Video Exclusive: Ted Cruz Says Politicians Must Avoid Beings Pharisees

In a one-on-one interview at his home in Houston Texas, Sen. Ted Cruz tells The Brody File that many times politicians use their faith to be “politically useful” and says that politicians have, “a special obligation to avoid being a Pharisee.”

Cruz went on to say that his faith, “is not organized religion, it’s not going to a church. It is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.”

This interview was done this past Friday at Ted Cruz’s home in Houston. A few more clips of The Brody File’s interview with Ted Cruz will be released Friday. He talks about the GOP, the Tea Party, and the media attention.

In addition, The Brody File spoke to his wife Heidi. You will see a couple of those clips as well.

By the way, for those who are not sure what he means by a "Pharisee," Jesus depicts these folks in the Bible as hypocritically self-righteous people.

MANDATORY COURTESY: CBN NEWS/THE BRODY FILE

David Brody: You know, you said before about how you’re not too much into politicians saying, ‘God called me’ into a race or anything like this, but you clearly have to see God’s hand in all of this for your life.

Sen. Ted Cruz: No doubt, but I think that, ultimately, I’d rather that be demonstrated by its fruit than necessarily me proclaiming that to others. I think anyone in politics you’ve got a special obligation to avoid being a Pharisee, to avoid ostentatiously wrapping yourself in your faith because I think in politics, it’s too easy for that to become a crutch, for that to be politically useful.

And I think ultimately that undermines the message. I think you should live your life consistent with your faith, consistent with your principles, and let your actions speak for themselves and let your walk speak for itself.

Brody: You’ve talked about your Baptist faith, so what has that been like because this has been quite a process for you to become a Baptist, if you will. What’s that been like?

Sen. Cruz: I am Cuban, Irish, and Italian, and yet somehow I ended up Southern Baptist. The background: my parents were actually living up in Calgary, in Canada. They were in the oil business. This is when I was three and four years old, and they separated when I was a young child and both of them had been raised Catholic, but neither were particularly religious. Neither of them were practicing.

It was more a cultural thing than a, for them, a genuine faith in their family, and my dad left my mom and me when I was three or four years old, came down to Houston, and a friend of his from the oil business invited him to Clay Road Baptist church, and he was born again, and it transformed his life. He came back to Canada, reunited with my mother and me, and it brought our family together and saved our family when I was a young child.

Brody: When you say, ‘He saved your family,’ what do you mean exactly?

Sen. Cruz: To be honest, look I was young enough, I don’t really remember much of this. I mean, I feel incredibly fortunate. I think I really had an idyllic childhood because both of my parents loved me and love me today unconditionally. And to have that support, to have that constant reaffirmation, my father would tell me, almost on a daily basis, he would say, ‘I would give my life for you.’

And to hear that, you know, when you’re five, six, seven years old and to have that become part of who you are. I mean that really is, it’s a powerful foundation, and it’s very much what I hope as a father to give my girls is that same unconditional love that ultimately is mirrored after God’s unconditional love for us. I mean, that as a parent is what we hope and strive to give our children, and I feel very blessed that as a kid I was very much raised in that environment.

Brody: Are those some of the lessons that you take from your Baptist faith because there are folks that take all different sorts of lessons from your faith. Baptists talk about a personal relationship with God. What does that mean to you?

Sen. Cruz: Well, I mean I think it is exactly that. At the end of the day, faith is not organized religion, it’s not going to a church. It is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and that relationship gives one a strength, a confidence not just in salvation ultimately but day to day as you go through the slings and arrows of daily life.