In a recent interview with CNBC, Texas Governor Rick Perry stated that he neither condones or condemns homosexuality, citing that he does not wish to do so because of his belief that ‘we’re all children of God.’
Perry was featured this week on Squawk Box with host Joe Kerner, who sought to have the governor clarify a statement made last week in San Francisco, where he compared homosexual temptation to alcoholism.
“Whether or not you feel compelled to follow a particular lifestyle or not, you have the ability to decide not to do that,” he told those gathered at the Commonwealth Club of California. “I may have the genetic coding that I’m inclined to be an alcoholic, but I have the desire not to do that, and I look at the homosexual issue that way.”
Following outrage over the matter, Kerner asked Perry whether or not he really believes homosexuals can change and whether therapy can be beneficial.
“You know, I don’t know,” Perry replied. “The fact is, we’ll leave that to the psychologists and doctors.”
He asserted that the matter of homosexuality needs to be left to the states, and suggested that there are more important matters for the government to address.
“The focus needs to be on creating jobs and creating an environment in this country that people can find the places that they want to live, [and to] live under the rules that they want to live [by] and that’s been constricted substantially by a president that’s putting EPA regulations into place that are strangling this country,” Perry declared. “And the fact is that people will decide where they want to live if Washington will respect the Tenth Amendment and I think that will make America substantially happier.”
Kerner again pressed the matter moments later, asserting that Republicans are losing elections across the country because they are “behind” on the issue of homosexuality.
“If you were to run again, there are upstanding gay couples—good citizens that are good parents; [Do] you agree with that?” he asked. “These are people that are going to be with us forever. It just seems like the Republican Party is going to be forever behind the curve on issues like this and it doesn’t help with elections.”
“I don’t necessarily condone that lifestyle. I don’t condemn it, either,” Perry replied. “We’re all children of God.”
But some are expressing disappointment in Perry for seemingly trying to appease both those who support and oppose homosexual behavior. Pastor Mark Herridge, Sr. of Pentecostal Lighthouse Church in Livingston, Texas told Christian News Network that Perry can’t have it both ways.
“Rick Perry is trying to mollify Bible believing Christians without agitating the militant homosexual community—and the two are completely incompatible,” he said. “The Bible, God, and Christianity has never been vague on any of their viewpoints and this includes homosexuality. Homosexuality is a perversion of human nature and is soundly condemned in both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. … Mr. Perry claims to be a born again Christian, and if he is to continue to do so, then he must take a clear stand on one side or the other on this issue.”
Herridge said that Perry was also incorrect in asserting that every man is a child of God.
“It is easy for people to assume that every human is a child of God because God is the creator of all life. Yet the Bible speaks of some of those created humans as being ‘children of the Devil’ (I John 3:10), ‘the children of disobedience” (Colossians 3:6, Ephesians 2:2, Ephesians 5:6), and “children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3),” he explained.
“Jesus referred to corrupt religious leaders as being ‘of their father, the devil’ in John 8:44 and the Apostle Paul referred to Elymas the Sorcerer as being a ‘child of the devil,'” Herridge continued. “So it is quite evident from scripture that not everyone is a ‘child of God” simply because God is the Creator.”
“Ultimately it is the epistles written by the Apostle John that gives us the definition of what a child of God is in comparison to a child of the Devil,” he said. “1 John 5:2 [says], ‘By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.'”
Photo: Gage Skidmore
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