Posted on 08/09/2011 2:38:07 PM PDT by NYer
WASHINGTON, D.C., August 8, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Intended as a simple gathering to invoke God’s help for America, a high-profile Houston prayer rally hosted by Texas Gov. Rick Perry kicked a beehive of anti-Christian sentiment as media commentators slammed the event as bigoted, unconstitutional, and even akin to Nazi brainwashing tactics.
The Response, a non-denominational Christian event initiated by Gov. Perry and joined by cosponsors including the American Family Association (AFA), drew around 30,000 participants to Houston Saturday. There, the crowd followed a Biblical injunction to “gather together, repent of their sins, and pray to God to intervene on their behalf.”
“A historic crisis facing our nation and threatening our future demands a historic response from the church. We must, as a people, return to the faith and hope of our fathers,” states The Response’s web site.
Governor Perry, who is expected to announce his presidential bid on Saturday, bucked political correctness at the event in favor of wearing openly his Christian beliefs.
“Father, our heart breaks for America,” said Perry, as reported by the Associated Press. “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.”
The governor called on the crowd to pray for the nation and for President Obama, and was otherwise silent on political issues.
In the aftermath, critics lambasted the pro-life and pro-family event as “bigoted,” primarily due to the American Family Association’s (AFA) involvement, and too exclusive of other faiths because it called for prayer to Jesus.
At a counter-rally, state Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, called the prayer event “a narrow, theocratic view ... that says that people are not welcomed — that says that people are bad because of who they are.” A letter signed by several left-leaning local clergy also said the event was not “inclusive” enough and condemned the sponsorship of the AFA, “an organization labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.”
One ABC report suggested that “even some mainstream Christians are concerned” over the event, while quoting only prominent left-wing figures, as pointed out by NewsBusters.
Meanwhile, some commentators suggested that the event was problematic simply for being Christian.
In a commentary published by the Los Angeles Times, Lawrence M. Krauss wrote that, by associating Perry with Christianity, the “misguided day of prayer” should have done him more harm than good.
“Claiming affiliation with Christian values often guarantees immunity from serious public or media backlash, but it shouldn’t,” wrote Krauss.
“Not when that claim, once you get to the details, means that about 21 percent of the adult U.S. population ... are excluded from a quasi-governmental event that will, among other things, proclaim their eternal damnation.”
Writing for the Washington Post’s faith blog, Charles Haynes decided that the call to prayer was not unconstitutional, but still “raises serious questions about the governor’s commitment to represent all Texans.” “Perry’s ‘call to prayer’ may be legal, but that doesn’t make it right,” he concluded.
Others had harder words for the Texas governor: Clay Farris Naff of the Huffington Post argued that Perry’s event was both “violating the U.S. Constitution” and a plot to use the “dark side to prayer” to foment political upheaval in the mold of Nazism.
“The purpose of Rick Perry’s prayer rally is not to cure the nation’s ills, it is to build an American Volksgemeinschaft—a community of believers in a reactionary myth of America’s history and the Christian religion,” wrote Naff.
“The promoters of this myth scorn constitutional law, separation of church and state, science, minority rights, and most of all the principle of tolerance.”
But one conservative leader noted that invocations by government leaders are nothing new - 43 of 44 presidents have announced national days of prayer - and that it’s the critics of the event, not its organizers, whose views fall outside the American mainstream.
“The reality is, those who are speaking against this on the left are people who generally think that there should be no role of religious faith in any sort of public activity,” said Dan Klukowski of the Family Research Countil in an appearance on Fox News August 5.
Governor Perry gets it!
Hmmmm...massive anti-Christian backlash for a simple public prayer.
Waiting for that massive anti-Muslim backlash for killing over 3,000 Americans.
Waiting...
Crickets chirping.
Godless sodomite loving socialists are offended by prayer. Who’d have thunk it?
Oh really, so on the same argument, if Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota (a Muslim) led an Islamic Friday prayer service in downtown Minneapolis, it would be OK? Let’s see what the Huffington Post would say about that!
If prayer upsets liberals, the media in particular, what does that really say about them?
I think Perry has the right idea, how do we bring a deal like this to Florida?
When some future disaster hits our country, these same people will say “How could God let this happen?”
Note to Leftwingers:
Giveth it a rest.....
Thou dost bore us nigh unto death...
A guy I know calls himself a non Christian Deist and he said Christians scare him to death. I thought, dude, Muslims are sawing peoples heads off and flying passenger planes into buildings and Christians scare you to death?
You just have to take it for what it is: A political attack on Perry by a group of Leftists...nothing more. On another subject it will be Another Group of Leftists attacking Perry.
Be unashamed, Perry and everyone.
What he said could and probably did come almost word for word from the mouth of Washington. The press can go to Hell.
There, the crowd followed a Biblical injunction to “gather together, repent of their sins, and pray to God to intervene on their behalf.”
And that, my friends, is all it was. I and my family participated in The Response at home via GODTV.
I wonder how many disgruntled and disaffected naysayers would there have been if it was a Muslim event?
Things haven't changed much. Fools still say in their hearts there is no God and then do evil because they have communion with the source of goodness; God still says He will destroy fools.
Imagine turning to God and praying at a time like this. Bunch of kooks. They could be doing something productive like promoting sodomite “marriage”. Some people will never learn.
This is fun, public prayer really pushes their buttons, what are they so afraid of...
Ask your governor. He couldn't make it to the event in Houston, but he sent a video greeting to the participants, about a five minute message that was shown on the big screens there.
Godless sodomite loving socialists are offended by prayer. Who’d have thunk it?
Lol ... excellent observation!
I'm still waiting for them to haul their butts up to DC and stand outside the fence at the whitehouse and protest the IFTAR Ramadan dinner being held there.
Amen!........still don't know whether I would vote for him however..........
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