TEXAN TIKKUN:

Perry casts himself as anti-intellectual, says his life shaped by faith (Philip Rucker, September 14, 2011, Washington Post)

Texas Gov. Rick Perry offered himself here Wednesday as a decidedly anti-intellectual candidate, making light of flunking out of some of his classes at Texas A&M University, and instead casting his life and presidential aspirations in deeply spiritual terms.

Perry said he spent many nights in his 20s pondering his purpose, "wondering what to do with this one life among the billions that were on the planet," but that God's answers were revealed to him in due time.

"He who knows the number of drops in the ocean, he counts the sands in the desert, he knows you by name. . . . He doesn't require perfect people to execute his perfect plan," Perry said in an address at Liberty University, the Christian college founded by evangelist Jerry Falwell.

"As spiritual beings, we are meant to live in relationship with our creator and with one another. And the happiest moments of every experience are when I am in communion with God and in community with others," he said.

Evoking Moses and David of scripture, Perry added: "God uses broken people to reach a broken world. The mistakes of yesterday say nothing about the possibilities of tomorrow."

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