Unresponsive

In reply to A Prayerpalooza!

I agree with my fellow student's commentary regarding Rick Perry and his involvement in The Response. With a major economic crisis and more important issues facing Texas, his timing for a religious event to 'save our country,' seems odd, unless it's a clear aim to garner religious conservative support. Furthermore, the event didn't necessarily receive the turnout Perry had hoped for. The one governor who had agreed to attend backed out, and only about 30,000 people attended, less than half of the 70,000 Reliant Stadium capacity.

What boggles me is Perry's insistence in so blatantly shoving his religion in everyone's face. While it is perfectly acceptable for a man to be faithful and strongly religous, when holding political office, consistently blurring the lines between church and state is disrespectful.

The New York Times reports, "Few political figures in America have so consistently and so unabashedly intermingled their personal faith and their public persona, peppering speeches with quotations from Scripture, speaking from the pulpit at churches, regularly meeting and strategizing with evangelical Christians and even, in one recent speech, equating public office with the ministry."

At The Response, Perry denied political overtones, stating that, "[God's] agenda is not a political agenda, His agenda is a salvation agenda." During his seven minutes on stage at the event, Perry reportedly gave no further hints as to whether or not he'd seek The Republican Nomination for the upcoming presidential election (Wall Street Journal).

So, why did Rick Perry go out of his way to attend and help organize The Response? Is he just devoutly Methodist and firm in his Christian beliefs, or are there really ulterior motives? I think Brandyss's blog post offered some good food for thought. Only time will tell if Perry is really setting himself up for a presidential run. All I know is that he's walking down one of the most controversial paths.

For further reading (which is quite disturbing in my opinion), see Rick Perry's Army of God