Perry was quick to blame President Obama for Standard and Poor's downgrading of our AAA credit rating for the first time in history. He remarked, "In reality, though, this is just the most recent downgrade. The fact is that for nearly three years, President Obama has been downgrading American jobs, he’s been downgrading our standing in the world, he’s been downgrading our financial stability, he’s been downgrading our confidence and downgrading the hope for a better future for our children. That is a fact."
So he's in, but who is he?
In April, during a drought, while over 8,000 wild fires burned across Texas, Governor Perry signed a Proclamation designating the period from Friday, April 22, 2011, to Sunday, April 24, as Days of Prayer for Rain in the State of Texas. In May he revealed how he would handle some problems he might encounter as President of the United States: “I think it’s time for us to just hand it over to God, and say, ‘God: You’re going to have to fix this.’”
Last week, this Methodist governor attracted 30,000 people to Reliant Stadium in Houston for his Christians-only Response prayer meeting. And if you can't judge a book by it's cover, you sure can judge it by its contents. Just who was part of Perry's response and what do they believe?
First of all, there is C. Peter Wagoner, founder of the New Apostolic Reformation Movement, which seeks to bring about the end of the world by taking over all government and public functions, clearing the way for the Rapture and the End of the World. The End of the World? Yes. They want the world that we want to save to end. They are like the historical Marxist-Leninist who opposed reform because reform appeased the people, delaying revolution. They don't want to do anything to delay the end of the world. In addition, Wagoner seems to be obsessed with a sexual relationship between the Sun Goddess and the Emperor of Japan.
There is Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association, which the Southern Poverty Law Center counts as a hate group because of their attitudes toward gays. Fischer says there should be no more Mosques permitted to be built anywhere in the United States. Period. Fischer says that Hitler discovered that straight soldiers could not be made to be savage enough for his purposes, so he had to recruit gay men as Storm Troopers and Brown Shirts. He says there was no end to the savagery of the homosexual men. Fischer would deny rights of freedom of religion, guaranteed by the First Amendment, to the "counterfeit" religious. Hmmm, wonder which ones they are? Well, it's anything other than his idea of Christianity. Watch out Episcopalians! I'm serious. Eventually they will come for you.
There is Mike Bickle, who speaks of the coming of the "harlot of Babylon," who will prepare the way for the AntiChrist. He thinks it's probably Oprah.
There is John Hagee, who believes and states openly that God sent Hitler to fulfill His will by killing the Jews. It was all part of God's plan to nudge the Jews into moving back to Israel, see? Just a little persuasion. All part of God's will. Hagee has also called the Catholic Church a whore.
There is John Benefiel who thinks the Statue of Liberty is a demonic idol. There is a whole slew of these characters who want to remake American in their image of their idea of God and Christianity. They are beyond mainstream Christians, even beyond mainstream fundamentalists. They are extreme religious nuts. So far out there, they are from a galaxy far, far away.
Rick Perry didn't just have a prayer event. Rick Perry had a New Apostolic Reformation event. Yes, take over the government, the schools, the DMV, for heaven's sake. Bring out the harlot, bring on the rapture. These people WANT the world to end. Get it? T H E Y W A N T D E S T R U C T I O N.
What is Christianity? Is it what Rick Perry believes and represents or is it what mainstream Christians and the Christian Left believe? This question matters because Texas Governor Rick Perry may well be our next president, and he has a very idiosyncratic view of the constitution and of the union that makes us these United States. For starters, he finds both Social Security and Medicare unconstitutional.
Take the words of Jesus Christ and reconcile them with anything in this New Apostolic Reformation movement, but you can't. Christianity is the Beatitudes, the Sermon on the Mount, the babe in a manger, the Resurrection, the protection of even the guilty, the love of one's enemies. Christianity is the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
You know, I don't think Rick Perry, Methodist and former Democrat, believes the stuff coming out of the mouths of these right wing religious fanatics for one minute, but I think he'll say he does. And I think he'll act as if he does because he believes that victory lies in the overwrought emotions of the right, overwrought since the election of Barack Obama, since the onset of Obama Derangement Syndrome. He thinks it's a winner, and as long as he thinks that, he will hold tightly to his Bible and to these people.
Who is Rick Perry?
Perry was George Bush's Lieutenant Governor, ascending to the Governorship in December 2000 after Bush was elected our 43rd president but before Bush took office on January 20, 2001. I knew little or nothing about Perry other than that he was quite handsome and youthful, a pleasure to this little old lady's eyes. And at the time, I thought no one could be dumber than Bush, meaner than Bush, more foolhardy than Bush, or more disrespectful of the spirit and the letter of the Constitution than Bush-Cheney. I could have been wrong. Perry may be worse than Bush.
After that, Perry was elected Governor in his own right in three times, so Texans must like him, or at least enough Texans like him. He is current and former chairman of the Republican Governors Association. A 1972 graduate of Texas A&M, Perry was a mediocre-to-poor student, majoring in animal science and was once placed on academic probation. This poor record may explain his current attempt to gut Texas higher education by treating students like customers or consumers and placing inordinate faith in student evaluation of professors. His professors doled out many C's and D's. He did not do well in Economics class. He was a member of Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity and of the team of Yell Leaders. Yes, that IS like cheerleaders. After college, Perry served in the Air Force as a pilot until 1977, coming home to work the farm with his father. In 1982, he married his childhood sweetheart, Anita Thigpen, a graduate in nursing from West Texas State University, with whom he has two children.
In 1984 he joined the Texas House of Representatives as a Democrat, where he was considered a very effective legislator. He supported Al Gore in the 1988 presidential race, but in no time he was fighting for austere budgets. He became a Republican in 1989. Think about it. This means he was a Democrat during both Reagan's terms in the office of President. You know there's no one more fervent than a convert, and Perry proves that old adage.
Early in his term as Governor, Perry increased funding to health care and education, the last vestiges of the Democrat he had once been. He was tough on crime and even vetoed a bill that would prevent the state from executing the mentally handicapped, and Texas has executed the retarded or otherwise mentally impaired. Over 230 people have been executed by the state of Texas during his tenure. He has allowed the execution of a man almost everyone believes was innocent and has been accused of covering that fact up. Perry has generally been for cutting spending and not raising taxes. In fact, he is for the repeal of the 16th amendment, which authorized the federal income tax, saying that is where Washington "went wrong." In general, Perry is a strong supporter of his own interpretation of the Tenth Amendment, guaranteeing States' Rights, but he's not much on individual rights. He is against gay marriage, against abortion rights, requiring that all mothers seeking abortion have an sonogram and be forced to look at their babies before they can have an abortion. He believes in teaching intelligent design in the schools but is a skeptic when it comes to man-made climate change.
Perry, who is from Paint Creek in the rolling hills of West Texas, describes himself as a Methodist and an Evangelical Christian. He believes that if you don't confess your sins to God and become cleansed by the blood of Christ, "you are going straight to hell." And he's a strong supporter of Israel, believing that God gave the Holy Land to the Jewish people centuries ago. And at the prayer fest he just sponsored he said that he thought God was too wise to become affiliated with any political party. I didn't expect that last statement.
Perhaps Perry's attitude toward secession is one of his better knows aspects. He stated in April, 2009, at a tea party rally that Texas came into the union with a special deal from the gitgo: that it could leave any time it wanted. Which of course is false. He went on to say that such action might be appropriate if Washington doesn't stop "thumbing its nose" at the people. How can you be president of a country you threaten to secede from? Why would you even want to if not to bring it down from the inside. That, of course, would be treason, and I don't mind saying it.
They want the world to end and they are traitors. Is that enough to get them elected? It just might be.
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