Yesterday, Rick Perry addressed Liberty University as part of his push to garner the support of the Religious Right. After The Response prayer rally, it was clear that Perry’s overt religiosity would be a central theme while promoting his candidacy to the GOP’s conservative base. We thought it would be timely to revisit Perry’s appearance on Trinity Broadcasting Network’s flagship show Praise The Lord in February of last year.
Perry described how “all through life there have been these supernatural events” of God sending him signals, providing one example where God sent a “real clear message” to him by using rain to stop him from leaving Texas. “You go through my life and there have been so many of those events that occurred and I don’t get confused, it wasn’t coincidence,” Perry explained, “it was God’s hands on my life, guiding me in the ways He wanted me to be, and I truly believe He has me here at a time such as this”:
Later in the program, Perry discussed his steadfast opposition to abortion rights. Perry, who while governor of Texas oversaw the execution of 234 men and women, said he was befuddled about how anyone cannot be pro-life: “How do you get up every morning and look at yourself in the mirror if you can’t be for life?” He even claimed that people are moving to Texas because of his state’s restrictions on abortion–rights, leaving “neighborhoods and communities where they don’t recognize and respect life.”
You gotta be for life, I mean how do you get up every morning and look yourself in the mirror if you can’t be for life? I mean to me that’s the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness. That’s what this country was based on. And when that conception occurs, that’s life. And defending it, and protecting it, and standing up for it, is what we all ought to be about. And I’m glad I live in a state where we do that. Parental consent, parental notification, we’ve probably made Texas the most pro-life state in the nation. A lot of people are moving to Texas today, I think somebody says somebody said well over a thousand, our rolls if you will grow by more than a thousand a day in the state, and I gotta think there’s some people coming here because they’re looking around and they’re seeing some neighborhoods and communities where they don’t recognize and respect life. And they go, you know what? That’s about freedom. When you think about it, life is really about freedom. And I want to come to a place where I can be as free as I can be, and in America today, that’s Texas.
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