Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Christian?

I find it very interesting that the buzz surrounding Texas Governor Rick Perry’s entry into the Republican presidential candidate field seems to be centering around his faith and public declaration of his Christianity.

It doesn’t seem to be centered around his state’s economic growth and job creation. It seems to be centered around his faith, of all things.

Maybe that’s interesting to some people, but with 76% of Americans identifying themselves as Christians, my question is, Why? Are the remaining 24% of you scared for some reason? How about the Christians in the crowd? What’s got you all so uptight?

Are you afraid that he might pray you into economic health? (Surely he didn’t govern Texas into health—he just prayed, right?)

Are you afraid that he might bless you and you might not want to be blessed? (Don’t sneeze around him!)

Are you afraid that he might base his morals, not on his frail human feelings, but upon a codified set of values? (That’s the Bible, in case you were wondering, and a big part of it applies to non-Christians, too.)

Are you afraid that he might pray for guidance as President? (If God answers, then is that a bad thing? And if He doesn’t and Rick Perry makes up his own answers, is that any worse than anybody else?)

Are you concerned that he might stuff his religion down your throat, passing laws willy-nilly establishing a state religion, forcing you to worship his God, over the dead bodies of the Congress and Supreme Court—you know, the other two branches of government which establish that fabled system of checks and balances?!

Good grief. Go do some real work and focus on the real issues at hand. Does he have more experience than, say, the current sitting President? Has he grown the economy he was in charge of better than the current sitting President has his own? Has he demonstrated a willingness to lead the charge from in front of the troops instead of secretively from behind closed doors?

This is the stuff you should be focusing on, not whether he believes in the Christian God or in the Flying Spaghetti Monster (though that would be really, really entertaining).

So, go on! Dig! But don’t forget to be fair… and dig through Obama’s record, too. Oh… that’s right… You didn’t bother to do that in 2008, so I don’t expect you to do it this time, either. Sigh. Well, at least we’ll know what we’re getting when Rick Perry is elected in 2012. Instead of someone who promises vague concepts with no track record to speak of, we’ll have a thoroughly-vetted candidate whose record will speak volumes for itself.

And you’ll still be stuck with Mr. Hope and Change. Good luck with that.