During a recent interview with BlazeTV host James Poulos, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said that America needs a spiritual revival and encouraged American pastors to stand up against the “spiritual component” of the left, which he claimed is both rooted in Marxist philosophy and is fundamentally opposed to God.
Speaking on the issues, Sen. Cruz articulated both why they are important and why pastors have so far been less against them than is necessary, arguing that many pastors are too afraid to take a strong stand on the critical cultural issues facing the church.
Making that point, the senator, who is the son of Pastor Rafael Cruz, who fled communism in Cuba, first said that pastors need to focus on what is true, not what is popular: “So many pastors are afraid of offending anyone in their congregation, and they end up, from the pulpit, just preaching milquetoast truisms that offend no one.” he said.
Continuing, he argued that Jesus showed that it is standing for what is right and true that Christians need to focus on, even when dealing with contentious cultural topics, not what people want to hear from the pulpit or what avoids offending them.
He said, “America desperately needs a spiritual revival. The church needs to be active and engaged. So many pastors are afraid of offending anyone in their congregation. If you’re a pastor and what you say on Sunday morning offends nobody, you’re doing it wrong. That’s not how Jesus did it. When He was flipping over the tables of the moneychangers in the temple, He offended a lot of people, because the truth is intolerable to those who are spreading lies.”
Sen. Cruz then argued that “Today’s Left is very much a religion” and that America’s youth are particularly predisposed toward accepting it because they want to live for something greater than themselves, but that little else currently fills that desire given the church’s retreat.
He added, “I think that is a fundamental human desire. And for much of human history, it was filled by faith, it was filled by God and in a relationship with God. Today, for much of the modern Left, in their mind they’ve killed God. There is no faith.”
Further, commenting on the close relationship between the modern left and Marxist tactics, he said, “That’s Marxism, that’s who they are. They always, always, always start with the kids; they start with indoctrination. And at the heart of it is destroying any loyalty you might have to anything else — to God, to family, anything other than the all-powerful state, because Marxism fundamentally is about power, and an excuse for the rulers to have total power and total devotion over you.”
Watch Sen. Cruz here:
Sen. Cruz’s comments reflect a growing schism within the church, one that extends across most Protestant denominations and the Catholic church: some think the Bible’s teachings back the conservative position on contentious social issues and so the church should take a stand against the tide on those matters, while others argue that the church needs to move with the times.
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