Candidate Ted Cruz Is Organizing A National Prayer Team To Support His Bid

Yesterday Republican Presidential hopeful Sen. Ted Cruz announced that on Dec. 1 he will launch a national prayer team known as "A Time for Prayer." According to the announcement:

“A Time for Prayer”, led by Cruz Crew volunteers, is dedicated to a focused season of prayer on behalf of the nation, presidential candidate Ted Cruz, his family and staff, and the campaign.

Those interested in joining the National Prayer Team can visit www.tedcruz.org/pray to sign up. Members will receive weekly emails containing prayer requests and a short devotional. Each Tuesday, members will be invited to a 20-minute prayer conference call.

Free Thought Group Responds To Ted Cruz's Views On Atheists

The Free Thought Equality Fund issued a press release yesterday decrying a statement made by Republican presidential contender Ted Cruz:

Senator Cruz made his remarks this weekend in Des Moines, Iowa, at the 2015 National Religious Liberties Conference, organized by Generations with Vision. When asked how important it is for the President of the United States to fear God, Cruz responded that “any president who doesn’t begin every day on his knees isn’t fit to be commander-in-chief of this nation.”

“By claiming that those who do not pray are not fit for office, Senator Cruz is perpetuating the prejudiced myth that humanists and atheists are not moral people,” said Bishop McNeill, manager of the Freethought Equality Fund PAC.

Presidential Candidate Ted Cruz Praises Indiana RFRA, Says SCOTUS Ruling Upholding Marriage Equality Would Be Illegitimate

Sen. Ted Cruz, the only formally announced candidate so far for the 2016 Presidential race, spoke at Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa yesterday, focusing on religious liberty and same-sex marriage. According to the Dallas Morning News, Cruz told his audience: "Religious liberty is not some fringe view. It is the basis of this country,"  He praised the recent action of the Indiana legislature in enacting its controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act, saying:

We’re seeing in the news right now a lot of noise because the state of Indiana bravely stood up and passed a law defending religious liberty.

Criticizing Democrats and gay-rights activists, he added:

Because of their partisan desire to mandate gay marriage everywhere in this country, they also want to persecute anyone who has a good faith religious belief that marriage is a holy sacrament, the union of one man and one woman and ordained as a covenant by God.

Expressing concern over what the Supreme Court might rule this June in the same-sex marriage cases before it, he told his audience:

The first thing and I think the most important thing every one of us can do, is pray. Lift up in prayer.

Cruz said that if the Court legalizes same-sex marriage, he will urge Congress to pass legislation stripping courts of jurisdiction over the issue. He said that a ruling by the Court legalizing same-sex marriage would be "fundamentally illegitimate."  Cruz favors a Constitutional amendment that would leave the issue to the states.

Ted Cruz Announces Candidacy With Focus On Agenda of Religious Conservatives

Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz yesterday became the first to officially announce his candidacy for President of the United States in 2016.  In a speech at Liberty University (full text) directed particularly at Christian Conservatives, Cruz enumerated the Conservative agenda and said in part:

Today, roughly half of born again Christians aren’t voting. They’re staying home. Imagine instead millions of people of faith all across America coming out to the polls and voting our values.

CBS News described his speech as "an impassioned appeal to the religious right."

In another move that focuses on concerns of the religious right, Cruz announced last week that he has introduced two joint resolutions in Congress to overturn recently enacted legislation by the D.C. City Council. (S.J. Res. 10;  S.J. Res. 11). As described by Cruz's press release:

In January, the District enacted the Reproductive Health Non-Discrimination Amendment Act of 2014, which could require employers to provide health plans that cover abortion services, and the Human Rights Amendment Act of 2014, which could force religious schools to support activities that violate the tenets of their faith.

Congress has until April 17 to act to prevent the D.C. laws from taking effect. (See prior related posting.)