“To God be the glory.”
Those were the first words Ted Cruz spoke when he addressed his supporters after winning the Iowa Republican Caucus.
My initial reaction was to equate it to pro football players making the sign of the cross after they make a touchdown, something that is happening more and more frequently these days.
Perhaps Cruz was being sincere in offering thanks to God for his victory. If so, I can only hope he wasn’t also suggesting that God helped him win.
That would trivialize any real faith he has, not to mention he would be saying God had a favorite in the race and he was it.
Taking Cruz’s sincerity at face value, though, hardly makes what he said more palatable. Such easy attribution to God by a politician should raise a red flag for anybody who takes God or politics seriously.
That includes Hillary Clinton ending her speech last night with the words, “May God bless you.” I wonder if she intended supporters for Bernie Sanders to be included in such a divine blessing.
The reality is that the moment a politician invokes the name of God you can be sure it will be self-serving. That may seem like an unjustified generalization, but history suggests it is not.
In 1973, April 30th to be exact, Richard Nixon delivered a television address to the nation trying to explain away the growing Watergate scandal that led to his resignation, ending his speech with the words, “God bless America and God bless each and every one of you.”
That was the beginning of what has now become a common practice for presidents of both parties. It is one that should stop.
Politicians are partisans, seeking advantage over their opponents. To ask God to bless America is a de facto way of asking God to bless their policies, positions, and views.
There has never been a president who, if he were to have received a clear message from God to stop what he was doing, would have done so.
It would have never happened, and I suggest never will. Invoking the name of God by politicians is a meaningless use of God’s name, perhaps even the equivalent of taking God’s name in vain.
Ted Cruz, as with every opponent he has, is a politician first, something that necessarily influences everything he says and does.
“To God be the glory” was no exception. If he had been genuinely sincere in that conviction he would have never said it at such a politicized event, his evangelical supporters cheering every word he spoke notwithstanding.
The presidential campaign for both parties this year will no doubt be filled with lies, distortions, half-truths, and anything and everything that might allow one or another of the candidates to gain an advantage.
One small, honorable thing all them could do would be to refrain from invoking God’s name for anything.
It’s the least they can do given all the other stuff the rest of us will have to endure because of them before it is over.
linnposts.com 
Another big AMEN! I have reached a point that I cringe when I hear a politician invoke God’s name. To me it has come close to a reliable indicator that that politician is a phony. But many people lap that stuff up, as evidenced by the Cruz supporters. It’s too much for me to handle. But then I’m getting very cynical about our politics and VERY tired of our seemingly endless campaigns.
You are not alone, Wally.
Unlike your country, we in the UK don’t have a written constitution, with formal walls between church and state. Instead, we (at least in that part of the UK we call England) have an unwritten rule that as individuals we keep the spiritual side of things private, and that if any politician starts banging on about how much “God” wants him to be Prime Minister, then he or she is liable to be looked at as not being quite right in the head…
…Just like a certain Ugandan gentleman, about 40 years ago…
Nigel, some of us see politicians here talking about God in the same way. Sadly many other Americans see them as people of great faith, especially within the Republican Party. Where this will lead us as a nation is, I think, anybody’s guess.
Re: Hillary Clinton, “May God bless you,” and Jan’s comment, “I wonder if she intended supporters for Bernie Sanders to be included in such a divine blessing,” we can only hope!