Rick Perry and heaven

The Dallas Morning Views | Rod Dreher:

“I don't care what the governor of Texas's opinions are about where some of his constituents will be spending the afterlife, as long as he doesn't do anything to try to hasten their going there. [Governor Rick] Perry's merely voicing the teaching of historical Christianity. Big deal. As long as he's deals fairly with all citizens, regardless of their religious beliefs or lack thereof, who cares what his personal soteriological opinions are? What really did bother me was the way the Rev. John Hagee turned his church into a nationalistic/Republican cheerleading forum.”

Rod Dreher has laid his finger on why Americans, and Texans in particular, should be concerned with Governor Rick Perry's religious beliefs. The governor believes Texans who don't profess Jesus as Lord and Savior are damned to hell. And he attends a church that confuses Christianity with patriotism.

It's hard not to infer that Governor Perry himself should not be trusted to honor a wall of separation between church and state. The alarm bells should sound even louder when you remember that the official 2006 platform for the Texas Republican Party pledges the party to "to exert its influence to ... dispel the 'myth' of the separation of church and state."

Conservatives dismiss liberals' concerns as scare-mongering. Conservative columnist William Murchison claims conservatives are victims of accusations that they are "seeking darkly to turn culturally diverse America into a Puritan theocracy", when, in his view, all conservatives are doing is exercising their First Amendment rights.

Given the Republican Party platform, Governor Perry's damnation of non-believers, and his blurring the distinction between religion and patriotism, Texans are fairly warned what vision for America these same conservatives have. If polls are an indication of what to expect on November 7, Texan voters, almost all fine and decent citizens, are fine with that. They won't be voting for another candidate, one who warmly wishes everyone, "May the god of your choice bless you." Governor Perry and the religious right might mean well, but, as they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.