Rafael Cruz: Separation of Church and State Is a ‘One-Way Wall’

David Barton wasn’t the only prominent speaker (see here, here and here) at the Texas Renewal Project event on April 3-4 in Austin. Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee and Rafael Cruz, father of U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, were among the list of right-wing evangelical speakers at the gathering of hundreds of pastors and their spouses.

Huckabee has been a regular speaker at many Renewal Project events around the country. Mixing in a variety of jokes during his talk in Austin, Huckabee still focused on abortion and same-sex marriage. For example, Huckabee suggested that women who get abortions are “probably” pressured into doing so:

“I do suggest that you always remind the people in your church that in every abortion there are two victims. One is the baby, and one is most often that birth mother who probably was pressured into the decision by a mother, a grandmother, a boyfriend, or by a husband.”

Huckabee also criticized judges who rule in favor of marriage equality for same-sex couples:

“We have allowed people in black robes, unelected in most cases, unaccountable for their decisions, to overturn not only the will of the people, but to attempt to overturn the word of the living God.”

Rafael Cruz, a Dallas pastor and director of Purifying Fire Ministries, has become known for his outrageous statements about President Obama, evolution and other topics. He insisted at the Austin event that separation of church and state isn’t in the Constitution but that, even if it were, it would be only “one way” (from the audio clip above; emphasis added):

“And if you read Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury Baptists, it is absolutely clear when he says that matters of faith and worship, no one has the right to interfere; they’re only between you and God. And then he cites the First Amendment of the Constitution. It is absolutely clear when he said legislature has no right to establish a religion or interfere with the free exercise there of, thus there is a wall of separation between church and state, it is absolutely obvious that Jefferson was talking about a one-way wall, a one-way wall to keep government from interfering in the [inaudible because of applause]. In no way, shape or form was Jefferson implying that we should not have an influence on every area of society. God has called us to be the head and not the tail, not only in the church, but also in the media, in arts and entertainment, in sports, in business, in education and even in government.”

This is, of course, the core strategy of religious-righters: use government to promote their ideological agenda while insisting that government otherwise leave them alone.

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13 Comments

  • Robert Otto says:

    The constitution also does NOT have in it “The right to privitcy / The right to a fair and speedy trial/ It does not say That all women are equal, but only all men are equal / It does say any thing about slavery. These are just of the few things that are also not in the constitution as well. You need to get a copy read all of it Cruz ,in engelish

  • Both Cruzs’ are CRAZY, period.

    If this is a Christian country as they think, then I am a…what? A non-American because I totally disagree with Christianity? Hell no, I’m an American born and raised. I’m a third generation American, my children are fourth and my grandchildren are fifth generation Americans and not a SINGLE ONE OF THEM BELIEVE IN CHRISTIANITY!
    Freedom of religion is our FIRST Amendment, so to hell with both Cruzs’ and to hell with their false doctrines.

  • Gary says:

    It’s the old Republican strategy:
    Support your position with facts, and make up as many facts as you need.

  • abb3w says:

    Despite having some of the pithiest and oft cited quotes, Jefferson was not the founding father most intimately involved in the question — being busy as the US Ambassador to France during the Constitutional Convention. You need instead to look to his junior disciple, the radical James Madison:

    Notwithstanding the general progress made within the two last centuries in favour of this branch of liberty, and the full establishment of it in some parts of our country, there remains in others a strong bias towards the old error, that without some sort of alliance or coalition between Government and Religion neither can be duly supported. Such, indeed, is the tendency to such a coalition, and such its corrupting influence on both the parties, that the danger cannot be too carefully guarded against. And in a Government of opinion like ours, the only effectual guard must be found in the soundness and stability of the general opinion on the subject. Every new and successful example, therefore, of a perfect separation between the ecclesiastical and civil matters, is of importance; and I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in showing that religion and Government will both exist in greater purity the less they are mixed together.

    Either the wall goes both ways, or the corruption goes both ways.

  • Doc Bill says:

    Why would anyone give a flying fig what Rafael Cruz has to say about anything?

    Who does he think he is, Jenny McCarthy?

  • Brett Morrison: Thanks for sharing that one. Five years later, and just as relevant as ever.

  • Ben says:

    Fortunately the majority of Supreme Court rulings on this issue say that Cruz is mistaken.

  • Angela Lacey says:

    No wonder our science knowledge is low in the US. We can’t even process how a wall works.

  • The name for them is Dominionists. 7 Mountains.

  • Garry Smith says:

    A one-way wall, my ass! You cannot have freedom OF religion without freedom -from- religion! If one religion is pressed into government, it creates bias and you lose true equality of the freedom to believe something else or not believe at all. The wall of separation protects Christians as much as anyone else. Some are just too dense or blinded by their dogma to understand that.

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