Biblical Witless

New clip of Ted Cruz getting cooked by Tucker Carlson just dropped pic.twitter.com/nbGvkyewxZ

— MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) June 18, 2025

I don’t care about Tucker pantsing Cruz over the question of how many people live in Iran. This exchange shows Cruz to be the child of his father, and that makes him a bull goose looney.

I honestly don’t how Cruz connects Christian obligations to support for the “nation” of Israel,  That’s not Christian doctrine at all, that I’ve ever heard of. It became an idea among extreme right-wing Christian sects long after 1948, mostly as a part of eschatological ranting about “end times.”  People obsessed with that idea tend to either want to be “prophetic” (not the correct understanding of that term in Biblical history), or to hasten the “end.” As for “nation of Israel” meaning the “political nation state,” that concept didn’t exist before the 19th century (or at least wasn’t widely accepted before then). And it is a European concept, not a Middle Eastern one. It simply couldn’t be the correct interpretation of the Masoretic text.

Let me shorten this with the Shama: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord is God, the Lord is One.” If you’re wondering about that phrasing, it’s because there are layers of history in the Torah, and one of them is the Jahwist (earliest layer), another the Elohist (later than Jahwist). The names refer to words used to identity God: “Jahweh” in the former, “elihu” in the latter. The standard English translation is “God” in the first case, “Lord” in the second. So, “Elihu is Jahweh,” and Jahweh is one (a statement of radical monotheism).

Which is beside the point, actually. I cite the Shama because “Israel” there refers to the children of Abraham, the people of the covenant. Biblically (v. politically), the word always refers to the people. Not the kingdom (when there was one), but the people. The kingdom of Israel was in fact a brief period in history. The children of Abraham consider themselves “Israel” because God made a covenant with Abraham and his descendants. It was after Jacob wrestled with an angel and was named “Israel,” and after Joseph brought the Hebrews to safety in Egypt, and after Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, and after the decades in the wilderness, and after the time of the Judges, that Israel finally became a kingdom. Which didn’t last long, and Israel wasn’t a political state (like a kingdom, for example), until 1948. And “Israel” was always understood to be the people of the covenant, the children of Abraham. They were Israel with, or without, a king, or judges, or a state. How else can Israel hear, except with the ears of the people? Who else is the Shama addressed to, except the people?

I’m not saying the Biblical history I referenced is solidly historical, but the fall of the two kingdoms (Israel and Judah) is history, as is the establishment of a “nation of Israel” in 1948.  Nothing Ted Cruz said lines up with that reality in the least.

And then there’s the point Tucker Carlson implicitly makes. Who is Cruz to decide for this republic why we go to war? Especially when his decision is based on misunderstanding history, theology, and the Biblical witness. Cruz doesn’t make an argument, he asserts an ideological conclusion, one impervious to reason or argument. Carlson claims to be a Christian. What authority does Cruz have to impose his biblical interpretation on Carlson, or the rest of the nation? Some of us are Christians, some of us are not. I, for one, don’t think my Christianity empowers me to decide public policy, especially to settle questions of whom we go to war with, and why. I mean, religious beliefs can inform an individual’s decision making; but what Cruz says here is some weak ass shit which he asserts as unassailable authority. It may be for him; it cannot be for the nation. There’s a very serious ethical question here.

Not that Ted Cruz bothers himself much with ethical issues. Worse, this decision doesn’t just affect this country:

1. BREAKING via the Financial Times

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has put his cabinet on alert for a possible US attack on Iran, just 24 hours after insisting Donald Trump had given no indication he was about to “get involved in this conflict”.

Cruz is not any dreamier or simple minded than this:

The only difference is, Cruz is a U.S. Senator. Which makes him more dangerous.