Friday 12 August 2011

Paula Kirby on Rick Perry's day of prayer

Rick Perry is Governor of Texas and is tipped to be a future President.  He recently managed to convince the courts that it was not unconstitutional for him to act in his capacity as governor, to arrange robo-calls into people's homes inviting them to join him in a day of prayer.  You can hear his supplications via Richard Dawkins.net and it is enough to put you off your food.

The claim by the FFRF failed to prevent what appears to be an infringement of the US first amendment.  (But what would I know?  I'm only English.)

In her usual incisive way, (English) Paula Kirby's response in the Washington Post's On Faith blog included:

What responsible driver, seeing a multiple pile-up on the road ahead, responds by taking his hands off the steering wheel? Yet this is precisely what Rick Perry would have the United States of America do. 

and

Crises require cool heads, clear thinking, expertise and the deepest possible commitment to rational thinking. To claim that they actually require us to throw ourselves on the mercy of a mythical deity is a cop-out - and a disgracefully irresponsible cop-out at that. Making supplications to a magic friend is not any way for the leader of a modern, civilized, developed nation to proceed.

Read the rest . . .

Its worth it!

2 comments:

Sharon @ Funken Wagnel said...

Ah, prayer! A great way to make humans feel and look as if they're doing something useful, when in reality they're doing nothing

Suzie said...

Kirby's column was written in 2011. Writing about Rick Perry's silliness now is a bit outdated.