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The morning before the Iowa Straw Poll — essentially a fundraiser for the Republican Party in the Hawkeye State — Rick Perry, the sitting governor of Texas, announced his campaign for the GOP presidential nomination, a race that is still in its relatively early stages.
Perry brings with him executive experience and Lone Star electoral-vote magic. With that experience, of course, comes a record, with the baggage that can bring with it.
Different issues will set off different alarm bells. An early one has been the governor’s decision to issue an executive order to mandate that girls as young as 11 be vaccinated for the human papillomavirus, a sexually transmitted disease. In a good example of the checks of democracy at work, the Texas Legislature reversed the order. Perry hadn’t reached the first weekday of his presidential campaign before he called it a “mistake,” explaining that he was motivated to issue the order based on his hatred of cancer, a disease both his parents have fought. Perry allies describe the whole mistake to me as a gut decision on the governor’s part. It sure doesn’t square with his get-the-government-out-of-your-way rhetoric.
Some of the early criticisms of Perry as a presidential-primary contender, though, are disturbing in what they reveal about his critics.
Exhibit A: The Atlantic headline: “Is Rick Perry as Christian as He Thinks He Is?” During the same week that Michele Bachmann, on NBC’s Meet the Press, begged off being a “judge” of Americans who identify as homosexual, former Maryland Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend happily stepped into the role. Townsend, the late Robert F. Kennedy’s eldest child, joined a chorus of commentators outraged by the recent prayer rally Perry, a Methodist who attends an evangelical church, participated in as part of a statewide day of prayer. She was peeved about the rally, annoyed about his politics (equating it with ignoring or rejecting the Gospel message of charity), both irritated by his proclamations of faith and wanting to know more about what she’d likely deride as a “Gospel According to Perry.”
“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,” Townsend writes in The Atlantic, warning Perry of pride.
She goes on to write: “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.”
But a good neighbor might welcome Perry’s call to prayer — which, by the way, began with that “humility” word Townsend raised: “Lord, you are the source of every good thing. You are our only hope. And we stand before you today in awe of your power and in gratitude for your blessings, in humility for our sins.” (Emphasis added. His remarks at the rally can be read on the event’s website.)
There was nothing partisan about his prayer. It was not Tea Party-tested, and it was not pandering: “Father, our heart breaks for America. 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; and for that we cry out for your forgiveness.”
Humility. Forgiveness.
He even prayed for the president he would soon announce he wanted to defeat in 2012: “We pray for our nation’s leaders, Lord — for parents, for pastors, for the generals, for governors — that you would inspire them in these difficult times. Father, we pray for our president, that you would impart your wisdom upon him, that you would guard his family. We pray for our military and the families who love them. Father, especially for those special operators who lost their life yesterday in defending our freedoms.”
He ended: “You call us to repent, Lord, and this day is our response. We give it all to you. For thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen and amen.”
Townsend complains in her piece about Perry’s aversion to welfare statism, accusing him of missing 2,500 social-gospel passages in the Bible, citing Rick Warren as her source. But these are prudential political issues.
Others, like MSNBC host Laurence O’Donnell, insist that Perry has a Catholic problem because the prayer rally included San Antonio mega pastor John Hagee, most notably known for referring to the Catholic Church as a “great !@#$%.” For this, Hagee has often been a lightening rod during Republican primary seasons past — in large part because protests by Bill Donohue, indefatigable president of the Catholic League, tell there is more to the story.
Hagee subsequently explained himself and apologized. And Donohue, among others, accepted. As Donohue tells me: “Whatever problems I had with Pastor John Hagee’s previous remarks about the Catholic Church were put to rest when he came to my office a few years ago seeking reconciliation and apologizing for any unfortunate comments he made over the years about Catholicism. I appreciate his sincerity. In other words, it is ludicrous to try to tag Governor Perry with a ‘Catholic problem’ by associating with Pastor Hagee. I associate with him myself!”
Does Perry have a too-cavalier attitude about capital punishment? This should be a concern for Catholic voters, though it should also be seen in a proper context. Francis Beckwith, professor of philosophy and church-state studies at Baylor University, tells me: “As a Catholic philosopher, I am uneasy about the seemingly unrestrained use of the death penalty in Texas, though in Catholic moral theology the death penalty is not an intrinsic wrong like abortion and active euthanasia. So, it would be a mistake to treat Perry’s support and implementation of the death penalty as the moral equivalent of the liberal Catholic ‘pro-choice but personally opposed’ position on abortion.”
And while Townsend cites her Catechism on pride, it’s hard not to notice that Townsend, who is a supporter of legal abortion, doesn’t mention abortion anywhere in her piece about Perry’s ignorance of moral matters.
Perry is opposed to legal abortion and has a record as governor that reflects that. Known for being an earnest advocate of the 10th Amendment, this summer he voiced his view that abortion is a matter for the states, but later indicated support for amending the U.S. Constitution to protect the unborn. He made the same quick transition on marriage, going from responding to a question about same-sex “marriage” in New York as the Empire State’s business which he was “fine” with to expressing his support for a Federal Marriage Amendment. Perhaps these are the growing pains of someone trying to transition from a state executive to national leader. Time will tell how all of this plays out and how the campaign itself does.
Some — especially those who have been listening to Los Angeles’ Archbishop Jose Gomez and incoming Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput — will press him on immigration and absolutely ask him questions about what exactly the federal government’s responsibility is to the poor and how his philosophy will guide his administration. (And the same people who protested Catholic Speaker of the House John Boehner at Catholic University of America’s commencement in May will probably not take anything like citing subsidiarity as an answer.)
But to dismiss him for praying? That doesn’t seem to have a moral leg to stand on.
Kathryn Jean Lopez is editor-at-large of National Review Online and a nationally syndicated columnist. Look for Register Correspondent Charlotte Hays’ profile of Perry in an upcoming print edition of the Register and on NCRegister.com
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Though the death penalty may be permissible and is not intrinsically evil, the circumstances of a society, like those set forth by Bl. John Paul II in his “Evangelium Vitae”, may make it an evil as grave as abortion or euthanasia. Therefore, the death penalty in any American state is an evil perpetrated by the state against its citizens, as evil as abortion or euthanasia.
As a faithful Catholic from the NE, I have more problems with Catholics who should know better such as Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, John Kerry, Kathleen Sebelius, & Andrew Cuomo than with a non-Catholic, Rick Perry. Those “Catholics” scare me; a Rick Perry does not!
I think a lot of the criticism of Gov. Perry in the secular media has been the typical anti-Christian bull. As a Catholic, I can consider him an ally in that regard. We all have to put up with stupid, anti-Christian rhetoric.
I am glad that Gov. Perry has a “pro-life” record on abortion. Sadly, I consider his views on contraception an Achilles’ heel; he has publicly stated that his own father-in-law performed his vasectomy. We can never end the evil of abortion in America without recognizing the sin of contraception. I realize that we won’t get a candidate in either party that really stands firm on this. But Perry seems to go especially far afield of the Catholic view of sexual morality.
That being said, I find him far less troubling than “Catholic” candidates who claim to be “personally” pro-life, but refuse to defend the unborn.
Gov. Perry is not my first choice; I won’t vote for him in the primary. But if he is the candidate in the general election, I will.
Shouldn’t the fact that the man had a surgical sterilization offend true pro-life Catholics? Sterilization is considered intrinsically evil and against the Church’s Natural Law teachings.
I think that most Bible-believing Catholics would support Rick Perry for governor over Obama. Governor Perry has been a champion for pro-life causes and has been pro-traditional marriage. Obama has put 2 pro-abortion (and probably pro-gay marriage) judges on SCOTUS and trumpets as one of his major achievements is forcing homosexuals into the military. If it’s Perry vs Obama, does a conscientous Catholic even hesitate?
There is a litany of instances that call out his questionable pro-life stand. The only thing more dangerous than an admitted pro-abort is a phony pro-lifer who is trying his best to trick us into supporting him.
I will not, in any circumstance, support this pretender
My Catholic issue with Perry has nothing to do with Hagee and everything to do with Gaurdisil. I don’t begin to buy his supposed motivation (did his mom get cancer from an STD?). Check out his former staff members’ connections to Merck sometime. It’s enlightening. That and his quick changes of heart on gay marriage and abortion indicate an empty suit who has few real convictions except that he needs the evangelical vote to be president. Do we expect a charlatan like that to fight on these issues? Don’t be gullible. I would not vote for him (or Obama) under any circumstance.
As Father Groeschel says give me one good Protestant over a lousy Catholic any day! Talk about chutzpa, to have ANOTHER Kennedy, (Did they all drink the same Kool-aid?}have the effrontery to try to put ANOTHER new retread on the false and with 50 years of history now fully discredited notion of separation of Church and State as some sort of pro bono for Society! For remedial education Townsend should read the erudite and timely discourse of his Excellency Bishop Chaput given to a Protestant audience in Houston:
http://www.priestsforlife.org/magisterium/bishops/10-03-01-chaput.pdf
Our Savior prayed that we all might be one Mzzz.Townsend Kennedy or Kennedy Townsend; one should always be suspicious of those who try to secularize Society and sow division in the Body of Christ, so if you are selling stupid we are now “full up” here in America.
Thank You Governor Perry for supporting Public prayer in the Public square.
If you make it to the White House remember that we need Transgendered Sex Ed OUT of our public Schools and Prayer back in now more than ever!
Perry brings “Lone Star electoral vote magic”? Please. The Republicans could nominate a chimp and he’d win Texas by 10 points.
Rick Perry is just another big government “establishment” politician.
There is a candidate who has a long record of supporting Catholic causes: Ron Paul. Every Catholic would do well to check out Ron Paul.
I think you need to check your logic and stop insulting my hero by calling yourself Augustine.
Your logic seems to run thusly:
“Premise: SOMETIMES the death penalty is as evil as abortion or euthanasia.
Conclusion: The death penalty is ALWAYS as evil as abortion.”
Lets apply this to something else:
Premise: Sometimes multicultural societies are as evil as 1890 racist America.
Conclusion: Multicultural societies are always as evil as 1890 racist America.
This is elementary logic and you’re proof of the blunder of not making logic, philosphy and theology requirements in school!
Corey: I, too, am shocked and offended that Gov. Perry, an evangelical Methodist, lacks a properly-formed Catholic conscience in all respects. Clearly a deal-breaker for me. Fortunately there is no shortage of suitable candidates who stand foursquare against legal sterilization.
Augustine,
Your remark makes no sense.
A.) The Death Penalty isn’t intrinsically evil.
B.) In Evangelium Vitae, certain remarks were made opposing the modern day usage of the death penalty based on “standards of society.”
C.) If done for the improper motives, then it is an evil.
D.) The Death Penalty practiced in America today is the same as aboriton and euthanasia.
There’s a lot of unfounded leaps there.
If something is “intrinsically” evil, you can never equate it with something that isn’t intrinsically evil. One will always be more evil.
For example. Partaking in an abortion (either the doctor or one who had it), the person is automatically excommunicated. A Texas doctor who partakes in lethal injection, even if the supposed conditions are what you say they are, isn’t excommunicated, nor do they even objectively sin. (Allowing the usual caveats of not knowing one’s conscience.)
And Ryan, someone who supports not just the decriminalization, but outright legalzation of crack and prostitution as positive expressions of liberty, you can’t claim with a straight face that he has a long record of supporting Catholic causes. One could simply read Libertas to see how misinformed that solution is.
As a faithful, orthodox Catholic I am regularly asked by liberal friends about the apparent inconsistency between Catholic social and moral teaching and issues like big government redistribution and am always amazed at their ignorance. Like many good Catholics, I am far more concerned about CINOs (Catholic in Name Only) like Ms. Townsend, Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, every single Kennedy that ever lived, etc. than I am about an evangelical that does not accept one of the Church’s moral teachings on an issue like contraception.
Ms. Townsend seems not to understand that first of all, the “story” of the Good Samaritan was not a story at all but a parable. And in that parable, the Good Samaritan acts not out of fear of imprisonment by the government for not helping, but out of love for his fellow man. His act of charity was purely voluntary and not done at the point of a gun in order to redistribute wealth to favored recipients…i.e., the liberal Democrat way. Perhaps that is why conservatives give way more to charity than liberals. They live the gospel rather than distorting it to justify their socialist tendencies.
If Gov. Perry has a Catholic problem it is exactly the same problem every GOP candidate faces. And that is the sad reality that far too many are cultural Catholics and either openly dissent or quietly live in opposition to Catholic moral teaching and have no problem voting for, say a pro-abortion candidate. That they selectively decide it is right to oppose capital punishment or support redistribution of wealth at a point of a gun while assenting to many other more grave sins speaks more to their deformed consciences and poor formation than anything else.
It should also be noted that historically more Catholics have been registered as Democrats, particularly in the northeast and midwest and not much has changed in that regard. So if you combine someone that is more of a cultural Catholic, who does not assent to many of the Church’s moral teachings and who comes from generations of Democrats you are likely not going to get them into the booth to vote for any GOP candidate. We learned that well in 2008 with John McCain and his failed candidacy.
So Perry or any other GOP candidate that has a Catholic problem speaks more to the problem with Catholics than it does with them.
Hagee may have apologized but he said what he said - can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube. If it is true that no Catholics were invited to Perry’s prayer service that is troubling.
Perry is not a Catholic, so his not following Catholic doctrine is not surprising. However, given his strong views on keeping government out of peoples’ lives, he is more likely to support the rights of Catholics in terms of their religious freedom than many liberals. In terms of religious freedom - if I were a Catholic, I would be most concerned that a candidate not support an intrusive government that interfered with my rights and my conscience.
For example, in Massachusetts recently, a Catholic adoption agency was ordered to allow gay couples to use their services. They refused because it was against their religion. They therefore had to go out of business. Where was Kathleen Kennedy Townsend when this happened?
I think it says something that Perry prayed for our President. I also hope that Catholics were invited to the prayer service. I am an evangelical Christian, but, while I know we have ideological differences, I respect the Catholic church. Even more important, I believe in the rights of a free people to peaceably practice their faith. The Catholic Church has done a lot of good in the world through its various charities; however, one thing to remember - Mother Theresa, Elizabeth Lange, Father Michael McGivney, etc., did not have government backing. The most effective charities are due to motivated individuals following their heart and God’s calling.
Also, re. Hagee… pardon me if I’m wrong, as an evangelical Christian… but doesn’t the Catholic Church also preach repentance? Catholics go about some things differently than Protestants, but both religions share a belief in repentance, do they not? If Hagee sinned against his brother by having hatred in his heart, but then he repented - shouldn’t we forgive him? I am assuming, of course, that his repentance is real - however, I doubt someone like Bill Donohue would be fooled.
I think, frankly, while there are ideological differences (obviously) between various Christian faiths - we should respect each other and treat each other with love. We are commanded to do so, after all.
from this post:
“Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend happily stepped into the role. Townsend, the late Robert F. Kennedy’s eldest child, joined a chorus of commentators outraged by the recent prayer rally Perry, a Methodist who attends an evangelical church, participated in as part of a statewide day of prayer. She was peeved about the rally, annoyed about his politics (equating it with ignoring or rejecting the Gospel message of charity), both irritated by his proclamations of faith and wanting to know more about what she’d likely deride as a “Gospel According to Perry.”
I love all these poeple who are so “peeved” about prayer, but I am sure when that earthqueake hit Washington yesterday, they all ran out screaming and praying in the streets.
America hasn’t learned squat from their egotistic and athiest ways….
Kennedy’s are sick, immoral and evil individuals and are true examples of tarnished Catholics From JFK trying to diminish the federal reserve to they’re hypocritical stands on the environment and abortion. It’s a shame many of them had power in our Govt. for as long as they have!
“Posted by Corey on Tuesday, Aug 23, 2011 6:28 PM (EDT):Shouldn’t the fact that the man had a surgical sterilization offend true pro-life Catholics? Sterilization is considered intrinsically evil and against the Church’s Natural Law teachings.”
Reply: Well, that’s very interesting…...Like to hear someone question Perry on that then!
As a Catholic and a Texan, I can safely answer the question in your headline ( Does the Lone Star Governor Have a Prayer or a Major Catholic Problem?)
No Catholic problem.
I won’t vote for anyone who tries to inject religion into politics. It is divisive, bigoted, and demeaning to the voter. Yes, there is an evangelical wing of the GOP. They have a right to exist. But I don’t have to vote for their candidate. I think JFK set the standard with his Houston speech. God does not have a view on who should run the 120 countries in the world. If he did, he would make himself very clear.
Perhaps his “growth” is an actual belief in federalism which says go your own way until you get enough agreement for a constitutional amendment?
@Nixonfan: You can adopte any stnad you will, but the fact is that Kennedy’s standard is more Unitarian than Catholic, and in fact far more “secular” in tone and content than such unitarians as John Quincy Adams and Joseph Storey. Even Jefferson, somewhat more radical than they on matters religious, thought of the Christian moral code as superior to all others. Accordingly, he attended the Sunday School classes held in the Capitol. Bill Douglas—not a religious man—once wrote that our institutions presuppose a Supreme Being. He later tried to explain this way, but he only spoke the truth. And the Supreme Being was not the Sun God, but the Creator invoked by Jefferson in the Declaration, not only in his preambulatory remarks but in the closing paragraphs. The generaqtion of the Founders was not as pious as their grandfathers’ generation or of their own grandsons’, but they meant what they said. I am not sure that John Kennedy did, or if he had more than the most trivial understanding of his own faith.
Okay, so it seems the majority of the Catholics here are opposed to Perry. Well, Romney, while governor of Massachusetts, put in place his version of Obamacare, including taxpayer supported abortions. Then the mainstream media appear to be against allowing Bachman, Paul, or Cain to play the politician’s silly little reindeer games. And we obviously can’t vote for Obama…so for whom should we vote? I was always taught not to complain about something (or someone) unless I could propose a solution.
I can understand urging Roman Catholics to assess Perry in light of Catholic teaching on certain topics, when Roman Catholics are being urged to consider their fidelity to Roman Catholic beliefs when they go to the ballot box. I can understand, of course, concerns that Perry might have associated with people who are prejudiced against Roman Catholics. But if you are demanding that he adhere to certain Roman Catholic positions in his personal behavior, ie., that he should object to birth control, that is where you have lost me. Perry is a Protestant; don’t expect him to adhere to Papist dogma on birth control. Yes, it is true that many evangelical Protestants have much in common with conservative Roman Catholics, thus enabling them to work together for political change. But that coalition should not require that they relinquish the “faith of their fathers.”
@Augustine - Careful with your equivalencies, the death penalty will never and can never be as evil as abortion or euthanasia. It is something that can and should be avoided with the resources we have today, but it still doesn’t carry the intrinsic evil of abortion and euthanasia. The key difference being that in EVERY case of abortion and euthanasia an INNOCENT life is ended - an innocent person is being murdered.
I am a catholic apostate; now an atheist. When I see theological disputes in American politics, I am disconcerted.
We have real issues in the US today, which are (1) budgetary and (2) foreign policy. Those who would seek to inject religious issues (Where would Jesus stand on entitlements?) are muddying the secular waters. I am an American, proud to live in a secular society with a secular government, as intended by the founding fathers. If you wish to livein a Catholic society, move to Spain, 1940. Not that I don’t love Franco.
@Gman - “The key difference being that in EVERY case of abortion and euthanasia an INNOCENT life is ended.”
A person who is euthanized in today’s world is generally someone who has asked to be euthanized. So, how can a person who has essentially committed suicide, be innocent?
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