ONLY JEB CAN STOP HIM NOW:

Rick Perry, Evangelical: His appearance at Liberty University last week was very much in keeping with the direction of his religious life. (Mark Tooley, 9.21.11, American Spectator)

Evangelicals are a key constituency for Republicans, and a Texas evangelical running for president seems a likely favorite. Rick Perry's appearance last week at the late Jerry Falwell's Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, confirmed the Texas governor's ease when speaking about his "faith journey" to fellow evangelicals.

"I wasn't one of those people who knew at the age of 12 that he wanted to be doctor, a lawyer, or for that matter a governor or a president," Perry told over 10,000 students and faculty at Liberty, which touts itself the world's largest Christian university. "I spent many a night pondering my purpose, talking to God, wondering what to do with this one life... what I learned as I wrestled with God was I didn't have to have all the answers, that would be revealed to me in due time, and that I needed to trust Him."

Perry recounted having been "lost spiritually emotionally" at age 27 while a U.S. Air Force officer. He turned to God not "because I wanted to -- it was because I had nowhere else to turn."

"As spiritual beings we are meant to live in relationship with our Creator and with one another -- and the happiest moments I've ever experienced are when I am in communion with God and in community with others," Perry told the receptive students. He reassured his audience of God's plan for them. "He knows you by name; you're never alone, even when you feel like it, and He doesn't require perfect people to execute his perfect plan," he observed. "God uses broken people to reach a broken world. The mistakes of yesterday say nothing about the possibilities of tomorrow." And he encouraged them to become politically active: "You have the right like every American to speak your mind, you have the right to insist on change, to tell the people in power that you will not have your inheritance spent.... Your voice matters; use it. This country is your country as well."

In what was more an inspirational pep talk than direct political plea, Perry surmised: "America is going to be guided by some set of values. The question is going to be whose values." He prefers "those Christians values this country was based upon." Mentioning the "Arab Spring," he implored that America "must do as Ronald Reagan did at the apex of the Cold War, which is to speak past the oppressors and illegitimate rulers and directly to their people." He insisted: "Regardless of tribe or tongue people desire to be free." And, "America must continue to be the world's leading advocate for freedom speaking the truth to adversaries and dictators and in keeping with our democratic values."

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