As Brian noted earlier, Sen. Ted Cruz spoke today at a “Watchmen on the Wall” event hosted by the far-right Family Research Council, where he shared the stage with a variety of other extreme anti-gay activists.

Naturally, when Cruz took the stage this morning, after being introduced by his father Rafael Cruz, who is also an anti-gay Religious Right activist in his own right, the Texas senator promised the gathering of pastors that he will “always, always, always” stand for the right of Christian business owners to discriminate against gays in the name of religious liberty.

Lamenting opposition to “religious liberty” bills in Indiana and Arkansas that would have allowed businesses to deny services to gay customers, Cruz declared that “the modern Democratic Party has become so radical, so extreme, that they have determined that their devotion to mandatory gay marriage in all 50 states trumps any allegiance to religious liberty under the First Amendment.”

Even worse, Cruz said, was the fact that some of the leading GOP presidential hopefuls fell silent during the controversy as well … but not Ted Cruz!

“I can tell you this,” he said, “I will always, always, always stand and fight for religious liberty of every American!”