Appearing on conservative Iowa radio host Jan Mickelson‘s show last week, 2016 GOP presidential hopeful Ted Cruz railed against the “Atheist Taliban” for their so-called assault on religious freedom. According to Cruz:

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. When it comes to this aspect of religious liberty, driving any acknowledgment of God out of the public square, you have radical atheists and liberals who go to the court system and try to tear down long-standing monuments… [SNIP] 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. [Emphasis Mine]

That “we” Cruz speaks of refers only to Christian Americans as non-Christians have long fought for equal religious standing in public institutions (atheists, agnostics and minority religions alike). Then again, given Cruz’s recent campaign video harping on the victimization of Christians through forcing them to serve the public equally demonstrated this point succinctly.

Chest-puffing and base-riling aside, Cruz (a sitting member of Congress and a man who is seeking the highest executive job within the government tasked with defending our founding documents) doesn’t seem to have a great grasp of the Constitution. Take monuments on public grounds, for instance.

Anyone outside the rabid right understands that having a religious monument on taxpayer-funded property is forbidden lest the state or local government governing that plot of land offer equal accommodations to all other religions wishing to construct similar displays. Failing that, the primary (Christian) display is unconstitutional. Even the hyper-conservative Oklahoma State Supreme Court understands this.

Yet in Cruz’s mind, forcing Christian organizations to step down from their place of privilege and abide by the Constitution’s Establishment Clause amounts to religious terrorism.

Just as the religious right latched onto public fear during the 1950’s during McCarthyism and the Red Scare to force Christian concepts into the public sphere through money and motto, Christian conservatives once again want to use public fear and the power of the tyrannical majority to continue placing Christianity above all else in the public square.

“Acknowledging God in the public square” has never been a Constitutional concept; in fact, it runs counter to the very spirit of the First Amendment.

After all, it was James Madison and Thomas Jefferson who championed the cause for separation of church and state. In fact, Madison once wrote in a letter to Reverend Jasper Adams in 1832:

“It may not be easy, in every possible case, to trace the line of separation between the rights of religion and the Civil authority with such distinctness as to avoid collisions and doubts on unessential points. The tendency to usurpation on one side or the other, or to a corrupting coalition or alliance between them, will be best guarded agst. by an entire abstinence of the Govt. from interference in any way whatsoever, beyond the necessity of preserving public order, and protecting each sect agst. trespasses on its legal rights by others.”

Not exactly the Christian origins the religious right would have everyone believe.

Peacock Panache readers:

Tim Peacock is the Managing Editor and founder of Peacock Panache and has worked as a civil rights advocate for over twenty years. During that time he’s worn several hats including leading on campus LGBTQ advocacy in the University of Missouri campus system, interning with the Colorado Civil Rights Division, and volunteering at advocacy organizations. You can learn more about him at his personal website.

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