AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – Ted Cruz sometimes sounds more like a preacher than a presidential candidate, praising the transformative love of Jesus Christ and promising to defend religious liberty. But the Texas senator rarely evokes the biblical tenet of tithing, the mandate that 10 percent of possessions be donated to God.
That’s because Cruz doesn’t tithe. He and his wife donated less than 1 percent of their income to charity and nothing to churches, including to their own in Houston, according to tax returns from 2006 to 2010, the most recent Cruz has released.
His campaign declined requests from The Associated Press to provide recent tax returns or otherwise demonstrate donations since 2010. Cruz has said he and his wife were more focused on using their seven-figure annual income to build a financial foundation for their family.
Being a past charitable cheapskate provides a glimpse of who Cruz was before running for president, when he was known more as a fierce fiscal conservative than a devout Southern Baptist. Cruz’s religious side similarly didn’t dominate his 2012 run for Senate in Texas. Cruz suggested shortly after taking office that politicians should “avoid ostentatiously wrapping yourself in your faith” – advice he has ignored amid his rise in national polls.
“It’s not like this is a new issue, it just wasn’t front and center,” James Bernsen, the spokesman for Cruz’s Senate campaign, said of religion. “Ted’s main focus was on Obamacare, taxing and spending, the national debt.”