Perry's Prayer-Palooza

From Other Words: http://www.otherwords.org/articles/perrys_prayer-palooza

I'm fairly certain that God doesn't want anything to do with this goober's show.

By Jim Hightower
June 27, 2011

When Texas became a republic in 1836, its constitution banned "ministers of the gospel" from holding any political office.

Our problem these days, however, isn't ministers in office, but politicians posing as ministers, seizing the pulpit to preach and proselytize. To see such Elmer Gantryism in action, look no further than the showboating Texas governor, Rick "The Pious" Perry. Embarrassingly inept at governing, he has lately turned to prayer as his official solution for all problems. I don't mean a quiet, contemplative kind of praying, but garish public displays.

In April, with a Biblical-level drought and some 800 wildfires ravaging the state, Perry's gubernatorial response was to proclaim three "Days of Prayer for Rain." Three days came and went, but no rain. Presumably, Perry the Pious was praying up a storm, but not a drop fell from the heavens.

Undeterred, the gubernatorial padre simply doubled down on prayer politics. Proclaiming August 6 as a "Day of Prayer and Fasting," he invited all other governors to join him in Houston for a seven-hour prayer-palooza, dubbed "The Response."

Continue reading at: http://www.otherwords.org/articles/perrys_prayer-palooza

From Americans United for Separation of Church and State: http://blog.au.org/2011/07/01/the-fourth-of-july-and-freedom-why-texas-gov-perry-doesn%E2%80%99t-understand-america/

By Sandhya Bathija

July 1, 2011

I will be celebrating this July 4th with my family in Michigan, where I’m about to head in a few hours.

I’ll be attending a parade on Monday and watching some fireworks with my niece and nephew, who are second-generation Americans. Since my niece was three, she’s boasted that she is an American. Now that she is a bit older (she turned five in June), she may finally start to understand what that really means.

Though she and the rest of my family belong to a minority ethnic and religious group, as Americans, we are all guaranteed the same rights as everyone else. It doesn’t matter whether someone is Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish or subscribes to no faith at all – we are all a part of this country.

That’s because our government has remained neutral on religion – making sure that all faith groups and none are welcome. It’s the government’s constitutional duty to ensure that no one feels like an outcast because of his or her belief system.

For the most part, our elected officials do a great job of upholding that principle. But every now and then, someone like Texas Gov. Rick Perry comes along who just doesn’t seem to care how he makes Americans who don’t subscribe to his beliefs feel.

As you may recall, he’s sponsoring a fundamentalist Christian prayer rally at Reliant Stadium in Houston. He has proclaimed Aug. 6 to be an official day of prayer and fasting and is urging Christians to ask God for the “[h]ealing of our land, the rebuilding of our communities and the restoration of our normal and robust way of life.”

Continue reading at: http://blog.au.org/2011/07/01/the-fourth-of-july-and-freedom-why-texas-gov-perry-doesn%E2%80%99t-understand-america/