(Jennifer Leclaire) When we sat down with Sen. Ted Cruz near Dallas recently, I (Jennifer) had one major question on my mind. Beyond politics, positions and policies, I wanted to know one thing: Is Cruz contending for a Third Great Awakening? I asked. He answered. You can also listen to the podcast of this interview here. You can still read the previous installments of this series: Ted Cruz Recounts the Night He Met Jesus, “The Real Reason Ted Cruz Wants to Be President” and “Is Ted Cruz a Reagan 2.0?“
Charisma: Some say it’s too late for America. I know you don’t believe that, but many of us are believing for another great awakening, for spiritual revival. Are you believing for that, and if so, what role does a president play in setting the stage for that?
Cruz: Our country’s history has been intertwined with spiritual revival. My father today travels the country speaking to other pastors, and he has a real ministry reaching out to pastors and encouraging them to stand and lead and engage in the public arena. One of the things my father lays out at pastors’ conferences is that the American Revolution didn’t begin in the 1760s and the 1770s, but it really began 40 years earlier with the First Great Awakening. If one looks at the Declaration of Independence, each of those grievances against England had been preached against in the pulpits for decades before that and it set the stage for a transformation, a new birth of freedom, as Lincoln put it, in this country that began with the Great Awakening. To turn America around today, I believe we need another great awakening, and I believe it’s happening. It’s one of the reasons I’m so optimistic and so encouraged as I travel the country. People are waking up. They’re realizing that what we’re doing doesn’t make any sense. They’re realizing that we’re losing who we are, forgetting who we are. One example, just weeks ago, the Federal Department of Education was trying to order a public junior high to allow boys to shower with junior high girls. That’s not a reasonable public policy position on which we should have an extended discourse. That’s just nuts! It makes no sense whatsoever, and as I like to joke, my 5-year-old daughter, Katherine, she understands the difference between boys and girls, but the U.S. Department of Education can’t figure that out. CONTINUE
