understand Mike looting was Antonin

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Scalia's first law clerks they know exactly what they're gonna get and with

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David Souter and John Roberts the advantage was they had said very little

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they had no paper trail and every single time we've gone with a judicial nominee

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who doesn't have a paper trail it's turned into an utter disaster so in the

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republican field

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in the republican field every one of the candidates will sit down with you and

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tell you I will appoint strict constructionist who will follow the

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constitution and not legislate from the bench those of the talking points every

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candidate says the differences who's willing to actually spend the camp and

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fight to do what they said I have spent my entire adult life fighting judicial

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activism there are few if any choices

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so many people are upset about is sending people to Washington who don't

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get things done who say one thing and end up doing nothing and one of the

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things that we have appreciate about you is your willingness to go and stand on

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your principles and even when you are criticized for you then uncompromising

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when people talk about being an outsider and at the same time you are a senator

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and a very good one how do you how does that work for you in that you've been

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going up against sometimes I'm sure it's like hitting your head against iraq how

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have you been able to manage this and and as president

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how can you affect change in this way so it is a great question you know I'm very

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encouraged but we're see eg if you look at that the republican presidential

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primary I think one of the most tremendously helpful things to my

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campaign has been Donald Trump's candidates

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for one thing it certainly made it interesting

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but you know donald his really frame the central issue in this primary as who

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will stand up to Washington now that's the central issue the natural next

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question is OK

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who actually has stood up to Washington

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and I think the better question to decide this race because in that regard

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my record is markedly different from that of anyone else on that stage

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couple of examples in 2013 when when millions of Americans rose up against

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the disaster that is Obamacare I was proud to lead that fight you look to the

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other 10 Republican standing on that debate stage and then the question

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naturally arises where where they look to 2014 when millions of Americans rose

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up against President Obama's illegal executive analyst once again I was proud

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to lead that fight and once again you look to the other very fun men and women

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on that stage and you ask where were they

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and and here you don't have to go back to 2013 or 2014 in go back to a couple

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of weeks ago

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you know Dr Grand you remember that debate in California just about every

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Republican looked in the TV camera and said we should defund Planned Parenthood

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well it's easy to say that just two weeks ago we had a knock-down drag-out

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fight in Washington millions of Americans rose up against against

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Planned Parenthood pastors all over the country lit up the phones I was proud to

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lead the fight against Planned Parenthood you look to the other folks

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everyone who spoke so passionately the debate my natural question is where

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worth it can you imagine how different it would have been if 11 republican

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presidential candidates descended on Washington and spoken unison and said

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Mitch McConnell and John Boehner don't send five hundred million dollars of

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taxpayer money

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courage we like that like courage ok in the last presidential election

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evangelical Christians did not vote yes I've heard all kinds of numbers may be

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up to eight million for whatever reason set out not inspired maybe a little bit

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of Washington fatigue politie little fatigued whatever I do say it's that

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people are fired up now

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yes and that we're ready to do a lot better and while some one has suggested

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evangelical Christians are splintering and that we're really not that committed

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and so on

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what what do you say about that and and do you believe Christians members of

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churches should engage in the political process

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talk to us a little bit about citizenship and our responsibility as

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you view it to to get to the polls to get involved in the process

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well Dr Grand I think it is absolutely vital I think the entire election turned

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on that question you know many of the folks here know my father pastor Raphael

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for those who do you know that I am the shy soft-spoken one in the family is

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true but as you know my father has has a real calling to other pastors and and

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several years ago God really put a burden on his heart that no one bears

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greater responsibility for where this country is today than the pastors and

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it's it's a hard message was not an easy message to hear to deliver but he

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travels and speaks of pastors conference is all over the country and then the

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message my dad says he says you know if the flock stumbles into a ditch you

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don't blame the sheet you blame the shepherd and they're too many pastors

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unfortunate as my father says who hide behind the popular don't do what you're

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doing now which is standing up and encouraging the body of Christ we have a

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responsibility

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you know the census data show there about ninety million evangelicals and

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evangelical Christians in America in the 2012 election 54 million evangelicals

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didn't it's a majority of the evangelical Christians its believers are

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staying home if we are allowing our leaders to be elected by non-believers

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is it any wonder we have a federal government that is assaulting life and

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marriage and religious

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healthcare the Affordable Care Act was supposed to make health care more

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accessible at a lower cost

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how's that working out how do you propose to fix it

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let me start it is a disaster

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it is a train wreck and we should repeal every word of it

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for that to happen Washington doesn't want to do that you know I wrote a book

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a couple of months ago called the time for truth where where I talked about

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what I call the Washington cartel career politicians in both parties who get in

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bed with lobbyists and special interests can grow and grow grow government

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Washington does not want to repeal Obamacare the only way to do it is to

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make this election a referendum on repealing Obamacare

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think of the 1980 election I often invoke the 1980 election I think we are

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reliving history in powerful ways can you imagine ronald reagan if he had come

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in to this church in 1979 and if he had said dr. Graham we're gonna cut the top

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marginal tax rate from seventy percent to 28 percent we're gonna go from

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stagnant economic growth to booming growth millions lifted into prosperity

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are hostages will be released from ER on the day I'm sworn into office and within

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10 years will win the cold war and terror the Berlin wall to the graft we

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would have all dismissed him as a nut case because under no reasonable

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assessment of Washington was that possible what reagan did in nineteen

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eighty is he made it a referendum the reagan revolution change the incentives

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in Washington he cut that tax rate from 17 to 28 percent and he did it with tip

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o'neill a democrat as speaker of the house

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in the reason is simple there's an old joke that politics is hollywood ugly

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people

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which my wife detailed map resemble that remark but but the way you get things

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done the way you repeal Obamacare and pass commonsense health care reform as

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you change the incentives so that if you come out of November 2016 with a mandate

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from the people that's what causes Republicans and Democrats to say I am

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standing in the way of that and that's how we turn around

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my reagan impersonation there you go again

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you know ronald reagan came to this city I guess it was 1979 and he said to a

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group of evangelicals James Robertson was their part of gathering that group

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he said look I know you can endorse me but I can endorse you a man and we're so

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thankful for your endorsement of values that you hold yourself and of the values

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that we share so one final question is how did your faith your personal faith

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strength in your life where you get discouraged and this fire this passion

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that you have welcomed in my faith is is an integral part of who I am you know

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often on the trail I'll share my testimony and you know for me my

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testimony begins actually when I was very young child with my parents for

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those of you all that my dad now you didn't know him when he was young man

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when I was two and three years old my parents neither one of them were

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Christians they were living up in Calgary and both of them drank too much

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and when I was three my dad left he decided he didn't want to be married

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anymore he didn't want to be a father to a three-year-old son and I got on a

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plane and flew down to Houston and he was there a couple of months and a

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colleague from the oil and gas business invited my dad to a Bible study and it

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was at the home of a local life insurance agent for whatever reason my

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father with and and he described being struck by the piece he saw that Bible

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state member there was one woman who talked about that her son would beat her

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to get money for drugs and yet she had what scripture calls the peace that

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passes understand and my father couldn't understand it didn't make sense to him

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but he knew we didn't have it knew we wanted and that night at the end of the

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Bible study they said well I'll tell you what our pastors coming tomorrow night

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as he had a lot of questions why don't you come tomorrow

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you can talk with our past we came back the next night he stayed three four five

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hours till late in the night

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argue my father was convinced he was an atheist he was convinced he knew this

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got stuff was all cooling and he could disprove any went through question after

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question after question and at the end of the night he said alright what about

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the man in tibet who's never heard of Jesus and the pastor very wisely didn't

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take the bait and he said Raphael I don't know about the man into bed but

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you've heard Jesus what's your excuse

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that hit my dad like a ton of bricks and he fell to his knees he gave his life to

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Jesus he went got in the car drove to the airport by the plane ticket and flew

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back to Calgary to be with my mother and me so when people ask about the role of

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faith I can tell you in my life if it were not for the redemptive love of

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Jesus Christ I would have been raised by a single mom without my dad now and and

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I'll tell you just a rare and incredible epilogue so I I became a Christian when

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I was 8 at that same church clay Road Baptist Church galen while it was the

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pastor let my dad lord baptized me and a couple of months ago on the campaign

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trail I was in Tennessee and it so happened at the Galen while he had which

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has retired to Tennessee and he came out to the rally and and I had not seen him

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in 35 years I was 10 years old when I last saw and I have to tell you it was a

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powerful I I choked up to have the opportunity opportunity just a hug

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brother while and say thank you if you hadn't shared the gospel with my dad my

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entire life and my family's life would have been different if the power of God

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so now we know the rest of the story of how your character has been formed how

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can we pray for you and your family you know I'd say three things peace and

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wisdom but then also especially if you would pray for our girls you know our

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girls Carolina and Catherine they're here somewhere there were here there's

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Heidi Heidi crews

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Carolina Cruz stand up stand up I love

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so they're seven and for their the joys of our life but I will tell you the

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hardest part of this campaign is is being on the road being you know this is

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this week I've been in Dec Iowa Houston California New Hampshire here and headed

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to Austin San Antonio and back to Dec so the girls drove up to be with us for a

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couple of hours and two girls that are seven and four it is hard on them and so

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that I would be the prayers that they know they are loved with all of our

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hearts and loved by God as well how would you like to tell ya

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thank you for your service thank you for your sacrifice

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