DENVER — The Western Conservative Summit’s kick-off Friday gave attendees a golden opportunity to vent their frustrations over this week’s Supreme Court decisions in favor of Obamacare and gay marriage.
As the summit’s host, former Colorado Sen. Bill Armstrong, joked, “This is not the Supreme Court appreciation party. That’s in another room.”
Rafael Cruz, father of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, warned that Friday’s decision paving the way for same-sex couples to be married in all 50 states has “enormous implications for religious freedom.”
“We need to realize that we are under a lot of religious persecution in America, specifically Christian persecution. We just saw a good dose of that this morning,” said Mr. Cruz, whose son is running for the Republican presidential nomination.
“Don’t make any mistake: That decision is about religious freedom in America,” Mr. Cruz said. “But you have to understand the attack on religious freedom is not the objective. It’s only the means. You see, socialism requires that government becomes your God. And in order for government to become your God, they must destroy the concept of God.”
Tea Party Patriots head Jenny Beth Martin said that she could hardly sleep Wednesday and Thursday nights in anticipation of the high court’s decisions, but what gets her out of bed is that, “I think about the fact that today we can make a difference.”
“That our country is stronger than any one president. We’re stronger than four bad sessions of Congress,” Ms. Martin said. “Our country is bigger than a handful of bad Supreme Court decisions. OK, really, we’re bigger than a truckload full of bad Supreme Court decisions.”
She added that, “Republicans are beginning to realize that they can’t rely on the court to save us” from Obamacare.
“We’re going to need Democrats to help us repeal the law,” Ms. Martin said.
The sixth annual summit hosted by the Centennial Institute at Colorado Christian University runs through Sunday at the Colorado Convention Center.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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