Ted Cruz decries push for 'mandatory gay marriage'

'Mandatory gay marriage?'

In an interview with conservative talk radio host Eric Metaxas, U.S. Sen. from Texas Ted Cruz said the Democratic party “has gotten so radical and so extreme in its devotion to mandatory gay marriage..."

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In an interview with conservative talk radio host Eric Metaxas, U.S. Sen. from Texas Ted Cruz said the Democratic party “has gotten so radical and so extreme in its devotion to ... more Image 1 of / 119 Caption Close Ted Cruz decries push for 'mandatory gay marriage' 1 / 119 Back to Gallery

U.S. Senator and presidential candidate Ted Cruz (R-Texas) recently made comments on a conservative radio show that suggest "mandatory gay marriage" may be on its way.

The vocally Christian Tea Party politician has long been sounding the gay marriage alarm. He believes that efforts to mandate equal treatment of people who marry someone of their same sex are unconstitutional censorship of people who believe their religion prohibits them from affirming homosexuals.

In an interview with conservative talk radio host Eric Metaxas on Friday, Cruz apparently alleged his political opponents were trying to force all Americans into same-sex unions.

"The modern Democratic Party," he said, "has gotten so radical and so extreme in its devotion to mandatory gay marriage that they've decided there's no room for the religious liberty protected under the First Amendment."

A spokesman for the Cruz campaign said the candidate meant Democrats want every state to give same-sex couples the option to wed, not that they want to mandate gay marriages. He cited the ongoing case in the U.S. Supreme Court that will determine the constitutionality of prohibiting marriage on grounds of gender and could force state governments to allow gays to marry.

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Cruz mentioned the mandate in the context of recent political battles over "religious freedom" legislation in Arkansas and Indiana that would have let businesses claim religious protection to deny services to gay people. Both states eventually toned down their proposed laws and included specific protections outlawing discrimination on basis of gender of sexuality.

In the interview, Cruz called the outcome of the religious freedom debates "heartbreaking."

"We are seeing today profound threats to religious liberty in America, the greatest threats we've ever seen," he said.

In April, he described the movement to legally sanction same-sex marriage in America as "jihad" against Christians. That month, a survey of 40,000 Americans by the Public Religion Research Institute found 60 percent of American Catholics, 62 percent of American mainline Protestants and 28 percent of American evangelical protestant (with whom Cruz identifies) favor allowing same-sex couples to wed.

But Cruz claimed efforts to force Americans to accept people whom their religion condemns is a violation of the fundamental freedom the country boasts.

"We're a nation that was founded by men and women who were fleeing religious oppression," he told Metaxas. "That is under profound jeopardy today."

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Cruz's complete comments:

"We are seeing today profound threats to religious liberty in America, the greatest threats we've ever seen and just a couple of months ago we had the battles in Indiana and Arkansas when they passed their religious freedom restoration acts. What happened afterwards was heartbreaking. We saw, number one, a perfect storm of the modern Democratic Party that has gotten so radical and so extreme in its devotion to mandatory gay marriage that they've decided there's no room for the religious liberty protected under the First Amendment. And sadly Democrats joined with big business in an effort to vilify our religious liberty. But what was most striking is how many Republicans, including Republicans running for president in 2016, ran and hid in the hills, were afraid to stand and be counted. I think that Indiana and Arkansas, as Reagan put it, were a time for choosing, that was a sorting moment.

"And I'll tell you one of the things I've been blessed [sic] for the last two decades is to have the opportunity over and over and over again to stand and defend religious liberty and to win nationally over and over again and I will not shirk from defending the religious liberty of every American. We're a nation, and you know this so well, Eric, who were freeing religious oppression and coming to seek out a land where every one of us could worship God Almighty with all of our hearts, minds and souls. And that is under profound jeopardy today."