By Bob Allen
Sen. Ted Cruz will hold a nationwide conference call for pastors Aug. 25, seeking evangelical support for his presidential campaign by going after Planned Parenthood.
Cruz (R-Texas), a Southern Baptist and pastor’s son, invited pastors to join the call on a video posted online by the American Renewal Project, an organization started by GOP operative David Lane to encourage pastors to get personally involved in politics.
The call will seek to build on outrage over recently released viral videos purported to show Planned Parenthood profiting from the harvesting and sale of fetal tissue for medical research. Planned Parenthood says its practices are legal and calls the videos an attempt by abortion opponents to portray the women’s health care provider in a negative light.
“Recently, all of us have seen videos of behind-the-scenes dealing at the Planned Parenthood facilities, activities that all of us find horribly offensive,” Cruz said in the message. “But even more appalling is that we as taxpayers are funding these activities. We cannot allow this to continue.”
“Only our pastors, our faith leaders, our church leaders, have enough influence to put a stop to this ongoing holocaust,” he continued. On Tuesday, Aug. 25, at 4 p.m. Eastern, he said, “We’ll have a nationwide call with pastors to learn what we can do now to put a stop to this tragedy.
“Please make a concerted effort to be on this important call, and to encourage all pastors you know to join us,” Cruz said. “Help stop taxpayer funding for these horrific acts that take a precious human life. Thank you, and God bless you.”
The phone call is part of a larger 50-state campaign by Cruz to end taxpayer support for Planned Parenthood — a campaign likely to raise his profile in a Republican primary race where the vote of social conservatives is seen as up for grabs.
“The battle we face is not political,” Cruz said in an email reportedly sent to 100,000 pastors. “It is spiritual.”
“The recent exposure of Planned Parenthood’s barbaric practices of harvesting the body parts of innocent babies and selling them to the highest bidder has brought about a pressing need to end taxpayer support of this institution,” Cruz wrote.
“As the son of a pastor, I know you bear a high and holy calling on your lives. I am urging you to confront this evil in our nation by praying and preaching with an unbridled passion until funding for Planned Parenthood ends, and this barbaric practice is purged from the land.”
Cruz invited pastors to dial into the conference call “to hear how you can be a part of this effort.”
He further asked that pastors preach a message Aug. 30 “calling on your people to enter into this spiritual battle for the soul of their nation.” A link on the American Renewal Project points to an outline for a sample sermon titled: “The Cry of the Innocent for the Soul of a Nation.”
Finally, Cruz asked pastors to lead congregations in a “Day of Prayer and Fasting,” on Wednesday, Sept. 9, and use Wednesday night services asking God “to move in the hearts of men and women in government to vote to end the slaughter of the innocents.”
The dial-in number for tomorrow’s call is 877-229-8493, PIN 114559.
Previous story: