Moses has a Rick Perry “oops” moment
Is God a Republican? You might think so if you’re a GOPer running for president this year. No fewer than two former and five current GOP candidates have stated publicly that God has told them to run for higher office.
Theweek.com has compiled a list:
Herman Cain
On Saturday, at the Young Republican National Federation, GOP presidential hopeful Herman Cain announced that God had told him to get into the race. “I prayed and prayed and prayed. I’m a man of faith,” Cain said. “And when I finally realized that it was God saying that this is what I needed to do, I was like Moses.”
Rick Perry
In July, Texas Gov. Rick Perry told Iowa’s Des Moines Register, “I’m getting more and more comfortable every day that this is what I’ve been called to do. This is what America needs.”
Rick Santorum
“People have asked me…over these last 18 months whether I’m running, and I always say, ‘I’m walking.’ And I’m walking because I’m trying to walk in the path that God’s leading me in,” the socially conservative former Pennsylvania senator said of his 2012 presidential run/walk in a recent YouTube video.
Tim Pawlenty
The former Minnesota governor didn’t hear the call himself. It was his campaign manager, Nick Ayers, who said in an April email that he had planned to sit out the 2012 campaign, but God had called him to “a higher purpose” — getting Pawlenty elected. “Simply said, we need new leadership,” Ayers said. “I believe that Gov. Pawlenty is best positioned to provide that leadership.” Pawlenty dropped out of the race in August.
Michele Bachmann
Rep. Bachmann said in 2006 that she and her husband had fasted and prayed for days, awaiting a message from God about whether she should run for office. “God then called me to run for the United States Congress,” she said. “Who in their right mind would spend two years to run for a job that lasts for two years? You’d have to be absolutely a fool to do that. You are now looking at a fool for Christ. This is a fool for Christ.”
A fool, yes. But for Christ? I wouldn’t venture to opine.
During the 2008 election, Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee were similarly ‘called’:
Mike Huckabee
During the 2008 race for the GOP presidential nomination, the former Arkansas governor was asked what accounted for his rising poll numbers. “There’s only one explanation for it, and it’s not a human one,” he said. “It’s the same power that helped a little boy with two fish and five loaves feed a crowd of 5,000 people.”
Sarah Palin
Steve Schmidt, a one-time top aide to Sen. John McCain, said in a controversial 60 Minutes interview that Sarah Palin believed it was “God’s plan” for McCain to choose her as his running mate in the 2008 presidential campaign.
So, just what is God up to? A number of explanations come to mind, but they can be summarized under two broad categories:
1. These people are delusional, ‘hearing’ what they want to hear, substituting their voice for God’s.
2. The communications are genuine.
Actually, there’s a third possibility, a variation of the first two. Not unlike Mel Brooks‘ Moses, something has gotten lost or rather garbled in the translation. What God is really telling them is that they shouldn’t be running FOR the presidency, but FROM the presidency.
Ours is a merciful God, after all.
“… a little boy with two fish and five loaves feed a crowd of 5,000 …”
Um, Rev. Huckabee? That was at the Sermon on the Mount, and Christ was a grown man.
Many are called but few are chosen ……..
Yo Frank:
Or as it is said in The Iceman Cometh:
Many are cold but few are frozen...
It is true! God has told them all to run…. He just never said anything about winning…. Ya see God is trying to provide job security for comedians, and give us all some object lessons on how nuts the Republican party has become.