The first winner here is Ted Cruz.  He is making the point that he is the grand champion of religious liberty.  Few note that Ted hosted a meeting beamed around the nation from Houston Baptist University.  At the meeting Ted said the next civil rights issue is the soliciting of money from the state for Christian schools.  His father, an ex-communist turned theocracy advocate, condemns pastors who do not endorse candidates from the pulpit as cowards.  Ted's own church, Second Baptist, was in court over the endorsing of candidates by the church.  Second's favorite member, Dan Patrick, is running for Lieutenant Governor and speaks at churches claiming there is no separation of church and state.
     The U.S. Pastor's Conference, which until lately, was a little known struggling group, has now received a national platform with guaranteed fundraising exposure.  David Welch, the leader of the group, is now a stable in the evening news.  The group has links to the John Birch Society, theocracy advocate James Kennedy, and of course, David Barton, the popular enemy of the separation of church and state.  I attended one of their meetings where Jon Hagee told us the way for your church to be blessed by God was to put the secular state of Israel in your budget.
     Grace Community Church is billing itself as the poor little group persecuted by the city.  Fact is the mega church has a history of secular campaign promotions.  The church used its stationary to promote a potential heir to the throne relinquished by Tom Delay because of Tom's legal problems.  At the USPC meeting I attended the church pastor bragged he was taking on Americans United in court because they limited his free speech.
     The Alliance Defense Fund is the publicity award winner in all this.  They are billing themselves as the new champions of the pastor's right to free speech.  The ADF is the organization promoting the platform that ministers endorse candidates from the pulpit and defy the government to say anything about it.  Churches are supposed to lose 501c3 status for doing such.  ADF champions the idea of ministers refusing to go along with tax codes.  The region has a history of people like Lester Roloff, the famous minister who refused to license his children's homes.  Lester is still held in high regard in South Texas with his sermons still broadcast over radio.  Lester was forced from the state for his institutions that beat young girls.
     Mike Huckabee is the new national spokesman for church/state.  Mike claims David Barton is the greatest historian of our generation.  Barton tells audiences ministers can be arrested for reading the book of Romans from the pulpit.  The Bartons and Huckabees take family vacations together.
     Local ministers believe that they could be arrested for refusing to preform a gay marriage.  The recent Idaho wedding chapel story has added fuel to this rumor.  I believe Knox is right in his article, the handing of the microphone over to these groups will cause religious liberty problems in the future.  A church member commented to me that it is ironic the people that advocate a theocracy are now the ones screaming "religious liberty."