U.S. Constitution reads “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
Thomas Jefferson wrote, “I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.”
The U.S. Supreme Court highlighted the phrase “wall of separation” in 1878 by declaring in Reynolds v. U.S. “that it may be accepted almost as an authoritative declaration of the scope and effect of the (first) amendment.” Since that time, the phrase has become common in American jurisprudence.
Ted Cruz said, “I am a Christian first. I am an American second.”
Bottom line: If Cruz’s loyalty is to the church first, and not the state, he has no business being president or a U.S. senator. If his loyalty is to the church first, he should be a pastor.
