Ted Cruz Claims Christians Are Being Persecuted, Compares Atheists And Liberals To The Taliban

By Manny Schewitz | 24 August 2015
Forward Progressives

In Iowa, right-wing radio host Jan Mickelson seems to be where Republican presidential candidates go to prove their conservative bona fides. In the very crowded field that is utterly dominated by the Donald Trump super nova of a campaign, contenders like Ted Cruz have to ratchet up the rhetoric to 11, just to register on the news radar.

Here’s one example: On Friday, Ted Cruz appeared on Jan Mickelson’s radio program just a couple of days after the host had proposed making undocumented immigrants state-owned slaves. During the program, Cruz launched into a tirade against what Mickelson referred to as the “atheist Taliban” and claimed that liberals and atheists have declared war on Christianity.

Via Right Wing Watch:

Mickelson asked Cruz to discuss his fight against the “brazenness of the atheist Taliban” and the fact that “anytime they furrow their brow at anyone [people] fold up and go home and give them what they want.”

Cruz, who has previously railed against what he called a gay “jihad” against Christians, apparently liked Mickelson’s phrase, and took it up while describing his work fighting against church-state separation efforts.

“There is an assault on faith and an assault on religious liberty that we see across this country and it has never been as bad as it is right now,” he said, claiming that “radical atheists and liberals” are “driving any acknowledgment of God out of the public square.”

“There are these zealots — as you put it, the atheist Taliban — that seek to tear down any acknowledgment of God in the public square, and it’s contrary to our Constitution, it’s contrary to who we are as a people.” (Source)

Christianity is not being persecuted in the United States, it is alive and flourishing, especially if you’re a mega church millionaire televangelist preacher like Joel Osteen. Ted Cruz wants religious conservatives to believe that their right to practice their religion is under attack, simply because they’re having a hard time trying to force their views on everyone else through legislation and the courts.

If anything, right-wing religious extremists have launched a war on science and the separation of church and state. In Arizona, anti-abortion stickers are being put in school textbooks, and students across the country are being taught abstinence-only sex ed programs. Here in Louisiana, some public schools are teaching creationism, a practice denied by conservative lawmakers who still refuse to repeal the Louisiana Science Education Act which allows the practice.

In order to pander to the religious right, governors in some red states have cut off Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood. This political stunt which has little to do with abortion not only deprives poor people from access to reproductive health care, but also costs those states hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal funds. With platitudes about “the sanctity of human life” and conflicting calls for a holy war with Iran, politicians like Ted Cruz keep pushing the rhetorical easy button to drum up support from the base.

The GOP, especially within the Tea Party faction, is completely comfortable with the idea of the Ten Commandments in courthouses and often considers religious extremist David Barton to be an expert on history and the United States Constitution. While they scream about conspiracy blogs claiming that Muslims are trying to impose religious law here in America, they’re busy trying to force their own radical ideology on the rest of us and hoping we’re too stupid or distracted to notice.

Ted Cruz Says ‘Liberal Fascism’ Seeks To Persecute And Punish Christians

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