Tuesday, July 12, 2011

The Epiphany of Perry, the Shining Evangelical Christian Knight

What might get Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President Paige Patterson and the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission’s Richard Land together in the same room with female megapreacher Joyce Meyer and, ugh, Kenneth Copeland?

Why, a common political purpose, I suppose – the election of Rick Perry who is beginning to look like the choice of the Religious Right for the 2012 presidential election.

Ex-SBCer James Robison, who fell from SBC grace years ago, summoned our two big guns (really big guns in Hatari Patterson’s case) to meet with Meyer, Copeland, David Barton, Ruth Graham and about 75 others at his HQ in Euless, TX. They had a little confab on saving the nation.

Alas, Plodder wasn’t invited to be among the Christian Worthies. I'll try to cope.

Reported from Robison’s spirituo-political summit:

It’s not about politics but about revival.

It’s not about ‘who’ but ‘what.’

Purely spiritual.
Yeah, sure. It's political. It's about who. It's partly spiritual.

Participants were reported to hunger and thirst for their Shining Christian Knight, presumably Perry, to use the campaign to get the nation to pray and straighten up and fix all these messes.

I'm deep, deep into cynicism here but the more I read the less I like the concept of another political messiah like the one the country elected in 2008: Obama, the Anointed One.

Bah humbug. I want a president who can run the country. I don't want a president who thinks he is Moses, or, to give him the benefit of the doubt, one whom our supposed spiritual leaders thinks is Moses.

Am I too far afield in asserting that there is no political salvation to the nation’s problems?

Is it heresy to state that God doesn’t need politicians to invoke revival and spiritual awakening?

Isn't it more likely that they will mess it up anyway?

Hey, Rick! Run for office. Throw your sombrero in the ring. I'll vote for you if you're the Republican nominee. Go for it. But don’t let them talk you into hijacking God as your running mate.

Report of the meeting of Robison's Evangelical Oligarchy may be found here:

Did the road toward the White House begin in Euless?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is getting worse by the day. Perry's concern if for himself. When it was convenient in TX to be a Dem, he was a Dem. When we went red, he became a Repub. The guy is a snake.

Tim Dahl

Anonymous said...

He may be a snake to some of you but he's well liked in Texas. He's doing a fine job as our governor so hope he stays put. Let somebody else beat Obama and spare us our current agony.

BTW, Robison is just trying to make a few headlines and live off some remnant of past glory. I wouldn't worry about anything he does.

Stephen Fox said...

Ethicsdaily.com and RD.org are getting to the guts of Rick Perry and the SBC.

http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispatches/sarahposner/4828/the_real_story_behind_rick_perry%E2%80%99s_secret_meetings_with_pastors

And the followup story about his Prayer breakfast in Houston.

I can't believe Cooperative Program Dollars are supporting this mess.

David Montoya said...

Anonymous,

Don't confuse choosing the lesser of two evils as being well liked. Ask any public school teachers in Texas what they think of Perry.

Texas economy is getting worse. Perry lives in a rented mansion at the tax payers' expense. He is a friend of the gambling industry. He uses the Christian right and for whatever reason, the Christian right seems to be more than willing to be used.

There is a reason Baptist have supported the separation of church and state regardless of the seeming historical amnesia of Richard Land and Paige Patterson.

William,

Be careful, just a Tim stated, Perry was a democrat and will be one again if the wind changes.