an amen

By most accounts, Texas Gov. Rick Perry's (R) prayer rally in Houston was a hit, drawing an estimated 30,000 faithful for a gathering titled "The Response."

With Perry expected to jump into the 2012 GOP race, the event was seen a critical test of his popularity. Analysts say the good turnout and warm reception prove Perry can pull in an audience, give a good speech and establish himself as an evangelical Christian (power wall).

Not welcomed in that 30,000 were openly Gay men and women, women’s reproductive rights supporters, Buddhists, Muslims, and other Americans who could not openly swear that Jesus was their lord and savior, and that this country of ours was founded as a Christian nation.

Had The Response been a private collection of evangelical religious individuals expressing their freedom to practice their religion, this gathering would have gone noticed but with little hoopla or hurrah! But the ringleader and gatherer of this flock is the current Governor of Texas, and elected official of the people and for the people, and a future contender for the presidency of this nation, a job once again of the people and for the people. Rick Perry took his oath of office as Governor to be the Governor of all Texans, heterosexual, homosexual, evangelical Christian, agnostic, religious, atheist, rich, poor, women and men, and if elected President, is supposed to have the interests and concerns for ALL Americans.

There is nothing wrong with prayer, for those who need its core of spirituality, its message of hope, its calming cacophony of a higher power. But there is a lot to fear from prayer when we pray away the Gay, the Muslim, the minority, the freedoms guaranteed in our Constitution. There is much to fear about prayer, when those praying decide there is only one kind of God to whom we pray, and anyone who does not agree is part of ‘they’, and not the same as ‘we’. There is much to fear about prayer when it is used to try and fix our self imposed problems and no other effort or energy is necessary to remedy our dire situation. There is much to fear about prayer when it is led by religious leaders who say they speak for God but are only expressing their own insecurities, bigotries, and biases. There is much to fear about prayer when the words said never mirror the deeds done and hypocrisy rears its ugly head and all you hear from the mouths of those leading the prayers is ‘do as I say not as I do.”

I am a man who believes in God. I am Jewish and I know the Jewish God I pray too is not the same Jewish God many Orthodox Jews pray to, because my God likes me and accepts me and in his creation of me added the fact that he wanted me to be a homosexual. Many of the Orthodox Jews find it impossible to comprehend that their God has that kind of compassion for someone like me. My Christian friends believe in prayer and they have no idea who the Jesus is that tells Christians to kill abortion providers, protest at funerals, deny civil rights, and ignore the plight of the poor. Some of my friends believe in a higher power, no denomination attached, and wonder how those who claim to pray to a God, pray to a God who tells them that the environment can be destroyed, famine is okay if you live in Africa, and not all men or women are created equal.

Governor Rick Perry is a shrewd politician disguised as a devout religious individual. He understands fear and knows how to divide and conquer. His minions of handlers realize that using God and prayer as a divisive tool is a cool way to sway the dumbest of people. Say you know God better, say you are only doing his divine work and say that you pray the same way, and suddenly your intelligence, intentions, and inadequacies are overlooked. He is scary man, but I am even more fearful of the lemmings who now think they have a right to hate out loud and use God as a scapegoat to do so just as Rick Perry does.

The power of prayer can be used for good, and it can also be used as an excuse to not do good.

Do I hear an AMEN?