At rally in Iowa, Cruz warns of ‘war on faith’

DES MOINES - The warnings were clear and dire to the thousands who attended a Rally for Religious Liberty hosted by Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz on Friday night in Des Moines: Religious freedom in America is under attack.

'We are just one justice away from the (U.S.) Supreme Court saying every image of God should be torn down,” said Cruz, adding later, 'There is a war on faith in America today.”

Roughly 2,500 people attended Cruz's rally at the Iowa Events Center, organizers said. Cruz and other conservatives spoke, as did a group of people who believe the government has infringed upon their religious freedom.

Multiple speakers warned those in attendance that they, too, one day could find their religious freedom under attack.

'Their story is your story. The only difference is perhaps it hasn't happened to you yet,” said Bryan English, an aide for Cruz's campaign in Iowa.

Included among the guests were Iowans Dick and Betty Odgaard, who refused to allow a same-sex couple to marry at their business - a gallery housed inside a former church - and since have closed the business because, they said, of litigation and backlash.

'We could not celebrate a sin. We could not take part in what we believe is a sin,” Betty Odgaard said at Friday night's event.

The couple received multiple standing ovations.

Some groups, however, were critical of the event and Cruz's cause.

Donna Red Wing, executive director of the gay rights advocacy group One Iowa, in a statement called Cruz's view on religious liberty 'bigoted,” 'self-serving” and a 'bloviated crusade to win votes.”

She said Cruz needs 'a lesson in the true meaning of religious liberty, as our founders envisioned it.”

'In this country, our government is prohibited from establishing an official church ... and people are free to worship as they please or not at all ...” Red Wing wrote. 'Public accommodation must be free from religious distinctions.”

Protesters broke into Cruz's second round of remarks, some of them holding a sign that said 'Citizenship Now.”

Cruz also invited to the stage Naghmeh Abedini, wife of an American pastor being held in Iran.

Cruz called his guests 'heroes” who are being persecuted 'simply for living out their faith.”

Cruz also provided one last warning, saying that as bad as he believes the government's intrusion on religious freedom has been, 'it is worth remembering that it can still get much, much worse.”