Are you ready for another Texas theocrat?

Are you ready for another Texas theocrat?

by digby


It's looking more and more as if the GOP field will end up being Romney vs Perry with a bunch of other clowns falling our of a clown car. (Perry may not get in, but he probably should. He will end up making Romney look much saner by comparison and it Mitt pulls off the nomination potentially lure some of the vaunted Independents to the GOP.)

Anyway, here's just one little anecdote about Perry, who truly is as thick as Palin and as extreme as Bachman. (But the press is going to be dazzled by him and will give him a lot more room to be idiotic.)

During an appearance on James Robison’s Life Today television program, Perry says he sees a silver lining to the devastating recession that has cost millions of families their jobs, homes, and livelihoods: it will return America to “Biblical principles” and free us from the slavery of big government:
PERRY: I think in America from time to time we have to go through some difficult times — and I think we’re going through those difficult economic times for a purpose, to bring us back to those Biblical principles of you know, you don’t spend all the money. You work hard for those six years and you put up that seventh year in the warehouse to take you through the hard times. And not spending all of our money. Not asking for Pharaoh to give everything to everybody and to take care of folks because at the end of the day, it’s slavery. We become slaves to government.


So the Great Recession is God's will. Hallelujah and pass the tax cuts.

Perry's wingnut credentials are unparalleled. He called for secession. He's a Tenther. But this is probably the most important validating signal:

Another politician joins forces with the apostles. Texas Governor Rick Perry is leading an event in Houston on August 6 with the "apostolic and prophetic" movement, including leaders from Lou Engle's "The Call," Mike Bickle's International House of Prayer, and the American Family Association. The Call is a virulently anti-gay and anti-abortion event held in stadiums and large venues, including one in Uganda that featured speakers promoting the "Kill the Gays" bill. The International House of Prayer (IHOP) is a growing worldwide movement led by Bickle, leader of a Kansas City-based 24/7 prayer in an effort to raise up a generation of young end time warriors. Part of the IHOP's agenda is the "Israel Mandate" to proselytize Jews in order to advance the end times.

The event in Houston on August 6 is advertised as The Response: A Call to Prayer for a Nation in Crisis and the organizers include: Luis and Jill Cataldo, on the staff of IHOP in Kansas City; Randy and Kelsey Bohlender with IHOP and The Call; Apostle Doug Stringer; Dave Silker of IHOP; leaders of the American Family Association; Jim Garlow, who headed the campaign for Proposition Eight and heads Newt Ginrich's Renewing American Leadership; and several other Religious Right activists.

Rick Perry's partnership with the apostles and prophets just prior to his possible announcement of a run for president, would appear to give credence to the warnings of several contributors to Talk2action about the growing political power of the New Apostolic "prayer warrior" networks. The New Apostolic Reformation is where the anti-gay, anti-abortion, and Christian Zionist networks converge with an aggressive form of Christian "dominionism," or the belief that Christians must take control over society and government.

This network began as part of the campaign in the 1980s and 1990s to evangelize the world prior to the year 2000. One of the major leaders of this mission effort was C. Peter Wagner, [Video] a thirty-year professor of church growth at Fuller Theological Seminary. He left that position to continue these efforts under the banner of the New Apostolic Reformation, moving to Colorado Springs to work with Ted Haggard to develop the World Prayer Center. Haggard wrote that that in 1999 their outreach included 40,000,000 participants worldwide.

Since that time, leading Apostles Dutch Sheets, Chuck Pierce, Cindy Jacobs, and others, have developed a fifty-state communications and mobilization network of "prayer warriors." Under the leadership of Apostle Ed Silvoso, head of the International Transformation Network, the prayer warrior networks in some American cities are now divided into precincts, with one person assigned specifically to each street - a political organizers dream.

Politicians competing for the support of this prayer warrior network prior to the presidential primaries include Sarah Palin, who has an over twenty-year relationship with Alaskan Apostle Mary Glazier; Newt Gingrich, who was anointed by Lou Engleon an internationally televised broadcast in 2009; Michelle Bachman, Rick Santorum, and now, apparently, Rick Perry.



Read Rachel Tabachnick's entire article for the extreme creepiness of this group, particularly its stand on Israel, which is literally apocalyptic. Rick Perry isn't just dogwhistling these people, he's standing there with pounds of raw red meat in his hands.

He's dumb as a post about nearly everything --- think Bush Junior without the pedigree and DC experience and better hair. But he's a virulent wingnut of the theocratic variety who could con the lazy press corps with his November 2010 message of a "Texas miracle" (which like Bush's before him will have already fallen apart but nobody will report it.) I think they run for president in their 6th year to make their escape.

As I said, the greatest threat here is probably in making Romney look like a reasonable alternative to normal people (if the economy is still in terrible shape in November 2012.) But he might be able to pull it off too -- you never know what could happen. And we can't afford to have this man as president.


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