Tuesday, August 30, 2011 11:52:54 PM
Is Rick Perry as American as He Thinks He Is?
Flickr/Gage Skidmore
He touts individualism and the importance of limited government, but the Texas governor neglects to remember the "We" in "We the People"
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend
Aug 29 2011, 5:30 PM ET
A few weeks ago, I wrote a piece [ http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/08/is-rick-perry-as-christian-as-he-thinks-he-is/243616/ (next below)] asking whether Governor Rick Perry could call himself a Christian given his opposition to government actions to help the hungry, aged, and ill. Not surprisingly, many challenged my view of Christianity. In letter after letter they pointed out that Christ spoke to individuals, not government. My observation that He was speaking to a conquered people, not free individuals who could use their power to make a more just state, was not convincing. My reference to the prophets Micah, Amos, Jeremiah, and Isaiah, each of whom called on governmental leaders to help the poor, was dismissed as being from the "Old Testament."
I will surely return to the issue of Christianity again, but I devote this piece to Rick Perry's character and the character he would nurture in American citizens. Teddy Roosevelt said, "Character, in the long run, is the decisive factor in the life of an individual and of nations alike." So what is the character that Perry embodies? What is his view of the American citizen and the citizen's responsibility to our country and to one's fellows?
First, Perry himself.
His persona evokes the rugged individualist. His warning to Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, not to come to Texas so that he can avoid being subjected to "real ugly" frontier justice evidences a character antithetical to one of the crowning achievements of the United States -- a nation under law, not men. In a phrase, he dismisses the Bill of Rights -- due process, trial by jury, the right to confront one's accuser.
The real question is not what character he would make of the United States but whether he believes in America at all. He has threatened to secede. Central to his campaign is his pledge to shrink the federal government -- making it impossible for our noble nation to lead the world, to serve as the "city on the Hill."
Perry may want to pretend that he is taking America back to a better past, but his actions are part of the movement away from nation-states, where countries are largely irrelevant. The notion that we are at the end of the need for nation-states is gaining more adherents globally. The fortunate few, commonly referred to as the Davos groupies, hang out with the other well off and well-heeled all over the world. Summering in Europe, wintering in Colorado, the global elite have more in common with and feel more loyal to their carefully connected crowd than with their fellow citizens. When one's loyalty lies with one's own class, where does that leave one's country?
In declaring his wish to shrink the size of government, Perry believes that government should have as little role in people's lives as possible. No investment in education, science research, building the railroads, highways, or sewage systems of the future. Why care about America's future, why set inspirational goals that bring people together, if you don't believe in "We the people"?
Nationalism, patriotism, commitment to one another are for Perry an anachronism, a thing of the past. He has not said that those with the greatest wealth, talent, and circumstances have any special responsibility to our country or their fellow citizens. He has not said we are all Americans together. Rather, he seems to be able to watch human suffering with equanimity -- as though America should be a place of survival of the fittest. No Social Security, no Medicare, no unemployment insurance, no laws to protect clean air, clean water. When hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, and flood destroy home and communities -- no FEMA, no help. "We" are on our own.
In his book Fed Up!: Our Fight to Save America From Washington, Perry writes that the 16th Amendment, which gave birth to the federal income tax, was "the great milestone on the road to serfdom," because it represented "the birth of wealth redistribution in the United States."
Individualism, self-reliance, self-respect -- these are great virtues, useful in many fields of endeavor. But they are not enough to sustain a nation. Virtues don't spring into being in a moment. They need to be exercised and practiced. Nations at war need courage, quick thinking, and selflessness. Nations at peace require that sense of duty to others. No man goes into a burning building for mere money. Nor does a fierce individualism nurture the patience that a teacher requires, the love given by a hospice nurse caring for a dying man.
Citizens' moral compasses do not stem only from their faith. Government also defines the moral standard of a nation. If we are told that blacks are worth but three-fifths of whites, many will see this as the acceptable treatment of their fellow man. Likewise, when the government declares it illegal to discriminate on the basis of race, we see that discrimination is also wrong.
When a candidate like Governor Perry boasts that he will shrink government by cutting those programs that grasp the nation's imagination of what we can do together, he is saying that America does not need the one institution in which we make our most solemn decisions together. We need not nurture a nation of laws, nor educate the young, nor protect the elderly. Teddy Roosevelt took on the trusts, protected the environment, made America more just. The character of the nation improved with his leadership. Can it improve with Perry's?
Copyright © 2011 by The Atlantic Monthly Group (emphasis in original)
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/08/is-rick-perry-as-american-as-he-thinks-he-is/244290/ [with comments]
*
(linked in) http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=66513872 and preceding (and any future following)
===
Is Rick Perry as Christian as He Thinks He Is?
Jim Young/Reuters
The Texas governor is running an openly religious campaign, but does he overlook the parts of the Bible that do not support his political beliefs?
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend
Aug 15 2011, 2:19 PM ET
America is a religious nation. Polls may differ, but most find that over 80 percent of Americans say they believe in God. Fifty percent also say they go to church on Sunday, while only half of those actually do. I guess this shows that we want to look better than we actually are, at least to the public -- if not to God, who presumably knows what we're really up to.
Most political candidates also profess their belief in God. At the same time, they rarely make a big deal of their devotion. They've probably read Matthew 6:1, which warns, "Beware of practicing your piety before men in order to be seen by them."
Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who just announced [ http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/08/rick-perry-upstages-bachmann-in-waterloo/243587/ ] he's running for president, has taken a different tack. A week before announcing his candidacy, he led a prayer meeting for evangelical Christians in Houston. The Freedom From Religion Foundation [ http://ffrf.org/ ] filed a lawsuit trying to stop him from participating in this rally, arguing that he was violating the First Amendment by using his position, stationery, and website to promote the event. The court dismissed the complaint, saying that the plaintiff didn't show sufficient harm to merit the injunction.
I disagree with the court's ruling. I think the governor misused his office to promote a particular religion. That might have been clearer to the judge if Perry had organized a rally in support of Islam rather than Christianity. There's no difference as far as the First Amendment is concerned.
In any case, Gov. Perry's decision to make his Christian faith a central part of his political identity opens him up to questions not usually asked of presidential candidates.
The press has traditionally been unwilling to question politicians about their religion. But in Perry's case, Christianity is front and center on his platform. I hope David Gregory will ask him some of the following questions when he next appears on Meet the Press, and that other members of the media won't shy away from them either.
First, are Rick Perry's political positions in line with Christ's teachings?
I see a fundamental inconsistency between Perry's concerted opposition to government social programs and his promotion of himself as a Christian politician. When asked about the impact of Texas's low-tax, low-service policies on the poor, he suggested [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-perry-texans-know/2011/08/09/gIQAC1H14I_story.html ] that people who wanted more government services could find them in New York or California.
Christ teaches us to feed the hungry and care for the sick, not to abandon them. Perhaps Gov. Perry hasn't read that part of the Bible where Christ admonishes us to care for "the least among us."
It's more likely that he knows that passage but reads it in a particular light. When I wrote Failing America's Faithful [ http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Failing+America%27s+Faithful ], I interviewed Rick Warren, the evangelical Christian minister and author, about his bestselling book, The Purpose Driven Life [ http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Purpose-Driven+Life ]. Rick very kindly welcomed me to Saddleback, the church he had founded more than 30 years before. He and his wife were gracious to me. I was impressed by the thoughtfulness with which he reached out to his congregation, and his sensitivity to their needs and wants.
I had read his book, and coming from a different Christian tradition, I was struck by how much it focused on getting you to feel good about yourself rather than caring about your neighbor, which Christ had said was the greatest commandment.
Warren, who now runs many charitable programs and supports government efforts to help the poor and the sick, was forthright in explaining that his views had changed since writing the book. The evangelical church he had grown up in, he told me, had focused on the believer's personal relationship to Jesus and pretty much ignored the social side of the gospel. He finally realized that he had "missed the 2,500 passages" in the Bible that called on him to care about other people, including those outside his church.
Does Rick Perry acknowledge those 2,500 passages? That's the second question I'd like the press to ask him. Maybe he believes, like some socially conservative evangelicals, that these passages refer only to personal charity, not government programs. But I don't see any place in the Bible that says we shouldn't use all the tools we have at hand to help the poor, the sick, and the hungry.
The same conservative Christians claim that the Bible teaches them that the government should outlaw gay marriage and stem cell research. But why should the government carry out some Biblical injunctions and not others?
The Bible is certainly open to interpretation. For example, most churches in America today don't require us to gouge out our eyes if we look lustfully at someone, or to cut off our hand if we use it a sinful way. And yet, right there in Matthew 5:27-30 are clear instructions.
How does Gov. Perry interpret the Bible? Even more to the point, I'd like to hear him explain how he arrived at his interpretations. If you're running for president in a democratic country, it's not enough to proclaim that the Bible says something is right or wrong. You must have reasoned positions. Catholics have been taught to inquire into God's will by using our reason, examining nature, and listening to Church teaching -- as well as by interpreting the Bible.
A last question for the governor: does he believe that God agrees with his reading of the Bible? I'm not saying he does believe this; I'm just wondering.
An alternative to assuming our views are aligned with God's is to humbly acknowledge that God works in mysterious ways, and that our human nature may blind us to His will. In that case, our belief in God could lead us to question the infallibility of our own interpretations rather than making us proud. Pride, at least in the Catholic catechism, is one of the seven deadly sins.
No one has a monopoly on faith. In a democratic nation, simply saying you believe in Christ doesn't mean you get a free pass and don't have to explain your positions. The story of the Good Samaritan reminds us that it is our actions, not our public displays of piety, that make us good neighbors.
Copyright © 2011 by The Atlantic Monthly Group (emphasis in original)
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/08/is-rick-perry-as-christian-as-he-thinks-he-is/243616/ [with comments]
===
Planet of the godly
Kathleen Parker
August 30, 2011
WASHINGTON — Rick Perry's rapid lead over previous Republican front-runner Mitt Romney was predictable. But it is not a good sign for Republicans hoping to reclaim the White House and further highlights the crucial battle within GOP circles: Who is the godliest of us all?
That's the mirror-mirror question for Republicans. Forget charisma, charm, intelligence, knowledge and that nuisance, "foreign-policy experience." The race of the moment concerns which candidate is the truest believer.
This was always a tough hurdle for Romney, whose Mormonism is reflexively distrusted by Southern evangelicals. Even so, in the absence of a better candidate, Romney had a fighting chance to win his party's support. Then came Perry.
Talk about a perfect-storm, composite candidate. Combine Elmer Gantry's nose for converts, Ronald Reagan's folksy confidence and Sarah Palin's disdain for the elites — and that dog hunts.
Perry doesn't just believe, he evangelizes. He summons prayer meetings. He reads Scripture while callers are on hold. Not incidentally, he's a successful governor. Perhaps most important, he's a wall-scaling fundraiser whose instincts make him a force of nature in the political landscape.
If you're Romney, Perry is a nightmare that's still there in the morning. If you're Barack Obama, maybe not so much?
Whether you like Perry's politics or not, he emits a pheromonal can-do-ness. Apparently, plenty of Republicans do like his politics, which has much to do with the very devil-may-care attitude that eventually will become Perry's cross to bear. Gallup's recent polling shows him not just passing Romney, but dusting him. Among Republican voters, 29 percent now swear their allegiance to the Texas governor, compared with just 17 percent for Romney.
Huddled around the exhaust pipe are, you got it, the jack handlers: Ron Paul (13 percent) and Michele Bachmann (10 percent), followed by Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Jon Huntsman in the single digits.
Perry's campaign strategy is to talk only about jobs, jobs, jobs, no matter what the question. That's both smart and necessary, but jobs-jobs-jobs isn't the money trinity with his base. Perry already hit that station with his prayer rally and various dog whistles to the congregation: He's not sure anyone knows how old Earth is, evolution is just a "theory" and global warming isn't man-made.
That we are yet again debating evolutionary theory and Earth's origins — and that candidates now have to declare where they stand on established science — should be a signal that we are slip-sliding toward governance by emotion rather than reason. But it's important to understand what's undergirding the debate. It has little to do with a given candidate's policy and everything to do with whether he or she believes in God.
Perry knows he has to make clear that God is his wingman. He understands that his base cares more that the president is clear on his ranking in the planetary order than whether he can schmooze with European leaders or, heaven forbid, the news media. And this is why Perry could easily steal the nomination from Romney.
And also why he probably can't win a national election, in which large swaths of the electorate would prefer that their president keep his religion close and be respectful of knowledge that has evolved from thousands of years of human struggle against superstition and the kind of literal-mindedness that leads straight to the dark ages.
Faith and reason are not mutually exclusive, but Perry makes you think they are.
Washington Post Writers Group
Kathleen Parker is a syndicated columnist.
kathleenparker@washpost.com
Copyright © 2011, Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/ct-oped-0830-parker-20110830-6,0,904720.column [with comments]
===
Is Rick Perry dumb?
By ALEXANDER BURNS | 8/29/11 6:50 AM EDT Updated: 8/29/11 8:40 AM EDT
Jonathan Martin asks the question [ http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0811/62214.html (the main "Is Rick Perry dumb?" article)]:
Doubts about Perry’s intellect have hounded him since he was first elected as a state legislator nearly three decades ago. In Austin, he’s been derided as a right-place, right-time pol who looks the part but isn’t so deep – “Gov. Goodhair.” Now, with the chatter picking back up among his enemies and taking flight in elite Republican circles, the rap threatens to follow him to the national stage.
“He’s like Bush only without the brains,” cracked one former Republican governor who knows Perry, repeating a joke that has made the rounds. ...
“He’s not a guy who’s going to go up to the Aspen Institute,” said longtime Texas lobbyist Bill Miller, a Perry fan. “It’s not the way he’s made.”
Miller said Perry learns what is necessary to be effective.
“If he should know about John Locke, he’ll know about John Locke,” said Miller. “If it’s not on his schedule, it’s irrelevant to him.”
China policy, for example, has surely not been much on Perry’s mind during his time in Austin.
And that showed when, in an interview last week with Laura Ingraham, he responded to a question about whether a rising China is good for the United States with platitudes that prompted the conservative talk show host to complain that he was only offering “broad generalities.”
He likely won’t make that mistake again.
In an illustration that Perry knows what he needs to know, his spokesman said the governor is currently reading Henry Kissinger’s recent China book – “On China.”
And that’s not the only practical guide the governor is thumbing through.
Mark Miner, the spokesman, said Perry is also reading Charles Stanley’s “Turning the Tide,” a Baptist pastor’s how-to for Christian conservatives who want to change the country’s direction, and the Bible. Perry also carries an Apple laptop as well as an iPad with him on the road, said Miner, who called his boss “an avid reader."
[embedded video]
© 2011 POLITICO LLC
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0811/62221.html [with comments]
===
(linked in):
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=66655257 (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=66633964 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=66679244 and preceding (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=66680016 (and any future following)
Flickr/Gage Skidmore
He touts individualism and the importance of limited government, but the Texas governor neglects to remember the "We" in "We the People"
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend
Aug 29 2011, 5:30 PM ET
A few weeks ago, I wrote a piece [ http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/08/is-rick-perry-as-christian-as-he-thinks-he-is/243616/ (next below)] asking whether Governor Rick Perry could call himself a Christian given his opposition to government actions to help the hungry, aged, and ill. Not surprisingly, many challenged my view of Christianity. In letter after letter they pointed out that Christ spoke to individuals, not government. My observation that He was speaking to a conquered people, not free individuals who could use their power to make a more just state, was not convincing. My reference to the prophets Micah, Amos, Jeremiah, and Isaiah, each of whom called on governmental leaders to help the poor, was dismissed as being from the "Old Testament."
I will surely return to the issue of Christianity again, but I devote this piece to Rick Perry's character and the character he would nurture in American citizens. Teddy Roosevelt said, "Character, in the long run, is the decisive factor in the life of an individual and of nations alike." So what is the character that Perry embodies? What is his view of the American citizen and the citizen's responsibility to our country and to one's fellows?
First, Perry himself.
His persona evokes the rugged individualist. His warning to Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, not to come to Texas so that he can avoid being subjected to "real ugly" frontier justice evidences a character antithetical to one of the crowning achievements of the United States -- a nation under law, not men. In a phrase, he dismisses the Bill of Rights -- due process, trial by jury, the right to confront one's accuser.
The real question is not what character he would make of the United States but whether he believes in America at all. He has threatened to secede. Central to his campaign is his pledge to shrink the federal government -- making it impossible for our noble nation to lead the world, to serve as the "city on the Hill."
Perry may want to pretend that he is taking America back to a better past, but his actions are part of the movement away from nation-states, where countries are largely irrelevant. The notion that we are at the end of the need for nation-states is gaining more adherents globally. The fortunate few, commonly referred to as the Davos groupies, hang out with the other well off and well-heeled all over the world. Summering in Europe, wintering in Colorado, the global elite have more in common with and feel more loyal to their carefully connected crowd than with their fellow citizens. When one's loyalty lies with one's own class, where does that leave one's country?
In declaring his wish to shrink the size of government, Perry believes that government should have as little role in people's lives as possible. No investment in education, science research, building the railroads, highways, or sewage systems of the future. Why care about America's future, why set inspirational goals that bring people together, if you don't believe in "We the people"?
Nationalism, patriotism, commitment to one another are for Perry an anachronism, a thing of the past. He has not said that those with the greatest wealth, talent, and circumstances have any special responsibility to our country or their fellow citizens. He has not said we are all Americans together. Rather, he seems to be able to watch human suffering with equanimity -- as though America should be a place of survival of the fittest. No Social Security, no Medicare, no unemployment insurance, no laws to protect clean air, clean water. When hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, and flood destroy home and communities -- no FEMA, no help. "We" are on our own.
In his book Fed Up!: Our Fight to Save America From Washington, Perry writes that the 16th Amendment, which gave birth to the federal income tax, was "the great milestone on the road to serfdom," because it represented "the birth of wealth redistribution in the United States."
Individualism, self-reliance, self-respect -- these are great virtues, useful in many fields of endeavor. But they are not enough to sustain a nation. Virtues don't spring into being in a moment. They need to be exercised and practiced. Nations at war need courage, quick thinking, and selflessness. Nations at peace require that sense of duty to others. No man goes into a burning building for mere money. Nor does a fierce individualism nurture the patience that a teacher requires, the love given by a hospice nurse caring for a dying man.
Citizens' moral compasses do not stem only from their faith. Government also defines the moral standard of a nation. If we are told that blacks are worth but three-fifths of whites, many will see this as the acceptable treatment of their fellow man. Likewise, when the government declares it illegal to discriminate on the basis of race, we see that discrimination is also wrong.
When a candidate like Governor Perry boasts that he will shrink government by cutting those programs that grasp the nation's imagination of what we can do together, he is saying that America does not need the one institution in which we make our most solemn decisions together. We need not nurture a nation of laws, nor educate the young, nor protect the elderly. Teddy Roosevelt took on the trusts, protected the environment, made America more just. The character of the nation improved with his leadership. Can it improve with Perry's?
Copyright © 2011 by The Atlantic Monthly Group (emphasis in original)
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/08/is-rick-perry-as-american-as-he-thinks-he-is/244290/ [with comments]
*
(linked in) http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=66513872 and preceding (and any future following)
===
Is Rick Perry as Christian as He Thinks He Is?
Jim Young/Reuters
The Texas governor is running an openly religious campaign, but does he overlook the parts of the Bible that do not support his political beliefs?
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend
Aug 15 2011, 2:19 PM ET
America is a religious nation. Polls may differ, but most find that over 80 percent of Americans say they believe in God. Fifty percent also say they go to church on Sunday, while only half of those actually do. I guess this shows that we want to look better than we actually are, at least to the public -- if not to God, who presumably knows what we're really up to.
Most political candidates also profess their belief in God. At the same time, they rarely make a big deal of their devotion. They've probably read Matthew 6:1, which warns, "Beware of practicing your piety before men in order to be seen by them."
Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who just announced [ http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/08/rick-perry-upstages-bachmann-in-waterloo/243587/ ] he's running for president, has taken a different tack. A week before announcing his candidacy, he led a prayer meeting for evangelical Christians in Houston. The Freedom From Religion Foundation [ http://ffrf.org/ ] filed a lawsuit trying to stop him from participating in this rally, arguing that he was violating the First Amendment by using his position, stationery, and website to promote the event. The court dismissed the complaint, saying that the plaintiff didn't show sufficient harm to merit the injunction.
I disagree with the court's ruling. I think the governor misused his office to promote a particular religion. That might have been clearer to the judge if Perry had organized a rally in support of Islam rather than Christianity. There's no difference as far as the First Amendment is concerned.
In any case, Gov. Perry's decision to make his Christian faith a central part of his political identity opens him up to questions not usually asked of presidential candidates.
The press has traditionally been unwilling to question politicians about their religion. But in Perry's case, Christianity is front and center on his platform. I hope David Gregory will ask him some of the following questions when he next appears on Meet the Press, and that other members of the media won't shy away from them either.
First, are Rick Perry's political positions in line with Christ's teachings?
I see a fundamental inconsistency between Perry's concerted opposition to government social programs and his promotion of himself as a Christian politician. When asked about the impact of Texas's low-tax, low-service policies on the poor, he suggested [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-perry-texans-know/2011/08/09/gIQAC1H14I_story.html ] that people who wanted more government services could find them in New York or California.
Christ teaches us to feed the hungry and care for the sick, not to abandon them. Perhaps Gov. Perry hasn't read that part of the Bible where Christ admonishes us to care for "the least among us."
It's more likely that he knows that passage but reads it in a particular light. When I wrote Failing America's Faithful [ http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Failing+America%27s+Faithful ], I interviewed Rick Warren, the evangelical Christian minister and author, about his bestselling book, The Purpose Driven Life [ http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Purpose-Driven+Life ]. Rick very kindly welcomed me to Saddleback, the church he had founded more than 30 years before. He and his wife were gracious to me. I was impressed by the thoughtfulness with which he reached out to his congregation, and his sensitivity to their needs and wants.
I had read his book, and coming from a different Christian tradition, I was struck by how much it focused on getting you to feel good about yourself rather than caring about your neighbor, which Christ had said was the greatest commandment.
Warren, who now runs many charitable programs and supports government efforts to help the poor and the sick, was forthright in explaining that his views had changed since writing the book. The evangelical church he had grown up in, he told me, had focused on the believer's personal relationship to Jesus and pretty much ignored the social side of the gospel. He finally realized that he had "missed the 2,500 passages" in the Bible that called on him to care about other people, including those outside his church.
Does Rick Perry acknowledge those 2,500 passages? That's the second question I'd like the press to ask him. Maybe he believes, like some socially conservative evangelicals, that these passages refer only to personal charity, not government programs. But I don't see any place in the Bible that says we shouldn't use all the tools we have at hand to help the poor, the sick, and the hungry.
The same conservative Christians claim that the Bible teaches them that the government should outlaw gay marriage and stem cell research. But why should the government carry out some Biblical injunctions and not others?
The Bible is certainly open to interpretation. For example, most churches in America today don't require us to gouge out our eyes if we look lustfully at someone, or to cut off our hand if we use it a sinful way. And yet, right there in Matthew 5:27-30 are clear instructions.
How does Gov. Perry interpret the Bible? Even more to the point, I'd like to hear him explain how he arrived at his interpretations. If you're running for president in a democratic country, it's not enough to proclaim that the Bible says something is right or wrong. You must have reasoned positions. Catholics have been taught to inquire into God's will by using our reason, examining nature, and listening to Church teaching -- as well as by interpreting the Bible.
A last question for the governor: does he believe that God agrees with his reading of the Bible? I'm not saying he does believe this; I'm just wondering.
An alternative to assuming our views are aligned with God's is to humbly acknowledge that God works in mysterious ways, and that our human nature may blind us to His will. In that case, our belief in God could lead us to question the infallibility of our own interpretations rather than making us proud. Pride, at least in the Catholic catechism, is one of the seven deadly sins.
No one has a monopoly on faith. In a democratic nation, simply saying you believe in Christ doesn't mean you get a free pass and don't have to explain your positions. The story of the Good Samaritan reminds us that it is our actions, not our public displays of piety, that make us good neighbors.
Copyright © 2011 by The Atlantic Monthly Group (emphasis in original)
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/08/is-rick-perry-as-christian-as-he-thinks-he-is/243616/ [with comments]
===
Planet of the godly
Kathleen Parker
August 30, 2011
WASHINGTON — Rick Perry's rapid lead over previous Republican front-runner Mitt Romney was predictable. But it is not a good sign for Republicans hoping to reclaim the White House and further highlights the crucial battle within GOP circles: Who is the godliest of us all?
That's the mirror-mirror question for Republicans. Forget charisma, charm, intelligence, knowledge and that nuisance, "foreign-policy experience." The race of the moment concerns which candidate is the truest believer.
This was always a tough hurdle for Romney, whose Mormonism is reflexively distrusted by Southern evangelicals. Even so, in the absence of a better candidate, Romney had a fighting chance to win his party's support. Then came Perry.
Talk about a perfect-storm, composite candidate. Combine Elmer Gantry's nose for converts, Ronald Reagan's folksy confidence and Sarah Palin's disdain for the elites — and that dog hunts.
Perry doesn't just believe, he evangelizes. He summons prayer meetings. He reads Scripture while callers are on hold. Not incidentally, he's a successful governor. Perhaps most important, he's a wall-scaling fundraiser whose instincts make him a force of nature in the political landscape.
If you're Romney, Perry is a nightmare that's still there in the morning. If you're Barack Obama, maybe not so much?
Whether you like Perry's politics or not, he emits a pheromonal can-do-ness. Apparently, plenty of Republicans do like his politics, which has much to do with the very devil-may-care attitude that eventually will become Perry's cross to bear. Gallup's recent polling shows him not just passing Romney, but dusting him. Among Republican voters, 29 percent now swear their allegiance to the Texas governor, compared with just 17 percent for Romney.
Huddled around the exhaust pipe are, you got it, the jack handlers: Ron Paul (13 percent) and Michele Bachmann (10 percent), followed by Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Jon Huntsman in the single digits.
Perry's campaign strategy is to talk only about jobs, jobs, jobs, no matter what the question. That's both smart and necessary, but jobs-jobs-jobs isn't the money trinity with his base. Perry already hit that station with his prayer rally and various dog whistles to the congregation: He's not sure anyone knows how old Earth is, evolution is just a "theory" and global warming isn't man-made.
That we are yet again debating evolutionary theory and Earth's origins — and that candidates now have to declare where they stand on established science — should be a signal that we are slip-sliding toward governance by emotion rather than reason. But it's important to understand what's undergirding the debate. It has little to do with a given candidate's policy and everything to do with whether he or she believes in God.
Perry knows he has to make clear that God is his wingman. He understands that his base cares more that the president is clear on his ranking in the planetary order than whether he can schmooze with European leaders or, heaven forbid, the news media. And this is why Perry could easily steal the nomination from Romney.
And also why he probably can't win a national election, in which large swaths of the electorate would prefer that their president keep his religion close and be respectful of knowledge that has evolved from thousands of years of human struggle against superstition and the kind of literal-mindedness that leads straight to the dark ages.
Faith and reason are not mutually exclusive, but Perry makes you think they are.
Washington Post Writers Group
Kathleen Parker is a syndicated columnist.
kathleenparker@washpost.com
Copyright © 2011, Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/ct-oped-0830-parker-20110830-6,0,904720.column [with comments]
===
Is Rick Perry dumb?
By ALEXANDER BURNS | 8/29/11 6:50 AM EDT Updated: 8/29/11 8:40 AM EDT
Jonathan Martin asks the question [ http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0811/62214.html (the main "Is Rick Perry dumb?" article)]:
Doubts about Perry’s intellect have hounded him since he was first elected as a state legislator nearly three decades ago. In Austin, he’s been derided as a right-place, right-time pol who looks the part but isn’t so deep – “Gov. Goodhair.” Now, with the chatter picking back up among his enemies and taking flight in elite Republican circles, the rap threatens to follow him to the national stage.
“He’s like Bush only without the brains,” cracked one former Republican governor who knows Perry, repeating a joke that has made the rounds. ...
“He’s not a guy who’s going to go up to the Aspen Institute,” said longtime Texas lobbyist Bill Miller, a Perry fan. “It’s not the way he’s made.”
Miller said Perry learns what is necessary to be effective.
“If he should know about John Locke, he’ll know about John Locke,” said Miller. “If it’s not on his schedule, it’s irrelevant to him.”
China policy, for example, has surely not been much on Perry’s mind during his time in Austin.
And that showed when, in an interview last week with Laura Ingraham, he responded to a question about whether a rising China is good for the United States with platitudes that prompted the conservative talk show host to complain that he was only offering “broad generalities.”
He likely won’t make that mistake again.
In an illustration that Perry knows what he needs to know, his spokesman said the governor is currently reading Henry Kissinger’s recent China book – “On China.”
And that’s not the only practical guide the governor is thumbing through.
Mark Miner, the spokesman, said Perry is also reading Charles Stanley’s “Turning the Tide,” a Baptist pastor’s how-to for Christian conservatives who want to change the country’s direction, and the Bible. Perry also carries an Apple laptop as well as an iPad with him on the road, said Miner, who called his boss “an avid reader."
[embedded video]
© 2011 POLITICO LLC
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0811/62221.html [with comments]
===
(linked in):
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=66655257 (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=66633964 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=66679244 and preceding (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=66680016 (and any future following)
Greensburg, KS - 5/4/07
"Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty."
from John Philpot Curran, Speech
upon the Right of Election, 1790
F6
Join the InvestorsHub Community
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
