{"id":129549,"date":"2016-01-23T21:36:21","date_gmt":"2016-01-24T04:36:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/01\/23\/christian-first-american-second.html"},"modified":"2016-02-08T17:39:27","modified_gmt":"2016-02-09T00:39:27","slug":"christian-first-american-second","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/01\/23\/christian-first-american-second.html","title":{"rendered":"&quot;Christian first, American second&quot;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><i>&#39;&ldquo;I&rsquo;m a Christian first, American second, conservative third and Republican fourth,&rdquo; Cruz said, as quoted by Politico. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll tell ya, there are a whole lot of people in this country that feel exactly the same way.&rdquo;&#39;<\/i><\/p>\n<p>Sorry, Ted. That&#39;s a fine personal creed, but it&#39;s really not what I want to know about you as a potential president of the United States. Especially given your flavor of what being a &#39;Christian&#39; means.<\/p>\n<p>(Also &#8212; and, yes, this applies to Bernie Sanders, too &#8212; it&#39;s kind of difficult to position yourself as an &quot;outsider&quot; as a US Senator.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"sm2wp\"><p>\n<a style='display:inline;' href='http:\/\/talkingpointsmemo.com\/livewire\/cruz-washington-establishment-trump'><br \/>\n<img src='https:\/\/lh3.googleusercontent.com\/proxy\/z6u9e3rqEv5vBeMA0BFU4hw9xIAbQ2KDigf274HtYTHFgzjy3EZBU362sAe-7ODP3W9HdOF8bCnhnsT65vgFRab6RyO5DeNR7w3tuzhhkUIobvlVh-zdxOk8na3hdLyhR58N6UXAS0IbGB9b6n2dKp1E6IBFLE84V5yq_7ewBJoC=w506-h910' border='0' style='max-width:650px;'\/><br \/>\n<\/a><br \/>\n<span style='font-size:large;'><a href='http:\/\/talkingpointsmemo.com\/livewire\/cruz-washington-establishment-trump'>Cruz Says &lsquo;Washington Establishment&rsquo; Has Dumped Rubio In Favor Of Trump<\/a><\/span><br \/>\nSen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) positioned his presidential rival Donald Trump as a puppet of the &ldquo;Washington establishment&rdquo; while talking to reporters in New Hampshire Wednesday, Politico reported.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style='font-size:small;'><a href='https:\/\/plus.google.com\/+DaveHill47\/posts\/im75Pi31PVF'>View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#39;&ldquo;I&rsquo;m a Christian first, American second, conservative third and Republican fourth,&rdquo; Cruz said, as quoted by Politico. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll tell ya, there are a whole lot of people in this country that feel exactly the same way.&rdquo;&#39; Sorry, Ted. That&#39;s a fine personal creed, but it&#39;s really not what I want to know about you as &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/01\/23\/christian-first-american-second.html\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;&quot;Christian first, American second&quot;&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,109,532],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-129549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-church-state","category-elections-2016"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":131060,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/07\/12\/white-christian-america-is-in-long-term-decline.html","url_meta":{"origin":129549,"position":0},"title":"White Christian America is in long-term decline","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 12-Jul-16 7:26pm","format":false,"excerpt":"And not just among mainline Protestant churches, but evangelical Protestant churches as well. That's having an increasing effect on politics, as well as culture, both as the number of folk who are white and Christian become smaller pieces of the pie and so have a smaller direct influence, but also\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":135655,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/13\/tragedy-persecution-american-christians.html","url_meta":{"origin":129549,"position":1},"title":"The tragedy of the persecution of American Christians","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 13-Dec-17 7:06pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The tragedy is that it doesn't exist, but some Christians in the US are convinced it does. Speaking as both an American and a Christian, here's what I see. Christians do still hold tremendous power in this country. They hold positions of influence. They have tremendous privilege. The national holidays,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/roy-moore-for-senate.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":133308,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/04\/21\/religious-freedom-for-me-but-not-for-thee-from-russia-with-love-edition.html","url_meta":{"origin":129549,"position":2},"title":"Religious Freedom for Me but Not for Thee (From Russia with Love Edition)","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 21-Apr-17 10:43am","format":false,"excerpt":"Over the past few years, even through to the present, Vladimir Putin has been a poster child for elements of evangelical Christianity in the US. \"He's standing up to gays!\" they shout. \"He's standing up to Muslims! He's making the official church of Russia strong!\"Whether or not persecuting gays and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24650,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/18\/can-you-be-a-faithful-muslim-and-a-loyal-american.html","url_meta":{"origin":129549,"position":3},"title":"Can you be a faithful Muslim and a loyal American?","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 18-Dec-11 6:37pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, can you be a faithful Christian and a loyal American? How about a faithful Jew, or Buddhist, or Hindu, or Wiccan, or ...?For anyone with a particular religious faith -- or any sort of personal moral code -- there may come a time when that interferes with one's relationship\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":51422,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/06\/11\/anti-christian-discrimination-overseas-and-the-silence-of-americas-religious-right.html","url_meta":{"origin":129549,"position":4},"title":"Anti-Christian Discrimination Overseas &#8212; and the silence of America&#039;s Religious Right","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 11-Jun-15 1:01am","format":false,"excerpt":"Because apparently it's okay (or at least too embarrassing to point out) when it's Israel doing the discriminating, in terms of religiously-affiliated school funding.http:\/\/religiondispatches.org\/with-christian-schools-at-risk-in-israel-crickets-from-american-christian-conservatives\/ \u00a0 View on Google+","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/BBT%2Bawkward.gifimgmax%3D660.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":37838,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/16\/religious-freedom-license-plates-and-a-twist.html","url_meta":{"origin":129549,"position":5},"title":"Religious freedom, license plates, and a twist","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 16-Jun-13 7:00pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Usually it's folks suing about explicitly Christian messages on state license plates. \u00a0In a culture that is overtly (and majority) Christian, that's not difficult to imagine.The twist in this case is that it's a Christian suing, saying that a Native American artwork used on Oklahoma's current plate has an clear\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129549"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":129747,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129549\/revisions\/129747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}