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:
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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