Ted Cruz’s father is sure that God has great things planned for Ted:
I could add more, but I think the point has been made.
Many of these folks were so sure they had God’s ear, heard messages from said God, and then they dropped out of the race, or what they were told would happen never came to pass.
What do the True Believers make of all this?
That god is playing practical jokes? That the people listed above are delusional? That they did indeed hear a divine message but it was actually meant for someone else?
Do any of their devotees ever notice or think about how many 'Pubs claim to be divinely ordained but then drop the bid for presidency?
Believers tend to think that God makes everything happen for a reason. God told you to run, and you lost because it was part of God’s plan for you to lose. Because really, if you’re a god-fearing man, why would you want to be President? That’s about the worst position for a good Christian that I can imagine. Which is why I really wish they’d stop pretending. Any Christian with power probably left their faith behind a long time ago.
Exactly this. They will tell themselves that God must only have wanted them to participate in the public debate, or that running for president was a trial or something.
I’ve got a family member who makes bad decisions and justifies every single one by saying that he prayed real hard and it was God’s plan. God wanted him to become a youth minister, but when nobody would hire him, God apparently just wanted him to fail at becoming a youth minister for mysterious reasons. Those are his ways, we are not to question them.
It can be, since God is never wrong and can’t ever be proven wrong, but it’s also true that failing at certain things opens doors to other things or teaches you things about yourself that you didn’t know.
So when one of them says that God told him to run we can assume that God was only saying that for the advancement of this persons spiritual growth, and not for the good of the country.
Then it is irrational to say this as a qualifying boast in your campaign. To say it is itself a disqualifier from the start.
Sure, but if I put my mind to something and fail, that gives me reason to reflect on my decision to do that thing in the first place. If God tells me to do something and then God makes me fail, I’m left trying to figure out what I was supposed to gain from the whole experience (and there very well may be something to gain), but at no point do I question the decision to do it in the first place, because it wasn’t mine to make.
That’s my issue. He makes bad decisions, but he’s offloaded the responsibility for making those decisions to a higher power, so he keeps making them.