Well shut my mouth!

I'm working on a meme here, okay?

If I didn't know better, I'd say Amanda Marcotte was reading my stuff:

The Houston Chronicle lamented ever endorsing Cruz, comparing him unfavorably to his predecessor Kay Baily Hutchinson. Hutchinson actually bothered to represent her voters, putting a priority on the state’s economic development. Cruz is as different from Hutchinson as a miracle-promising conman taking old ladies for their Social Security checks is from the local minister who actually bothers to do the unglamorous work of holding hands, wiping tears and performing weddings and funerals for parishioners. Being an actual working politician is boring. Cruz is a new breed of conservative politician who is forsaking even the semblance of governance for mugging for the camera and then cashing some more checks. (emphasis added)

Cruz, Marcotte says, resembles a faith healer; and it seems faith healers and like-minded fundamentalist Christians are not interested in religion, they are interested in money:

That Cruz resembles a faith healer selling lies to gullible people more than a politician working to represent the interests of his voters shouldn’t be too surprising. His family is wrapped up with some of the worst of the worst when it comes to sleazy preachers seeking to exploit vulnerable people. Cruz’s father is a member of Purifying Fire Ministries, founded by Suzanne Hinn, the wife of one of the nation’s most despicable fundamentalist conmen, Benny Hinn. Hinn is a minister only in the loosest sense of the word: He goes about the world conducting fake faith-healing “miracles” that make him a lot of money, but he doesn’t actually provide any services real people need. It’s all just magic tricks to con the rubes out of their hard-earned money.

Follow that link, you'll find out that "Purifying Fire Ministries" is interested in the youth (whom God is raising up; I guess parents are irrelevant after birth) and the poor; there's even a convenient testimonial about an unnamed woman who was given a home and furniture by PFM.  "Convenient" because unlike Habitat for Humanity, which also provides furnished homes to the poor, there's absolutely no way to verify this tale; you just have to take the website's word for it.  Would they lie to you?  Have they ever seen you before?

And besides, we know Rafael Sr. and Rafael Jr. are all about helping the poor.   It's a part of everything they say in public.

Isn't it?

But Marcotte even sees the difference between genuine fundamentalist believers (who ain't necessarily bad) and the wolves-in-shepherd's-clothing who would fleece them:

Faith healers and other religious conmen have preyed on fundamentalist Christian audiences for over a century now.

 Yes; yes they have.  This is the point where we could have a fruitful conversation.