--- title: Marco Rubio Leans of His Faith to Challenge Ted Cruz in Iowa description: He will not cede the religious vote canonical: https://time.com/4185207/marco-rubio-ted-cruz-iowa-faith/ author: Zeke Miller article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-19T16:47:58.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-05T08:41:32.529Z article:section: Politics og:title: Marco Rubio Leans of His Faith to Challenge Ted Cruz in Iowa og:description: He will not cede the religious vote og:url: https://time.com/4185207/marco-rubio-ted-cruz-iowa-faith/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd0cb960a81abed1b/6988799f0a4a2278039c7f58/marco-rubio8.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5184 og:image:height: 2916 og:image:alt: Marco Rubio og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Marco Rubio Leans of His Faith to Challenge Ted Cruz in Iowa twitter:description: He will not cede the religious vote twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd0cb960a81abed1b/6988799f0a4a2278039c7f58/marco-rubio8.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Marco Rubio Finds God with Atheist Question in Iowa > Sponsored content. 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Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=291cd82d-850a-4cfc-ac8a-9623f38080a1&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Marco Rubio: "In Iowa My Faith Is The Greatest Influence In My Life" [Watch (HLS stream): Marco Rubio: "In Iowa My Faith Is The Greatest Influence In My Life"](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/gGpPZ9KG.m3u8) (4:32)  _Published 2016-01-19_ by [Zeke J Miller / Coralville, Iowa](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke J Miller / Coralville, Iowa Jan 19, 2016 4:47 PM UTC by [Zeke J Miller / Coralville, Iowa](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke J Miller / Coralville, Iowa Jan 19, 2016 4:47 PM UTC The voters at the town hall in Waverly turned their heads as the self-described atheist stood up with a camera to challenge Marco Rubio about his faith. Justin Scott, a voter from Waterloo, asked the Catholic Republican presidential hopeful how his faith would impact his own belief in the absence of a higher power. The candidate was ready. “No one’s going to force you to believe in God. But no one’s going to force me to stop talking about God,” Rubio replied on Monday. “No one’s going to take away my right, and your right,” pointing to the crowd, “to live out the teachings of your faith. No one.” At the same event, Rubio highlighted his opposition to abortion, spoke of his commitment to defund Planned Parenthood, and his support for business owners who don’t want to serve same-sex couples’ at their weddings. “You shouldn’t be worried about my faith influencing me,” he continued. “You should hope that my faith influences me.” The exchange was swiftly posted by the questioner, and then reposted by Rubio’s campaign to the candidate’s YouTube channel. Barely five hours later, the exchange had already made it into Rubio’s stump speech. “America does not make sense unless we believe in a creator,” Rubio told a crowd of about 250 near Iowa City, referencing the question. **Read more**: [History Shows It’s Still Too Early for Polls to Matter](http://time.com/4184449/iowa-caucus-election-polls/) For Rubio, the moment couldn’t have been scripted better, providing a window he wanted to highlight his faith as he courts this state’s passionate evangelical Christian voters. In recent months, those voters have consolidated their support behind another freshman senator, Texas’ Ted Cruz, whose own belief and rhetoric more closely aligns with the state’s conservative strain of evangelical Christianity. Cruz’s father is a popular pastor who has traveled the state and the country preaching and boosting his son’s candidacy. Now, two weeks before Iowa caucuses, Rubio is looking to eat into Cruz’s lead, recognizing there may only be room for one senator in the race if the nominating fight is prolonged. In recent weeks, Rubio has sought to spin his positions in a fashion more appealing to the state’s conservatives, leaning rightward as the moderate lane remains deeply divided. Nowhere has that been clearer than on immigration, with Rubio releasing an ad last week in Iowa declaring he was against “amnesty,” the phrase used by Cruz in criticizing the Gang of Eight legislation Rubio co-authored. **Read More**: [Chris Christie Says Marco Rubio Can’t Handle Hillary Clinton](http://time.com/4184483/chris-christie-marco-rubio-iowa-transcript/) “First of all, let me be clear, I don’t support amnesty,” Rubio said in Johnston, Iowa on Saturday. “Amnesty is the forgiveness of wrongdoing without consequences. There are consequences to violating our immigration laws, and it depends how you did it.” Earlier Monday, he declined to state whether he still supported a path to citizenship for those in the U.S. illegally. “It’s not a yes or no answer,” he told a questioner in Ottumwa, adding he felt that way because “because there’s no unanimity in America.” He later didn’t rule out a pathway to citizenship to reporters, but said it shouldn’t stop meaningful reform from taking place. ## Transcript Atheist voter? Huh. I represent millions of atheist and non- atheist around the country. One of the fastest growing voter blocks. And you said earlier that you wanna stand up for religious freedom and all of that. My question is for atheist voters that are looking for somebody that will uphold their rights as an Americans and not pander for the certain religious group I just noticed your recent ad, it mentioned nothing about policy. Mentioned nothing about ideas and it simply talked about wanting us to follow faith and find God and go to heaven and things like that which is fine for those people that align with you. My questions, how you plan on upholding our rights and focusing on nontheist and You know, cuz there's talks in our community about you running as Pastor in Chief instead of Commander in Chief so I'm curious your thoughts. Well, first of all, as I said during my speech, you have a right to believe whatever you want. You have a right to believe in nothing at all. You most certainly have that right. By the way, I'm Christian. I can't force you to be a Christian. Christianity is a free gift. We Christians believe that. Salvation is a free gift that has to be willfully accepted, I can't force it on you. So, you have a right to believe whatever you want, and I congratulate you [ INAUDIBLE ] believing whatever you want. Thank you. [ APPLAUSE ] I'm gonna share my faith, especially when I'm asked, and because my faith influences who I am and every aspect of my life. First of all, I believe you can't really understand America Unless you don't understand. If you don't belive the Judeo Christian values influenced America, you don't know history. I'm not saying you- Right. I'm just saying in general. This nation was founded on the principal that our rights come from our creator. If there's no creator, then where did your rights come from? And so that's why it's important for us to understand that. And if we're gonna protect the right of Americas to continue to believe that. We're also going to have a country where no one is forced to violate their conscience, which means no one's going to force you to believe in God. But no one's going to force me to stop talking about God. [ APPLAUSE ] I'm not gonna force you to pray. I'm not gonna force you to go to church. I'm not gonna force you to To aspire or to a spouse believes that you don't have. But no one is going to take away my right and your right to live out the teachings of your faith. [ APPLAUSE ] No one. Now, I want to be very clear about something, not only do I, not only am I Christian and not only am I influenced by my faith but it is the single greatest thing Influence in my life and from that I'll never hide and I'll tell you why. Because I know that if I'm lucky, I get to live and be 85 or 90 depending on what life expectancy becomes with all this new medicine. But I'm more interested in eternity and the ability to live forever with my creator that you don't believe in, but I do and that's what I aspire to more than anything else That's why I believe the most important job I have is the job of a father and a husband. More important even than the presidency, because I only have a handful of years to teach and instruct my children with the right values. Not just to allow them to succeed in life, but more importantly to be able to accept the gift of eternity. I believe that God, our creator, became a man And he came down to earth and lived among us. Suffered like a man would. Emotions, physical suffering, emotional suffering, pain, illness, sickness, sadness, and then he died. And he died to remove sins that we couldn't remove up to that point. It could only be covered, but they couldn't be removed. And as a result, I know have the free gift of an opportunity to live forever with my creator. And I believe that passionately [ INAUDIBLE ]. [ APPLAUSE ] And I respect very much your willingness to stand up and ask that question cuz I know. You're in a small minority here of people that share that view that you have, but you have a right to. It's why we've been such a great country. I would say this, though. You shouldn't be worried about my faith influencing me. In fact, I think you should hope my faith influences me. Here's why. [ APPLAUSE ] You know what my faith teaches me? My faith teaches me that I have an obligation to care for the less fortunate. My faith teaches me that I have an obligation to love my neighbor. My faith teaches me that I have an obligation for those who are hungry to help try to feed them. For those who are naked, to help clothe them. My faith teaches me I need to minister to those in prison. My faith teaches me that if I want to serve Jesus, I have to serve each other. And I think you should hope that that influences me. 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