By Bob Allen
Fresh off last week’s televised debate, GOP presidential hopeful Sen. Ted Cruz held a campaign rally Jan. 15 at a college affiliated with the South Carolina Baptist Convention.
“We need to take power out of Washington and back to we the people,” Cruz (R-Texas) said before a nearly full Turner Chapel on the campus of North Greenville University. “That is what this campaign is all about.”
Earlier Cruz, a member of First Baptist Church in Houston, won an endorsement from the immediate past president of the 2,100-church South Carolina Baptist Convention.
“I am looking for a president who leads with wisdom, compassion, and strength,” Tommy Kelly, pastor of First Baptist Church in Varnville, S.C., said in a press release from the Cruz campaign. “In Ted Cruz I have been pleased to find a man of character and a battle-tested leader.”
Kelly, a graduate of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and pastor at Varnville First Baptist Church since 1994, said he believes of all the candidates, Cruz would make the best commander-in-chief and is the candidate best positioned to win.
“I look forward to helping Ted Cruz turn out the vote among Southern Baptists,” Kelly said. “If people of faith go to the polls we will reignite the promise of America.”
Taking heat for an exchange in Thursday’s debate in which Donald Trump castigated him for demeaning “New York values,” Cruz spoke to reporters about calls from Democratic leaders in the state demanding that he apologize.
“I’m happy to apologize,” Cruz said. “I apologize to the millions of New Yorkers who have been let down by liberal politicians in that state. I apologize to the hard-working men and women in the state of New York who have been denied jobs because Gov. Cuomo won’t allow fracking.”
“Even though there have been many high-paying jobs just south in Pennsylvania, New Yorkers are denied the ability to provide for their families,” he continued. “I apologize to all the pro-life and pro-Second Amendment New Yorkers, who were told by Gov. Cuomo that they have no place in New York, because that’s not who New Yorkers are. I apologize to all the small businesses who have been driven out of New York City by crushing taxes and regulations.”
South Carolina Baptist leaders recently reaffirmed relations with North Greenville University after freezing funding over questions about the departure of former President Jimmy Epting. A video posted online appeared to show him in a compromising position with a woman who is not his wife.
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