AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Ted

Cruz sometimes sounds more like a preacher than a presidential

candidate, praising the transformative love of Jesus Christ and

promising to defend religious liberty. But the Texas senator rarely

evokes the biblical tenet of tithing, the mandate that 10 percent of

possessions be donated to God.

That’s because Cruz

doesn’t tithe. He and his wife donated less than 1 percent of their

income to charity and nothing to churches, including to their own in

Houston, according to tax returns from 2006 to 2010, the most recent

Cruz has released.

His campaign declined requests from The

Associated Press to provide recent tax returns or otherwise demonstrate

donations since 2010. Cruz has said he and his wife were more focused on

using their seven-figure annual income to build a financial foundation

for their family.

Being a past charitable cheapskate provides a

glimpse of who Cruz was before running for president, when he was known

more as a fierce fiscal conservative than a devout Southern Baptist.

Cruz’s religious side similarly didn’t dominate his 2012 run for Senate

in Texas. Cruz suggested shortly after taking office that politicians

should “avoid ostentatiously wrapping yourself in your faith” — advice

he has ignored amid his rise in national polls.

“It’s not like

this is a new issue, it just wasn’t front and center,” James Bernsen,

the spokesman for Cruz’s Senate campaign, said of religion. “Ted’s main

focus was on Obamacare, taxing and spending, the national debt.”

On

the night he won the 2012 Texas primary, Cruz reminded a packed Houston

hotel ballroom that victory came on what would have been the 100th

birthday of free-market champion Milton Friedman. Only after that did he

praise God.

The following year, Cruz told the Christian

Broadcasting Network: “I think anyone in politics, you’ve got a special

obligation to avoid being a Pharisee, to avoid ostentatiously wrapping

yourself in your faith.”

Now seeking the White House, Cruz has

done the opposite. He is trying to solidify support from evangelical

Republicans against Donald Trump and religious conservatives like Rick

Santorum and Mike Huckabee, whose supporters have questioned Cruz’s lack

of tithing.

Cruz launched his presidential bid at evangelical

Liberty University and has sought support from pastors in all 99 Iowa

counties. A super political action committee built a website trumpeting

his faith bona fides, including a video detailing how a then-8-year-old

Cruz “surrendered his heart to Jesus” during summer camp at a Christian

ranch. Cruz mentioned faith repeatedly in Thursday’s GOP debate.

Cruz’s

past charitable donations weren’t so generous, though he isn’t alone in

withholding more recent tax records. Trump also hasn’t disclosed his

tax returns. Jeb Bush, Carly Fiorina, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders

have released partial returns from recent years.

Clinton reported

giving away 13 percent of her family’s taxable income in 2014, and Bush

reported donating 4 percent of his that year.

Sanders did not

release the part of his 2014 return that shows charitable donations, but

his campaign said he and his wife gave away about 6 percent of their

taxable income. Fiorina reported donating what amounted to 22 percent of

her family’s taxable income in 2013.

Cruz’s Senate campaign

released five years of tax returns through 2010 showing that he and his

wife donated about $44,500 of the more than $5 million they made over

the period — less than 1 percent of their income.

Those returns

didn’t include itemized donations, but Cruz gave a list to the San

Antonio Express-News in 2012. The newspaper reported that, while some

donations went to faith-based organizations, no money was reported to

have been donated to churches, including Houston’s First Baptist, where

the Cruzes have worshipped since 2008.

Cruz responded that he’d

“worked and saved to build a solid financial foundation to provide for

my children.” He has two daughters.

Recently asked about tithing

by the Christian Broadcasting Network, Cruz said “I will readily admit

that I have not been as faithful in this aspect of my walk as I should

have been.”

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