‘The Response’ and the truth: Houston prayer rally kicked off ‘Biblical’ political campaign

[cleanhippie]

Religious Right folks can be sneaky, that’s for sure.

They know the best way to surreptitiously influence elections: hold an event at Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas; say it’s about prayer not politics; collect thousands of email addresses through the event’s registration process; and two weeks later, send out a mass email urging attendees to show up at the polls and recruit others to go along.

I was fortunate enough to be one of those who received this enticing email after registering and attending “The Response,” the fundamentalist prayer-and-fasting service put on Aug. 6 by the American Family Association (AFA) and allies at the behest of Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

In the message, which showed up in my junk email filter yesterday, AFA founder Don Wildmon told registrants about Champion the Vote (CTV), a “friend” of AFA whose goal is to register five million “conservative Christians” who will vote according to “the Biblical worldview” in 2012.

The email reminds us that “nly half of the Christians in the United States are registered to vote. Imagine the impact we could make on the future of America if these Christians made their voices heard in the voting booth!” (Remember, when Wildmon uses the word “Christian,” he doesn’t mean the vast majority of members of that faith; he’s talking about fundamentalists who share his theocratic ambitions.)

Well, so much for The Response not being about politics, as the AFA and Perry so adamantly claimed. They said this was only about prayer.

HA! Funny how it doesn’t take long before the truth really comes out.

http://www.secularnewsdaily.com/2011/08/20/%E2%80%98the-response%E2%80%99-and-the-truth-houston-prayer-rally-kicked-off-%E2%80%98biblical%E2%80%99-political-campaign/

[classof56]

1. Well, Perry did pray for the president.

Just like Timothy told us to in II Timothy 2:1-4 (pray for those in authority). Pretty sure there was an underlying message to Perry's prayer, which I can guess at. What I want to know is, what does Wildmon mean when he says "the Biblical worldview"? Establishing Levitical law, a la the Dominionists? As a former fundie/evangelical christian in the traditional sense of the word, I find Perry's religious cohorts skeery indeed. If I still believed in prayer, I'd be asking god to stop these idiots in their tracks and make them quit taking his name in vain!

Tired Old Cynic

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. "True Believers" give me such a headache.

[humblebum]

3. It's notable how you seem to use secular/ atheist publications for

notable list of anti-religious threads and comments. I'm just sayin'. A little biased? Never!

[cleanhippie]

4. Thank you. Your opinion is appreciated.

[edhopper]

5. I am glad you approve

of Perry using his prayer event to kick off his Pres. campaign.

Yeah, religious news sources always report this time of behavior....NOT!

[darkstar3]

6. That would be another logical fallacy on your part.

You do like the ad hom, don't you?

[humblebum]

8. Since when is literary critique an ad hominem?

[darkstar3]

9. Since you decided to attack the source purely because of who the source is

rather than respond to any content.

[humblebum]

10. If it was anyone but you saying that, that statement wouldn't be so laughable. nt

[darkstar3]

11. I would like to caution anyone who might think

to make a drinking game out of this man's fallacious posts: Use wine coolers or beer. Taking a shot every time you find a fallacy will definitely kill you.

[humblebum]

12. Need I remind you that by using an atheist/secular pub. to validate

a point against religion is in itself a logical fallacy. Appealing to authority.

[struggle4progress]

7. The useful political questions are: Who are these people? What resources do they have? and,

What are they doing?

It was clear to many people, in advance, that the AFA-Perry event was planned as a precursor to a Perry campaign announcement and that AFA was hitching itself to Perry's wagon in hopes of becoming influential in a Perry administration. If AFA now says it intends to register five million conservative Christians for 2012, that merely shows that they do intend to help a Republican danced in the Oval Office and that they expect the winner to "dance with em that brung ya"

Perry, of course, will not actually run a "Biblical" campaign -- because he would be smushed like a bug if he did. Instead, he will attempt the usual game: try to put together a usable coalition from various subgroups. On the Republican side, for decades, the traditional target groups include: wealthy laissez-faire business-folk (reliably Republican since the New Deal), racists (as exploited since Nixon's "Southern strategy"), and religious fundamentalists (as exploited since the Reagan era). As Perry plays this game, he will simultaneously broadcast messages to religious fundamentalists while trying to portray himself elsewhere as "moderate"