Among all of the ridiculousness that is this years presidential race, this past week, Republican candidate Ted Cruz welcomed the support of televangelist Mike Bickle in a statement which can be read here. To be quite frank with you, this really scares me. It is not the fact that Mike Bickle, who has major sway over thousands upon thousands of citizens, has openly stated that Hitler was sent by God to punish the Jews for not accepting Jesus that really scares me. It is not even the fact that Bickle thinks that when Jesus returns, 2/3 of the Jews will be hunted down. What scares me the most is that Bickle, like many other religious leaders, claims to knows God’s exact desires and wishes. With statements such as “We need a president who will first be faithful to honor God’s Word” or that God has somehow chosen Ted Cruz, I am officially terrified.
This mentality is, in my opinion, the single most destructive mentality in the world. This is the mentality that causes Islamic extremists, all over the world, to kill the innocent. This is the mentality that leads rabbis like Yosef Mizrachi to claim that certain people, such as the mentally ill or cancer patients, are really just being punished for actions they have done. This is the mentality that leads to the vociferous preachers on Bruin Walk, who have no respect for other people’s worldviews, harassing students day after day. The Talmud actually comments on the phenomenon, saying that in post-Biblical times, prophecy is given to the mentally ill (Bava Batra 12b). While some mistakenly think that this statement means that people with mental illnesses have prophecy, the obvious meaning of this statement is that only someone who is mentally deranged would reasonably claim that God has spoken directly to them.
To be honest, I do not know very much about what is currently happening in politics. My main interests stem from religion, history and science. However, I do know enough to know when someone has crossed a line. I would want a president that tries his or her hardest to shut down the voices of people who claim to have a direct connection with God that only they can hear, especially when that connection leads them to express violent tendencies towards other groups.
I know that some of you may be thinking that if I don’t know much about politics, I should not be writing about the subject. For the most part, I agree, but I do not think that my message here is political in any way, shape, or form. I think that as a nation moving forward, politicians—both on the right and the left—need to stop appealing to various powers or organizations to increase their voter turnout, but instead actually try to stick to their values. This is not an attack on Ted Cruz, specifically, but he is one of the endless examples of politicians selling out to scrape together a few more votes.
Furthermore, God actually came to me in a dream last night and told me that I needed to write this article. He has been pretty bummed lately that people have been saying false things in His name, and wanted me to clarify this to the world. Oh yeah, He also wanted me to say something about an infinite amount of blessing being given to the next 10 people to buy me bagels at Coffee Bean.
