Perry has his Big Prayer Meeting

August 6, 2011 • 1:06 pm

Today’s New York Times reports on the big prayer meeting that Texas governor Rick Perry had at Reliant Stadium in Houston.

Standing on a stage surrounded by thousands of fellow Christians on Saturday morning, Gov. Rick Perry called on Jesus to bless and guide the nation’s military and political leaders and “those who cannot see the light in the midst of all the darkness.”

“Lord, you are the source of every good thing,” Mr. Perry said, as he bowed his head, closed his eyes and leaned into a microphone at Reliant Stadium here. “You are our only hope, and we stand before you today in awe of your power and in gratitude for your blessings, and humility for our sins. Father, our heart breaks for America. We see discord at home. We see fear in the marketplace. We see anger in the halls of government, and as a nation we have forgotten who made us, who protects us, who blesses us, and for that we cry out for your forgiveness.”

This is, of course, a prelude to Perry’s likely bid for the Republican nomination for president.  It was opposed by the Freedom from Religion Foundation, which filed (and lost) a court complaint that Perry’s participation in a religious rally violated the First Amendment.  And there was more Jesus-ing:

“I wish you could see what I see here,” announced Luis Cataldo, a leader of the International House of Prayer, a Christian ministry in Kansas City, Mo., as the event began at 10 a.m. “This is the body of Christ.”

He said that there would no long speeches, no banners, no signs. “You didn’t come here to listen to people preach,” he told the crowd. “You came to pray, and Jesus wants to hear your voice.”

These people don’t seem to realize that even among religious Americans, there are many who don’t worship Jesus. But of course who ever won an election by catering to Muslims, Jews, or atheists?

43 thoughts on “Perry has his Big Prayer Meeting”

  1. Let us prey. Braise Jesus.

    RAmen

    Well, as soon as I finish making a salt circle and spreading sage around the house, I’ll be back to laugh at this crazy christian practice of praying.

    Wait a second . . . it’s cloudy outside my house.

    Holy SHIT!

    1. Oh, I didn’t notice it on the first pass. They even had a guy there from IHOP. Lawl. Makes all my food references that much better!

  2. He needs all the prayers he can get. Executing Cameron Todd Willingham guarantees (I hope) his eternal burning in hell.

  3. Don’t you mean whoever won an election … ?

    How will the folks at the stadium know that god had answered their prayers? And if god doesn’t answer, then what? Move on to the next god hoping it will be nicer?

  4. In the main picture, the man in front is posing as if to say “Sieg Heil!”

    Sometimes I wonder if things like that are unspoken jokes by the editor. In any case, no doubt some conservatives will gleefully call it liberal bias from NYT.

    1. That’s their ‘blessing’ thing – I don’t know if they hold out their hand expecting it to act as some kind of holy antenna or if they think they will be emitting magic rays that do good to everyone around who belongs to the same cult. Even Pope Pius XII (pity he’s got no hell to rot in) has a photograph of himself looking somewhat like that and he’s not giving the nazi salute.

      1. As I understand it, the Nazi salute required that the hand should be parallel to the arm which itself should be held out at least at eye level, feh.

        Wolfgang Pauli (of the exclusion principle) was strongly anti-Nazi. Following an accident in which his right arm was broken, he had to have the arm set in a cast at 45 degrees. This meant that he lectured to his students, apparently giving them a Nazi salute throughout the lecture. He refused to be photographed until the cast came off.

  6. I don’t suppose there were any specific prayers, where we could definitively see whether god answered the prayer or not? No, of course not. That would just be ridiculous.

  7. You summed up everything perfectly well when you wrote the words: “These people don’t seem to realize.” That, IMO, is the explanation of very moronic thing these dolts do or are involved in.

    Nothing more ever needs to be added to explain this level of idiocy.
    ~Rev. El

  8. I didn’t think anyone could outdo Michele Bachmann as the scariest fundamentalist xian running for President, but this guy makes her look almost sane. Don’t start…I said almost sane. Let’s hear it for Scary Perry, the Commander-in-Chief who reports in daily with jebus. Are we nuts, or what?

  9. That preyed on those people alright! They’ve prayed this slop before many times. And evermore will they do so: faith doth that to people!
    Their Yahweh has no intent manifested in the Cosmos, and thus we conclude with Lamberth’s teleonomic argument that without that intent, He has no referents and thus cannot exist!
    We rationalists need never to traverse the Cosmos or have omniscience ourselves to flatly declare no God can possibly exist! This stems from analysis based on our conservation of knowledge and the vacuity of His referents and attributes rather than being a priori or dogmoatic.
    We gnus bring the evangel of naturalism, ratonalism and skepticism for that more abundant life!
    WEIT, what about a tome criticising directed evolution, going beyond “Seeing and Believing” to further our vouchsafing reality?
    Logic is the bane of theists.

  10. One of my favourite teashirts is a prayer which says, ‘dear Jesus, save me from your followers’. From an Autralian perspective, religion in the US is so nauseating. I feel for you all.

  13. All: The NY Times had a preview article on the prayer rally this morning that I read through a link on Facebook. I was trying to find that article again, but it appears to have been scrubbed. It mentioned Perry’s Day of Prayer for Rain and how that did nothing to ease the drought. I wonder if the NY Times pulled it for saying something so unfriendly to religion. Does anyone have a link to that article?

  14. Delusional on their best days! On their worst, they are fanatical to the point of absurdity. Love to all, I remain wallowed in bemused resignation.

  15. As my paternal grandfather, in his Appalachian vernacular, remarked about a local hypocrite in the church: “Yep, he jest laid them ears back and praaaaayyeed.”

  16. Matthew 6:5

    “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.

      1. But a church isn’t necessarily a synagogue (see, that’s a christian put-down of the Jews) and the stadium is hardly the street corner. Dey’s good krishtuns.

  17. More likely Perry’s angling to assume Pat Robertson’s mantle. Or, if he isn’t, he’ll wind up with it.

  18. Perry for President! His religious views are way down the list of what I consider to be important. We need a strong fiscal conservative to get our country in the right direction and reverse all the damage done by our socialist president. I want to work again!

    1. Doctor, will I be able to play the violin after this operation?

      Of course.

      Hurray! I’ve always wanted to be able to play the violin!

    2. There will be plenty of work in a Perry administration needed to undo gay rights, get prayers back into our schools, reverse Roe v. Wade and stop stem cell research. If you act fast you can get your pick of these important tasks.

    3. That’s the horseshit Perry will be shoveling when he gets into the race. The fact that Texas’s somewhat lower unemployment rate has absolutely nothing to do with his fiscal conservatism will, of course, not be something his moronic supporters will talk about. We in Texas largely missed the housing boom (and therefore the housing bust) because we already had one that required a big bailout: the state was ground zero for the S&L financial fraud warm-up round. Federal insurance largely saved the depositers and the taxpayers bailed out the thieves. The real estate hangover (and some surprisingly strong legacy mortgage regulations) kept Texas from getting much involved in the housing/debt bubble. Without the foreclosure numbers much of the rest of the country saw, Texas has had a better time of it. Rick Perry had absolutely nothing to do with it. Texas governors don’t (indeed, can’t) do much by virtue of the states “weak Governor” constitution. The things he has done have been disastrous; his appointees are incompetent and thoroughly corrupt.

  19. I think that there was a failure in the transcription of the second paragraph of the first block. I think that it was supposed to be something like: “…We sew discord at home. We seed fear in the marketplace. We seethe anger in the halls of government, and as a nation we have forgotten who evolved us, so why protects us, why bless us, …”

  20. As a UK resident I smirk every time it is mentioned that this event took place at the Reliant stadium. In the UK a Reliant is a rather quaint three-wheeled car. It survived for years due to a quirk in the law that meant that you could drive it on a motorcycle driving licence.

  21. “Some people think we would be better off without religion in public life. In the long run, however, we would lose much more than we gain.”
    That hasn’t been our experience in New Zealand. Members of Parliament make an oath or secular affirmation but few people know or care which anyone does. There’s a short prayer before each sitting of Parliament, which many of us object to, but it’s too small to make a big fuss about. And there’s a cosy relationhip between the Church of NZ (~Anglican) and the Government, but it mainly manifests itself when some public figure has a state funeral. Again, hardly worth making an issue over. To all intents and purposes we don’t have “religion in public life” and – surprise! – lose nothing thereby.

  23. “a Christian prayer rally he created, while using his office’s prestige, letterhead, Web site and other resources to promote it.”

    Doesn’t that cross the line between state and church? Isn’t that your taxes being spent?

  24. It is a sorry image US has painted for itself.

    The other day the press here [Sweden] discussed the lowered economic rating and failure to present a constructive debt handling budget for decades to come*, its origination in political fundamentalists. The background served become an euology for the passing of US hegemony. The budget/rating process was seen as promoting China takeover, since awkwardly it is China that shows responsibility and US that shows negligence.

    The next day it was Perry the Preacher that prayed instead of paying the piper. Oy!

    —————-
    * As a reference, Sweden was in the same situation as US/Greece/Italy in the 90’s. It took a decade of sustained effort to turn that around.

    That is the good news. Considering the year long perspective that US budgetary/political process seems to revolve around, there seems to be a problem.

    “I’ve giv’n her all she’s got captain, an’ I canna give her no more.”

    1. Oops. “The background served become an euology for the passing of US hegemony.” – The background served as an eulogy for the passing of US hegemony.

  25. I’m sure you aware, but looks your article has attracted the attention of Denyse O’Leary at Uncommon Descent (masquerading as “News”, presumably to avoid the fact that 80% of the articles on UD are from her, but everybody knows that “News” is really her).

    Sadly, she completely mis-reads the situation and completely misses the point that Perry was not acting in the role of a private citizen (which of course he is entitled to), but as Governor of Texas, which of course is why the concern about violating the First Amendment is so legitimate.

  26. Odd that Reliant would bring up anything other that Reliant Energy as a top hit. Reliant Stadium is named after Reliant Energy. Reliant used to be the regional semi-monopoly energy company Houston Lighting and Power. As deregulation approached, HL&P split into Reliant, the energy supply branch, and Centerpoint, the line operating and construction company.

    Someone up above mentioned the Willingham case. If Perry truly was a Christian his heart would be convicted by the Holy Spirit that he should publicly confess that he had done wrong by delaying the review of the Willingham case and announce that he would be resigning as soon as he could guarantee a smooth transition. Of course, that would require that God exists, and that God is just, so it’s not going to happen.

    Another poster mentioned that Texas was spared from the worst of the housing crash because of regulations left over from the S&L crisis era. That’s totally true. And although most people think houses are cheap in Texas, home ownership can be quite expensive. Property taxes are very high, and just about any group can get together and create a taxation authority. One might pay property tax to fifteen different authorities. These high taxes discourage property speculation. If you look at actual house payments that include taxes in escrow, you’ll find our “cheap” houses cost about as much as seemingly more expensive houses elsewhere in the country.

  27. When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in a flag, carrying a cross — Sinclair Lewis.

  28. Even the Bible has a response to “The Response” that puts the event squarely in opposition to the teachings of Jesus himself. In Matthew chapter 6 Jesus teaches his followers how to pray, and advises them to not make a public show of their religion. He cautions that the only reward for public prayer is public approval, and has no merit in the eyes of God. If every Christian read and followed the teachings of Matthew Chapter 6, they wouldn’t make such enormous fools of themselves with ugly spectacles such as “The Response”.

    There were two letters undersigned by groups of Houston area clergy members that denounced the events as violating the secular principles our nation was founded upon.

    It’s comforting to know that not all religious believers demonstrate the dangerous totalitarian tendencies exhibited by events such as “The Response”.

    Here are the links:

    http://regions.adl.org/southwest/news/clergy-and-community-leaders.html

    http://regions.adl.org/southwest/news/clergy-and-community-leaders.html

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