Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

He really is that stupid.

I was promised a recession.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

Take your GOP plan out of the witness protection program.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

This really is a full service blog.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

I really should read my own blog.

You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2012 / “The Response”: Praying / Preying

“The Response”: Praying / Preying

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And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. – Matthew 6:5

Dave Weigel at Slate has photos from Rick “Gov. Goodhair” Perry’s overhyped, underattended Pray-er Rally, including this one:


Fasting was optional

The Washington Post reports:

Texas Gov. and possible Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry led a crowd of more than 20,000 Christians Saturday, asking God to help a nation he calls “in crisis,” at a Christian-revival event he organized.
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In the football stadium where the Houston Texans play, Christians from the state and around the country gathered for an all-day event called “The Response.” It resembled a service at a very large evangelical mega church but without a formal sermon. […] __
The day was officially described as nonpolitical and most of the prayer leaders did not speak of current political issues except for abortion, which they condemned. At the same time, a conservative group called the American Family Association paid for the stadium’s rental and many of the leaders onstage were familiar figures in the Christian conservative movement, such as Dobson & her husband James, the original founder of the group Focus on the Family and Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback (R.)
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Two major Texas evangelical figures who are not as closely aligned with conservatives, Joel Olsteen, who runs a huge church in the Houston, and Dallas’s T.D. Jakes, were not among the prayer leaders. While organizers said members of all faiths were welcome, the event’s tone was explicitly Christian…

As the Judean People’s Front (or was that the the People’s Front of Judea?) would say: Splitters!
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Capacity of the stadium is said to be 71,500; I can’t find a report on how many of the 20,000 tickets were sold versus those given away, although Mother Jones‘ Tim Murphy said 8,000 on Friday:

… Although stadium-packing rallies are nothing new for the religious right, the pushback to Perry’s gathering—dubbed “The Response”—has been fierce. The problem isn’t with separation of church and state; Perry’s faith is no secret, and he’s made it clear that he will be attending the event as a private citizen and not in his official capacity as governor. The controversy, magnified by the governor’s escalating flirtation with a presidential bid, stems mostly from the company he’s keeping. Perry has left the organizing and the funding for the prayer rally up to a handful of key sponsors—groups like the American Family Association (which the Southern Poverty Law Center considers a “hate group”) and the International House of Prayer (the other IHOP). Those organizations created a monster: In interviews, the event’s planners have conceded that non-Christians will not be allowed on stage, and that the event—which Perry says is open to everyone—is intended in part to convert people to Christianity.
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Although Perry and his defenders say he’s the victim of guilt by association (“Just because you endorse me doesn’t mean I endorse everything that you say or do,” he told the Dallas Morning-News) they’re missing a key point: By tasking these groups with running the event, Perry endorsed them.

Murphy also has a “primer” on some of Perry’s god-bothering friends’ goofier tenets, such as Oprah being “a forerunner to the Antichrist” and the idea that the Statue of Liberty represents “a demonic idol“.

As BJ’s token frontpager Person of Faith, I have to say: This, Governor Perry, is why so many decent, intelligent Americans have come to identify “religious” as a synonym for either “weak-minded” or “dishonest“. You’re a public embarrassment for the rest of us. I’d call you a shonda, but Eric Cantor may have retired that particular title.

Reader Interactions

43Comments

  2. 2.

    Linda Featheringill

    I must say that Eric is a shonda.

    Gov. Perry, though, has earned several nouns and adjectives and is still working on them.

    It is so cynical to fake religion in order to gain political purchase. People of faith must be so embarrassed when they see such goings-on.

  5. 5.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    From a post about this at Rumproast

    “So I guess if you hold your hand up in the air, it’s like a dish antenna?”

    I always wonder about that, if you close your eyes and hold both hands up to the sky does the FSM then touch you with his noodly appendage? If this isn’t a cult then I really do not know what is.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38V8jnN1Kpw

  6. 6.

    jprfrog

    Yes, I often think of Matthew 6:5 when I hear the caterwauling about school prayer and such. Sometimes I think the only parts of the Bible that these Christianists read are some verses from Leviticus and the Book of Revelation; maybe a little of the beginning of Genesis (but which version of the story do they think is the right one?) If you read them parts of the Sermon on the Mount in vernacular language they might think it was by Karl Marx. They also might look up the place where the prophet Nahum lowers the boom on King David for stealing Bathsheba from Uriah the Hittite (and arranging the latter’s death in battle).

    It would be more appropriate for a true Christian (as Perry claims to be) to be fervently praying, in private, for the forgiveness of his God for having committed the judicial murder of an almost certainly innocent man, and further having maneuvered to suppress investigation of that matter.

    But “finding Jesus” is like a get-out-of-hell-free card. No matter what you do, you can always play it, over and over again. Even GWB can avoid having to pay for all those dead Iraqis.

  7. 7.

    RossInDetroit

    Open to all Christians and those wishing to be converted to Christianity. That’s what passes for inclusion. It’s gonna be a long year…

  8. 8.

    Anne Laurie

    @Southern Beale:

    Bet there was no line at the beer concession!

    Actually, a report I can’t find now said it was announced in advance that no alcohol would be sold — otherwise, the Baptists threatened to boycott. (splitters)

  12. 12.

    beltane

    I’m just amazed that these people consider not eating between meals to be fasting. Spiritual discipline is not strong with the Evangelicals I take it. Maybe the reason their distant ancestors became Protestant was that not being able to stuff their gullets with mammal meat at Lent was too much for them to bear.

  13. 13.

    Roger Moore

    @jprfrog:

    Sometimes I think the only parts of the Bible that these Christianists read are some verses from Leviticus and the Book of Revelation; maybe a little of the beginning of Genesis (but which version of the story do they think is the right one?)

    I think it’s pretty clear they’re reading the later prophets quite a bit, too. The godbotherers are very big on the idea that God will destroy the country if we don’t straighten up and fly right, and that’s heavily emphasized by the later prophets. It’s the whole reason they’re so fixated on using government power to enforce their version of morality. I think they genuinely believe the nonsense about natural disasters being God’s punishment for our sins.

  14. 14.

    beltane

    @Roger Moore: At our county fair, some of these people handed my son a book titled “New Testament Psalms & Proverbs”. I used this as an opportunity to inform him that Psalms and Proverbs are in the Old Testament and that these people are the most ignorant morons on the planet for not even understanding the substance of what they are preaching.

    I’ve had many good theological discussions with Catholics. Talking to these people is akin to St. Francis preaching to the birds, if the birds were brain damaged.

  15. 15.

    lamh34

    I’m not at all surprised that T.D. Jakes was not at this thing. With the election of PBO T.D. Jakes there is NO WAY Jakes could support Rick Perry particularly after all the shit he’s said and done since PBO was elected. Joel Olsteen, I’m sure doesn’t want to mix politics with business and bidness is good for Joel O right bout now.

  16. 16.

    WereBear

    @beltane: I’m just amazed that these people consider not eating between meals to be fasting.

    I’m amazed, too. But then, their grasp of the Bible is something between tenuous and elusive. And I’m starting to think; so is their grasp of everything else.

    At least I no longer get hassled when I do Tarot Readings to raise money for animal causes at local events. The first year a few got in my face, got out-Bible-quoted, and ran; now, they “respect my beliefs.”

    Not that they think I’m the AntiChrist; I gather that’s Oprah.

  17. 17.

    Cacti

    Jesus,

    If you don’t want me to vote for Rick Perry, give me absolutely no sign.

    …

    Thy will be done.

  18. 18.

    WaterGirl

    @lamh34: I have been spring cleaning and just came across a book on tape CD by T.D. Jakes – got it really cheap without really knowing what it was when our bookstore went out of business, but his style was not for me. If you would like it, or anyone else would, I would be glad to send it your way if you would pay for postage.

    I think it was Reposition Yourself: Life Without Limits, but I could check to make sure, if someone was interested. I just had it in my hands last night.

  20. 20.

    Brachiator

    As BJ’s token frontpager Person of Faith, I have to say: This, Governor Perry, is why so many decent, intelligent Americans have come to identify “religious” as a synonym for either “weak-minded” or “dishonest“.

    Really? I am a stone cold agnostic who, at my worst moments, sees ALL religion and talk about spirituality as a form of mental illness. But Perry is clearly appealing to and firing up evangelicals. If he can rally them and fire up the Tea Party, he might become a force to be reckoned with.

    And all this talk about the inevitability of Mittens forget that many evangelicals like Mormons about as much as they like Muslims.

  23. 23.

    j

    @j:

    WHOA NELLY!!!

    I’m a-gonna reply to my own post right-a-bout-NOW!!

    Read that “news” “Story” from the Chicago Tribune dated 8-5-11 (my post @21), and look at the verb tenses.

    THEN look at the HEADLINE!!

    Some intern filed that piece at least 24 hours ago, yet the “editor” made it look like an on the scene report from something that had already happened, rather than the promo piece that was fed to the mouthpiece that printed it!

    “Liberal Media” in action once again.

  24. 24.

    WaterGirl

    @Valdivia: Just replied, thanks! It’s easier now to catch replies because you can just search for your name. I am so happy the reply button is back!

  25. 25.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    On the front of a T-Shirt:

    And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. – Matthew 6:5

    On the back:

    Keep politics out of religion by keeping religion out of politics.

    I’m in Texas, so I figure when I get this shirt made it should have particular relevance.

  27. 27.

    gocart mozart

    Anne, you would have so had 200+ comments for this post if mean Ol’Dirty DougJ hadn’t just stole them out from under you. Why do you put up with his rank tomfoolery?

  29. 29.

    PurpleGirl

    So the fasting was optional? My, my what a bunch of wussies these christianists really did turn out to be.

    As I wrote in another thread earlier today (rephrasing for emphasis): It’s Ramadan. It’s a summer Ramadan — Muslims fast for 30 days from sun-up to sun-down. That’s quite a bit longer than 7 hours.

    And for the christianists today, fasting was optional… wussies.

  30. 30.

    Quiddity

    I watched about two hours of the event and didn’t catch anything political at all. It was basically a pure Christian evangelical prayer-fest with lots of singing and chanting and blissing out (especially the last hour). I don’t think the event will have any ramifications going forward.

  32. 32.

    Kathy in St. Louis

    And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. – Matthew 6:5

    One of my father’s favorites. I think that, though he’s been dead for 40 years, this is one of the reasons that these folks bother me so much. Some of the things that your parents teach you never quite go away, because they are so right.

  34. 34.

    mds

    The problem isn’t with separation of church and state;

    Oh, heavens, no. Because the governor of Texas, (1) who has recently made official “Pray for rain” proclamations, (2) who was using this event to test the waters with fundamentalist Christian fundraising groups for his potential presidential bid, and (3) who publicly invited all 49 other governors to join him, was just attending as a private citizen. This whole thing was nothing but blatantly shitting all over the separation of church and state … which most of these people, Perry included, have repeatedly declared a myth anyway.

  37. 37.

    yuninv

    Praying for the economy makes as much sense as praying away the gay… you can be as devout as you want, but you still suck dick.

  38. 38.

    Mark B

    You know, as much as the media hypes how many evangelicals there are, it’s not a little surprising that a supposed big draw couldn’t even half fill a venue for an event which has been hyped for months. It almost makes you think that it’s really just an astroturf movement. Which is ironic, since the Houston stadium actually has real grass.

  40. 40.

    harlana

    I watched a clip of Perry at the event and a little huggin’ and hand-waving afterwards – typical mega-church type superficial bullshit, blergh

    not that I expected much different

  43. 43.

    grandpajohn

    @jprfrog:

    But “finding Jesus” is like a get-out-of-hell-free card. No matter what you do, you can always play it, over and over again. Even GWB can avoid having to pay for all those dead Iraqis.

    Maybe it is and maybe it’s not. Remember The final judgment will not be passed on earth by human judges but by a higher non-bribable source

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