Totally not-dumb presidential candidate Rick Perry is reading books, not just watching CSI: Miami like his “bitter” opponents, we learned via Politico this morning. (That in spite of those wretched grades in college.) But one of the books the Texas governor says he’s reading lately, Charles Stanley’s Turning the Tide, sounds a bit extreme. Although it’s described by Politico as “a Baptist pastor’s how-to for Christian conservatives who want to change the country’s direction,” some choice excerpts from the actual words inside reveal “change the country’s direction” to be something of a euphemism for “convert all Jews and Muslims because they are heathens.”
As Mother Jones notes, the “tide” in the title is actually a “tsunami of death and depravity that we’re running out of time to thwart.” Then there’s this, from Stanley: “Pray for God’s protection against terrorism and ask that Muslims throughout the world will come to know Jesus as their Savior.”
The New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza, who recently detailed Michele Bachmann’s own penchant for batty religious writings, tweeted some additional excerpts from the Stanley book, including “pray that Jews worldwide will accept Him as their Savior,” and, “May the people of Israel acknowledge their guilt, seek Your face, and accept Your Son – the Messiah.”
Then, of course, there’s the claim common on the religious right that our founding fathers “based the Constitution and the laws of our country on the principles they found in Scripture,” and that leaders should “reaffirm our Christian heritage and reestablish Your biblical precepts as the basis of American society and law.”
Perry has echoed these teachings in his own assertion that “natural law, God’s law, is the basis of our nation’s laws.” So far, at least, he’s been more quiet about his Muslim- and Jew-saving.
Perry Campaign Touts Book Calling For Conversion of Muslims [Mother Jones]
Ryan Lizza [Twitter]
