Rick Perry sure looks like a presidential candidate.Conventional wisdom might say that he's too busy promoting The Response, the Aug. 6th prayer and fasting event at Houston's Reliant Stadium that he initiated. The event that is being hosted by The American Family Association.
The Texas governor and his top advisers are feeling out early-state Republican activists on the phone. He met for lunch in Austin Tuesday with former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. Next week, he’ll join a group of top national Republican donors for dinner in the state capital, POLITICO has learned.
GOP governors and members of Congress, in not-for-attribution comments, and leading strategists like Karl Rove all say the same thing: Perry’s in.
So what’s the hold up?
The American Family Association's activism on behalf of conservative Christian values has earned it accolades from fans on the right, including Perry, who tapped the organization to finance and plan the Response, a seven-hour event of fasting and prayer in Houston's Reliant Stadium.The event where only Christians will be permitted to speak.
But the Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled the association a hate group for its unrelenting campaign against what the association calls the homosexual agenda, and left-leaning and secular watchdog groups regularly denounce the organization as a force for religious intolerance and censorship.
Aligning with the nonprofit association could solidify Perry's position as the most viable Christian right candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, if he were to run.
However, it also risks pigeonholing him as a one-dimensional candidate in the minds of voters, said Daniel Williams, author of "God's Own Party: The Making of the Christian Right."
"Christian right activists make up around one-third of Republican voters, and he also has to reach out to the other two-thirds," Williams said.
Perry turned to the Mississippi-based association because it is a "respected organization with a large following, and they have been an effective advocate for pro-family policies," said Eric Bearse, a former Perry speechwriter who is acting as spokesman for the event.
Since the event was first announced in early June, organizers have suggested that it would be a great opportunity to convert non-Christians. Now, they've gone even further: According to an email blasted out by The Response, only Christians will be permitted to speak at the non-denominational event. If representatives of other faiths (particularly Muslims) were to be included, the email noted, such inclusion would promote "idolatry." In a message sent out under The Response's official letterhead, Allan Parker, one of Perry's organizers, described the event in less-than-ecumenical terms:The event other governors -- Rick Perry invited ALL his contemporaries -- are not itching to RSVP to.
This is an explicitly Christian event because we are going to be praying to the one true God through His son, Jesus Christ. It would be idolatry of the worst sort for Christians to gather and invite false gods like Allah and Buddha and their false prophets to be with us at that time. Because we have religious liberty in this country, they are free to have events and pray to Buddha and Allah on their own. But this is time of prayer to the One True God through His son, Jesus Christ, who is The Way, The Truth, and The Life.
And here is Gov. Perry himself, with the invite:
Gov. Perry's Invitation to The Response from The Response USA on Vimeo.
Political wisdom, is telling me that Gov. Rick Perry is flying a new trial balloon. Prayer as public policy. Prayer as intervention not only on social issues -- we are after all used to hearing that we can pray away homosexuality and such, but prayer as a genuine public policy imperative. Because, as Gov. Perry says in his video, we need prayer to do, what elected officials can't. We need prayer because of the limitations faced by our elected officials. We need prayer to fix what is spiritual in nature. We need prayer to fix the economy. Wow.
I have long been interested in how the 2012 crop of Republican candidate-wannabees would sell their conservative stripes vise-a-vie social issues, as related to fixing the economy. Because after all, if it's all about the economy, they will have to convince the American public that gay marriage and abortion are well, bad for the economy. Mike Huckabee gave it a try, with his recently published book and now it's left to Rick Santorum and Michele Bachmann to take up the mantle. But the entire concept of the economy as a fundamentally spiritual issue that therefore needs an intervention other than one that has been traditionally provided for by our elected officials within a public policy realm, is a whole new ball of wax.
The economy as a spiritual issue that is best handled through prayer. Because government can't do it alone. Wow.
For more background, watch last night's piece from The Rachel Maddow Show.
Now of course, if we think this (to some extent) hasn't been tried before, we're wrong. At least some aspects, anyway. Anyone remember 1980? By Sarah Posner, over at Religion Dispatches:
At Ethics Daily, a site founded by the moderate Baptist Center for Ethics, contributing editor Brian Kaylor last month broke what was probably the most under-noticed religion story of the campaign season. He reported that a group of about 80 pastors and other conservative Christian leaders met in Texas, under the direction of televangelist James Robison, to continue to plot what Kaylor describes as a "behind-the-scenes strategy" to defeat Barack Obama in 2012.It is well worth reading the two-part series at Ethics Daily, here and here. Southern Baptist evangelist James Robison is the same man who in 1979, led a secret meeting in Dallas and began the plot to defeat President Jimmy Carter. The ghost of Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority.
In the second part of his two-part article, Kaylor reported:
A group of pastors and other conservative Christian leaders from across the country continue to plan their behind-the-scenes strategy to defeat President Obama in 2012.Kaylor emailed me yesterday, after reading my post on how Perry's effort was reminiscent of Robison's role in mobilizing conservative Christians in support of Ronald Reagan in 1980 and George W. Bush in 2000. Kaylor wrote, "You were correct to connect the news about Perry’s phone call with Robison’s effort in 1980. In fact, the connection is much stronger."
However, the group does not seem likely to support a Republican during the primary race or even reach a consensus as to which candidate should receive the Republican nomination.
The group is connected to Republican Texas Gov. Rick Perry's plan for a large prayer rally in August.
Running for President, or promoting prayer? Guess it's the same thing.
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