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After placing his hand on the Bible and taking the oath of office, state Sen. Charles Perry compared what he called the “spiritual battle” brewing across the nation to the Holocaust.
God has a place in the government, Perry explained in his inaugural speech as he vividly recalled a recent trip to a former concentration camp in Berlin.
“There were 10,000 people that were paraded into a medical office under the guise of a physical. As they stood with their back against the wall, they were executed with a bullet through the throat. Before they left, 10,000 people met their fate that way,” Perry said.
“Is it not the same than when our government continues to perpetuate laws that lead citizens away from God? The only difference is that the fraud of the Germans was more immediate and whereas the fraud of today’s government will not be exposed until the final days and will have eternal-lasting effects.”
While serving in the Senate, Perry said, he will address the financial needs of the state by prioritizing state funding and balancing the budget without raising taxes. Though he anticipates political debate in the process, that isn’t what Perry said most concerns him.
His biggest challenge will be the “spiritual battle for the spirit of this nation and the soul of its people,” he said.
When he gets to the capital, abortion and same-sex marriage will be at the forefront of discussion, Perry said.
“Roe v. Wade condemned 55 million innocent and defenseless souls that cried out for righteousness from a God who is just — we will answer for that as a nation,” Perry said, later noting he has made clear his stance on gay marriage.
The new state senator wasn’t the only one to share the fear of national condemnation during the swearing-in ceremony.
Also recalling a trip to a concentration camp, Pastor Jeff McCreight of Rock City Church compared abortion to the estimated 11 million people who died at the hands of the Nazis.
“The value of human life is continually being attacked by a 41-year-old Holocaust called abortion, which makes Hitler look like a humanitarian,” McCreight said.
That “attack” is why McCreight said Perry’s swearing-in ceremony was so important.
“Someone’s gotta fight against that,” he said.
A Japanese Imperial commander said he’d awakened a “sleeping giant” after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, according to Perry. Today, the new state senator wonders where that giant is.
“Has the giant died?” Perry asked after being sworn in. “Where is that giant of a nation that was founded on the eternal and never-changing values of a loving God and the desire to share that? I don’t recognize it on so many levels today.”
Since taking office, people have known where Perry stands on issues, Texas Supreme Court Justice Phil Johnson said before administering the oath.
Perry began his political career as a state representative in 2011 and was elected to the state Senate in a September special election. After gaining momentum during early voting, the new state senator maintained a strong lead and avoided a runoff in the six-person race by more than 23 percentage points.
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The only one turning people away from God, are Republican kooks like him.
If he his against abortion and wants to save the unborn, then allow sex education and birth control? that will guarantee to greatly reduce abortions.
Jews support abortion rights (Duh!)
"89 percent of Jews say “abortion should be legal in all or most cases.” Compare that to 72 percent among Americans with no religious affiliation, and 63 percent among white mainline Protestants."
Read more: http://www.jta.org/2013/07/29/news-opinion/the-telegraph/poll-jews-support-abortion#ixzz3EtOBu47O
http://features.pewforum.org/abortion-slideshow/slide3.php
How asinine. Was he elected as a cult leader or a politician? This is soo offensive on so many levels. Comparing the killing of 6 million Jews by the Nazis to right wing persecution peddling is an affront. When did calling out Perry's bigotry, misogyny, and fraudulent religiosity become the equivalent of the Holocaust?
I don't think turning Texas into a backwards Christian Theocracy is the way to go. Given Perry is against Comprehensive Sexual Education in public schools, he is actually contributing to abortions. Perry is hurting women. He has voted to make access to birth control even more difficult. Not only does Perry contribute to abortions, but many women now are seeking dangerous alternatives to the safe, legal, constitutional right that was taken from them by Perry.
Misogynists, nativist bigots, wealthy white business men, anti education folks, and anti healthcare folks should be proud. Perry has really catered to you all.
Charles Perry voted for all of the causes relevant to those groups.
Perry:
Voted against equal pay for women.
Voted to close healthcare clinics for women.
Voted for corporate welfare for the already wealthy to the detriment of working poor and struggling middle class.
Voted against healthcare for the hard working poor.
Voted to stigmatize the poor looking for work with tax payer money.
Voted to fund bigotry in Public Universities.
Voted to discriminate against minority voters and minority representation.
Voted to under fund schools.
Voted to dumb down curricula in public schools so the Trade Lobby who gave money to the GOP can have ignorant little worker bees making poverty wages and little chance of anything else.
http://votesmart.org/candidate/key-votes/116957/charles-perry#.VAhpucJdWQk
Those of us who believe in individual rights, limited government, and constitutional restraints on the powers of officials and often find ourselves supporting conservative candidates as the lesser of two evils have a particular obligation to speak out on things such as this. The last thing this country needs is elected officials using the powers of their offices to fight "spiritual battles". They are as free as anyone else to do so as private citizens, but it is deeply wrong and unconstitutional to use the powers of government to advance a religious agenda of any sort. Perry is as wrong and anti-freedom on this as any leftist trying to run other aspects of people's lives and people favoring liberty need to say so. And as an aside, I concur with other posters in finding the likening of legal abortion to the Nazis' holocaust to be both really offensive and really bad reasoning.
Perry apparently does not believe in separation of church and state like the people who founded this nation did. Perry and the rest of his FASCISTS now can screw people in the name of their god by denying people who are not their followers the RIGHT to VOTE by passing their voter ID law. Denying Texans affordable health care and livable wages. Making it hard to get a good public education. Charles keep your ultra conservative religion out of the STATE HOUSE. Sounds like Charles needs to go into the ministry. And to think that the people who do not agree with him pay taxes so he can receive his GOVERNMENT "TIT" BENEFITS. It's Charles WAY OR THE HIGHWAY What a shame that ALL in this Senate district will have representation just a shame.
Only about 471 people voted, about 7 thousand eligible voters didn`t vote. thats the problem.
You seem to be writing quite a bit that I agree with lately. I'm not a Dem, though I am a Lib. I have some libertarian leanings, though I disagree with them a lot also. In fact, I tend to disagree with the Libs and Dems on a number of issues I also see as limiting the rights of the rest of US, just not as much as I do the neo-conservatives and goTP (once the GOP).
People like Perry are dangerous to their constituents and the rest of Texans and US. They don't sound any different from the extreme religious right of theocracies or theocratic leaning governments around the globe, regardless of what supreme being/s they claim to represent.
The elections were rigged, the outcomes predictable, and now we have what we have.
Things are changing. I don't think people like Perry who put their religious beliefs above the opinions and concerns of their electorate, are going to lose their chokeholds over the next decade. Maybe we can elect less religious, more rational thinkers to office instead.
Not sure that, with the way Texas politics are set up, that is what is going to happen, just a statement of hope, not expectations.
The only thing that was missing from this ceremony yesterday was a plaid sports coat and a tote-a-note used car lot.
Perhaps Senator Perry needs to be a traveling preacher rather than a legislator.
Here's some added info about the subject Otimio brought up, abortion in Israel. http://www.buzzfeed.com/katenocera/anti-abortion-republicans-are-largely-quiet-as-israel-adopts#46l1usk
Consider the syllogism, U.S. supports Israel, Israel uses public money to pay for abortion, U.S. supports abortion. Does it follow logically? Why not?
Wonder if the Israeli abortion laws will be a topic at that "support Israel" event to be held in Lubbock. Will there be demonstrators outside? Why not?
IMO, Jewish scripture is not anti-abortion. Not pro-abortion either.
But take a look at Exodus 21:22. Cause a miscarriage, pay a fine. Injure the pregnant woman however and you answer with an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, a life for a life. N/A to the miscarriage itself.
So. Fine for causing a miscarriage, severe penalties for harming the pregnant woman herself. Does that sound like abortion = murder?
There are those who argue that Exodus 21:22 refers to a premature birth. Illogically so, because a premature birth was usually a death sentence in that era, no IVs, no incubators, no hospitals.
Anti-abortion religious sects have their own versions of the Bible, that read the way they think it should, at Exodus 21:22 and elsewhere. (First, you choose your belief, then you choose the Bible that supports your belief. Convenient, huh?)
There are doubtless political undercurrents in Israel we are not generally aware of. One of which is the fear of Jewish Israelis that they will become a minority in a Arab controlled state due to the high reproductive rate of Arab Israelis.
Israel being an economically discriminatory society, Arabs Israelis tend to be poorer than Jewish Israelis, and are perhaps more likely to avail themselves of abortion services. While in the meantime Orthodox Jews are breeding like crazy to keep up. Could this explain the law? A sort of mild ethnic cleansing?
Teshaw
That was a nice effort, but your argument remains largely a red state argument regarding socioeconomic disadvantages and religious interpretation.
"Israeli government offers women aged 20 to 33 free abortions".
I believe up to two free abortions. The demographic disparities in grow can't be explained through economics as much as religious interpretation between Islam and Judaism.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/religion/israeli-government-offers-women-aged-20-to-33-free-abortions/2014/01/07/99155cc2-77b7-11e3-a647-a19deaf575b3_story.html
Edit.
You mean argument based on the Bible? But that is what Perry and others claim to base their belief on. You want to argue against their belief, you dig at the foundation they build on.
There is no other way of arguing with those who purport to hold a "faith-based" belief system. They don't accept science or liberalism or the sanctity of choice regarding one's own body.
Or are you talking about abortion being linked to economics? It is! Certainly in the USA and in Israel too.
A Pew poll from the last couple of years shows that even for married women, economics are a major consideration in the abortion decision.
Hence the fact that if you want to reduce the number of abortions, you need to provide support services for pregnant women and families. Health care, food stamps, AFDC, educational and training assistance, free school meals. Remove the economic pressure to abort and there will be fewer abortions. But conservatives don't want to hear that.
Conservatives want a top-down, command order that "thou shalt not abort." They don't want to bother influencing free choice.
enormous economic burdens, even on married women/couples.
Our third was conceived because it was then unknown or unadvertised that some anti-biotic medications negate hormonal contraceptives. We did not contemplate her option for an abortion, but we knew that our lives, and the lives of our other two children had changed in many ways, and the economic impacts will be felt for the rest of our lives.
We have never regretted the choice we made, and he has been a Goddess send to us, as have been his brothers. However, I respect and support the right of every woman to make reproduction choices for themselves. We can't face their lives, the goTP refuses to support education, contraception, or supporting women and their infants when abortion is not chosen, or available.
Basing misogynistic laws, based upon misogynistic religious beliefs, has harmed, is harming, and will harm millions of women, infants, children, and the rest of Texas/US as well.
I imagine that extreme right evangelicals will find a way to rationalize their support for Israel despite the abortion law. They believe that Israel has to exist for The Second Coming, so they probably won't even recognize their hypocrisy.
I think you missed my point and perhaps I should have clarified.
You made an socioeconomic argument for Arab Israelis surpassing Israeli Jews in birth rates and as to the affordability of abortion in Israel. I addressed that aspect of your argument by providing you a link. Israel provides free abortions for all of its citizens, even Arab Israelis....."Israel being an economically discriminatory society, Arabs Israelis tend to be poorer than Jewish Israelis, and are perhaps more likely to avail themselves of abortion services."
Your argument about access and affordability within the context of this conversation remains largely a red state argument, meaning Texas. While Arab Israelis do indeed have access to free abortions, which you falsely indicated they did not, the disparity in birthrates points to cultural and religious differences in Israel as opposed to socioeconomics.
I am not referring to the Bible or Orthodox Jews. I am strictly referring to Arab Israelis and the Israelis Jew demographic birth rate disparity.
Israel is in many ways a modern somewhat liberal state. In others it lags well behind the U.S.
Just as we practice racial discrimination -- whites against blacks, blacks against whites, anglos against hispanics, hispanics against blacks, and various combinations and permutations thereof against other combinations and permutations-- there is discrimination in Israel.
Ashkinazim discriminate against Sephardim, orthodox Jews against liberal Jews, Jews generally against Arab Israelis, Jews against Palistinians, so there are Jews discriminating against Jews as well as Arabs and Jews discriminating against each other.
And the parliamentary government where you have many political parties sustains this factionalism.
What I meant to say -- and I don't know what parties and cliques actually supported the new abortion law -- is that conservative/orthodox Jews may well have supported the abortion bill because they saw it as a way of encouraging abortion more among Arab Israelis than Jewish Israelis.
To say that abortion is free to any within the age range misses the point that some groups may tend to opt for abortion more than others. And for economic reasons. I speculate that some members of the Knesset speculated that there would be a differential impact against Arab Israelis.
Again, the differential reproductive rates are a big concern for Israelis who see increased numbers and voting power for Arab citizens as being the beginning of the end of Israel as a Jewish state.
Teshaw, I don't completely disagree with your last comment. I would just add that the Knesset is much like our Congress. It is almost evenly divided. Having said that, conservative Israelis, not ultra conservative Israelis, support abortion.
The Likud party even supports gay marriage, abortion, and environmentalism. Doesn't sound like the conservatives here.
"Basing misogynistic laws, based upon misogynistic religious beliefs, has harmed, is harming, and will harm millions of women, infants, children, and the rest of Texas/US as well.
I imagine that extreme right evangelicals will find a way to rationalize their support for Israel despite the abortion law. They believe that Israel has to exist for The Second Coming, so they probably won't even recognize their hypocrisy."
That's right. In fact, evangelicals are ignorant of so much Israel and Judaism. They could really care less and the Israeli ERR could care less that the American ERR could care less about them. Only as long as the mutual ******* continues. In other words, Israeli ERR don't care that American ERR exploit them in America so long as Israeli hard line positions are supported in America, weapons and money keep flowing to Israel.
Meanwhile the vast majority of those who want peace get cut out of the process. And American women also suffer for it.
Mutually destructive.
and the woman who called me back said that his remarks "were taken out of context." Isn't that what they all say, when confronted?
And whose god is he talking about? They care about "the unborn" until they are born, and then they cut education, food programs, health care, for those who need it.
Edit: Teshaw, I try to make sure that I demonstrate that I have edited a comment by writing "edit". I probably don't all the time, but I sure try.
Regarding your unmarked edit:
"To say that abortion is free to any within the age range misses the point that some groups may tend to opt for abortion more than others. And for economic reasons. I speculate that some members of the Knesset speculated that there would be a differential impact against Arab Israelis."
It doesn't miss the point. I addressed that cultural differences are attributing factors as are the interpretation of Islam.
Suspecting that the Knesset felt that Arabs would have more abortions if they were only free, misses the point. I am sure that members of the Knesset, even Arab members, are aware of the cultural differences.
The only folks that are upset about abortion are primarily the Orthodox Jews because most Israeli Jews are open to abortion, while Israeli Arabs are not so much.
Thanks for relaying the Perry office response. Perry the back peddler.
Taken out of context? The only thing taken out of context was the Holocaust. Perry is as ignorant as he is insulting. And so are his keepers.
If there is a right wing Evangelical God, there is probably an Abortion God who will take out its wrath upon Perry and his ilk. Isn't that what Perry has done to the women of Texas, especially West Texas? Seriously, he has essentially denied health services and constitutional rights to the poorest women among us.
Regarding Hospital counties and property taxes: I have been saying that in the years since the passage of the ACA. Without expanding the medicaid provision in Texas and restoring access to women's clinics, our property taxes will continue to rise.
Abbott and Charles Perry care about nothing, but making rich white men richer.
My Jewish Fraternity Brother used to tell the story of the inaugural Israeli Knesset in the late 1940s. The Speaker designated right, center and left wings, and asked the delegates to group themselves accordingly. All but a handful of the new delegates sat on the left wing.
"Conservatives" in Israel and in Europe resemble our Blue Dog Democrats.....America's Republicans are so far to the right that no responsible corollary exists in Israel or Europe.
Europe, and most of the world's population has had enough of fascist ideology, though some areas, including US are still dealing with a dying breed. Though that dying breed seems intent upon causing as much harm as possible before they die.
It's not precisely true to say that Israel is a liberal nation. It is liberal in some social policy compared to the USA. But when it comes to the civil rights laws protecting us all here, Israel is not liberal, and civil rights barely exist, or more accurately exist for some but not others.
Discrimination is rife throughout Israeli society, and profiling is the rule. The sort of thuggery that American showed post-9/11 has been the rule for Israel all along, including kidnapping, assassination, detention without public trial, general lack of due process.
Why is Israel partly liberal? I suggest it is the heritage of those who held power in Israel: Jewish Germans. Germany in the late 1800s, the era of Hindenberg, was the most advanced nation when it came to social programs. The USA lagged far behind.
Governmentally, bureaucratically, this comparison holds too: Israel can be a Kafka-esque country.
And I beg to differ about Israeli conservatives. They have more than a few similarities to Clivon Bundy.
"Charles Dunn asked Senator Perry if he would uphold the Constitution or the Bible in instances where they conflict. He said the Bible, emphatically." on a morning radio show this morning.
His oath does not mention a promise to defend his biblical beliefs, but it does include he "will to the best of my ability preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States and of this State, so help me God."
I guess that makes Perry an avowed oath breaker, under his god.
Why am I not shocked that Perry openly admits that he is a liar within hours of taking the oath he claims he will violate, given the choice?
Liar/Oath Breaker.
Makes me proud to have an avowed oath breaker misrepresenting me in Austin.
And I thought the editorial board couldn't stoop any lower with their endorsements.
I don't know why claiming a theocrat is too confident in his own ignorance warrants censorship.
Israel’s abortion law now among world’s most liberal Despite its conservative leanings, government approves free pregnancy termination for nearly all women, and it barely causes a ripple
http://www.timesofisrael.com/israels-abortion-law-now-among-worlds-most-liberal/