TEXAS: Gov. Rick Perry organizes controversial "Prayer Day"

First, of all, I am fine with Governor Rick Perry organizing a "Prayer Day". However, he cannot use his office to organize and promote this. There has to be a separation of Church and State, otherwise, we will be back to the Church encroaching on our rights. We have to remember that the Christian Church has been responsible for the repression of people's liberties and genocide.

Another problem with this "Prayer Day" is that it includes some very controversial speakers, including anti-gay speakers. One speaker goes as far as to say that Japan's woes are caused by demons. Obviously there is an agenda here, and if there is, then it can't be promoted by the office of the Texas governor.

A prayer day called "The Response" organized by Texas Gov. Rick Perry has stirred controversy -- not least because of the views of some of the pastors and organizations associated with it.

The co-organizer of the event is the anti-gay religious organization the American Family Association. Religious right pastors Jim Garlow and John Hagee are slated to attend, along with a number of others.

Garlow, pastor at Skyline Church in La Mesa, California, was a proponent of Proposition 8, the 2008 ballot initiative that snatched the then-existing right to marry from gay and lesbian families in that state. Garlow was one of those who insisted that unless marriage rights were stripped from same-sex couples, people of faith would find their religious freedoms trampled.

Hagee, pastor of a Texas megachurch, is also a well-known anti-gay pastor. Hagee suggested on a radio broadcast that Hurricane Katrina was God’s divine punishment for a New Orleans Pride parade.

Another pastor associated with the prayer event is C. Peter Wagner, who, as a posting at Right Wing Watch noted, has made the claim that natural and financial disasters in Japan are the direct result of the Emperor having had sexual relations with a demon known as "the Sun Goddess."

Full Story here.