2013 in Quotes: Potluck Nuttery II

The last post of our 2013 in Quotes series. We were tempted to call this the Rafael Cruz edition in honor of the father of U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. Click here to read other summaries of the outrageous things we heard from the right in 2013.

You know, the Bible is so clear. Go to Genesis chapter nine and you will find the death penalty clearly stated in Genesis chapter nine … God ordains the death penalty!

— Rafael Cruz, father of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, speaking in a lecture laying out God’s positions on the death penalty and other issues.

Well, the same thing is true of the black population.

— Rafael Cruz, father of Sen. Ted Cruz, from a speech in which he said Hispanics are uninformed and have been deceived.

Of course, this leads us, when there are no moral absolutes leads us to sexual immorality, leads us to sexual abuse, leads us to perversion and, of course, no hope. No hope!

— From a Rafael Cruz speech in which he said that atheism leads to sexual abuse of children.

Political correctness is killing us. It is killing us. I speak to pastors all the time. You know, the Lord back in the beginning of this year, the Lord told me very, very clearly, ‘If there is one group of people that I hold responsible for what is happening in America it is the pastors.’

— From another rant by Rafael Cruz, father of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

You think his biceps weren’t big bulging biceps, big ole veins popping out of his arms, thin waist, strong shoulders from lifting? He smelled bad! Why? Because he sweated, he worked. You think I’m sacrilegious because I said Jesus smelled bad? No, he was a man! He was a man’s man.

— Family Research Council Executive Vice President Jerry Boykin, claiming that Jesus has been “feminized.”

Any of you suffering from PTSD right now, you listen to me. You get rid of that right now. You don’t take drugs to get rid of it. It doesn’t take psychology. That promise right there will get rid of it.

— Televangelist Kenneth Copeland during a conversation with David Barton, saying soldiers should never experience guilt or post-traumatic stress disorder after returning from serving in the military. Joe Carter, communications director for the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, was appalled: “(F)or them to denigrate the suffering of men and women traumatized by war — and to claim Biblical support for their callow and doltish views — is both shocking and unconscionable. Rather than downplaying the pain of PTSD, they should be asking God to heal our brothers and sisters.”

That’s infuriating. That man needs to read his Bible.

— Tracy Pyland, a Values Voter Summit attendee who was asked about her view on Pope Francis’ apparent desire to disengage from the culture wars.

I mean, it totally befuddled me. If it weren’t for capitalism, I don’t know where the Catholic Church would be. Now, as I mentioned before, I’m not Catholic. I admire it profoundly and I’ve been tempted a number of times to delve deeper into it. But the Pope here has now gone beyond Catholicism here, and this is pure political.

— Rush Limbaugh, denouncing Pope Francis’ call on world leaders to do more to fight poverty as “pure Marxism.”

6 thoughts on “2013 in Quotes: Potluck Nuttery II

  1. Limbaugh thinks he’s the more qualified arbiter of Catholicism than the Father of the Church? That’s typically arrogant of him. Still, what I find more interesting is how carefully he cloaked his potshot at the pope with the disclaimers that he’s an admirer of Catholicism and has considered converting. My guess is he’s not keen to alienate the Catholics among his base and he senses that Francis is going to remain popular among all but hardliners like members of the Society of St. Pious X.

    What I find more interesting, however, is how many of these quotes came from Rafael Cruz. It’s a shame this man seems to be so influential on anyone beyond his own loony offspring.

  2. The Southern Baptist Convention rarely denounces people like Copeland and Barton because their leadership hierarchy, assorted para-Southern Baptists and SBC organizations, and the heads of their largest churches have their own share of buffoons who are into science denial Biblical literalism, and other sorts of similar buffoonery.

    Right at this moment, I would just like the Southern Baptists of Texas to feel a wave of awakening washing over them and spurring them into leaving the SBC churches in a mass exodus and transferring their memberships to sane churches such as the United Methodist Church, Lutheran Church, etc. There is a list of them a mile long. It’s simple. Just leave and show up at another church next Sunday morning. Quit living your life in fear and guilt—and drink deeply from the real Jesus the “current lights” of the Southern Baptist Convention have never known and still do not know.

    Grace be unto you and Happy New Year!!!

  3. I am an atheist and nothing made me happier than to see the new pope on Time mag. cover as “Person of the Year.” I admire him greatly. And I think it’s especially wonderful that he was a bar bouncer before he joined the clergy.